Sales Excellence Survey 2012 Global Results and commentary

Sales Excellence Study 2012

© Copyright 2012 Mercuri International Group AB 2

The Survey

1.150 phone interviews 72 Statements concerning sales practises 23 countries 15 different industries July/August 2012

Sales Excellence Study 2012

© Copyright 2012 Mercuri International Group AB 3

Differentiated selling

Selling is not always the same. Salespeople are con-

fronted with different situations. Sales situations

vary because of the different expectations

customers have on salespeople and due to the

quality of the relation-ship between customer and

sales person. The parameters can be described as

follows:

Customer expectations on salespeople: There are

situations in which a customer does not expect any

information or consultation from a salesperson. The

customer regards them as primarily occupying a

"doing" function. This is typically the case when a

customer purchases the same products on a regular

basis. They know each other and the mutual

interactions are familiar and practiced. The

customer expects a certain degree of customer

orientation, looks for friendly service and perhaps

enjoys the interpersonal contact. However they

do not expect any information on service benefits,

services, added values, etc. This is similar to

situations in which customers believe that they do

not need consultation. Naturally they will not seek

or expect any consultation from a salesperson. This

is generally the case when a customer is very

satisfied with its current suppliers and believes that

it has good level of market awareness. The situation

is different when a customer does not routinely

purchase from the supplier and lacks expertise of

its own ,or has low market awareness. Customers

then expect information, at the very least, from

salespeople and in many cases expect consultation

(or even that decisions be made on their behalf). In

the survey we expressed the polarity of this

parameter with the statements:

Aitude of the buyer towards the offer: A customer

may have a very negative aitude and completely

reject the supplier and their product or service

("against") or at least have a highly sceptical aitude

("resistant"). This frequently happens in the case of

new customer contacts when the customer believes

they have no need of the products or services or

when the customer and salesperson do not know

each other. The situation is different when the

customer and supplier know each other or a

customer has not yet found a satisfactory solution.

The customer has a neutral or generally positive

aitude towards the suppler ("receptive"). In the

best case the customer and salesperson know each

other well. The customer is satisfied with the quality

of the solution and the relationship is characterised

by loyalty. In the survey we expressed the polarity

of this parameter with the statements:

We are facing prospects and

customers who know what their

needs are and which kind of

solution they need...

We are facing prospects and

customers who do not know

precisely what their needs are

and which kind of solution they

need...

We have mainly to overcome

resistance from prospects and

customers in our selling processes...

We are mainly facing prospects

and customers who are open and

receptive to us

Sales Excellence Study 2012

© Copyright 2012 Mercuri International Group AB 4

Differentiated selling

When these two parameters (customer expectation and aitude towards the seller) are combined

in a matrix one can identify four distinct sales situations which require different selling styles:

We have mainly to overcome resistance from prospects and customers in our selling processes...

We are facing prospects and customers who

know what their needs are and which kind of

solution they need...

We are facing prospects and customers who do not know precisely what their needs are and which kind of solution...

We are mainly facing prospects and customers who are open and accept us

AGAINST

RESISTANT

DO IT INFORMATION ADVICE DECISION

RECEPTIVE

IN FAVOUR

Assertive Selling

Consultative Selling

Expert Selling

Relational Selling

Sales Excellence Study 2012

© Copyright 2012 Mercuri International Group AB 5

Differentiated selling

The selling styles required for the different sales

situations can be described as follows:

Assertive selling: Salespeople encounter

customers who know exactly what they want and

are dismissive towards the salesperson ("I know

what I want and I don't want to work with you"). In

this case the sales-person faces two hurdles. The

customer does not want any contact with him and

does not need anything-or is satisfied with their

current supplier/s. The task then is to establish con-

tact and to aempt to create or establish a new/

additional need. Naturally, aerwards the sales-

person has to show that his offer satisfies this need

beer than the other suppliers' offers. This is a

typical selling situation in proactive

market development that demands a high degree of

personal magnetism and charisma from the sales-

person. Due to the changes in buying behaviour this

is a situation that more and more selling companies

are facing.

Consultative selling: In this situation customers

seek advice from a supplier. They face a new

challenge and do not yet know how they can over-

come it. However, they have a negative or sceptical

aitude towards the supplier ("I don't know what

I want but I don't want to work with you"). These

customers are oen generally satisfied with their

existing suppliers. Traditional discussion structures

(demand analyses) are therefore normally

ineffective here as reaching the same perceived

level as other preferred suppliers is too difficult.

The company's only chance is that salesperson

positions the company not as a supplier, but rather

as a consultant and makes a truly creative and

differentiated offer. Of course this offer must make

a stronger contribution to the customer's success

than existing competitor offers do This demands

specially skilled sales people. In addition to product

knowledge they must also possess sector

knowledge and commercial awareness.

They must know the typical challenges in the market,

the competitor's positioning/strategies and the

implementation hurdles. The company will only win

business by presenting an offer that is significantly

different to that of the established suppliers. The new

offer will need to enable the customer to overcome

challenges beer and do it in a way that will provide

credible added value - and greater success. This is

another selling situation that growth oriented

companies are facing more frequently.

Expert selling: As in Consultative selling, in Expert

selling customers face a new challenge for which they

are still seeking a solution. But in this situation they

are generally positive towards the offer ("I don't know

what I need but I want to work with you"). The priority

now is to understand the customer correctly and to

produce the right solution. As opposed to

Consultative selling, it is not necessary to work on

establishing competence or to differentiate the

company from competitors. In the eyes of the

customer, the company already possesses an image

of "the expert” that can be built on. The traditional

route can be taken using a demand analysis.

Relational selling: In this case the business

relationship is already established and the customer

places orders on a regular basis which do not have to

be renegotiated each time or require input from the

sales-person ("I know what I want and I want it from

you"). Sales activity then focuses on the customer

relationship and less on the product, services or a

specific solution. This demands interpersonal and

social competences from the salespersons, who must

take ownership of the customer relationship .

In this study we have investigated how oen these

selling situations occur with individual companies.

One can clearly see that there are differences be-

tween the companies surveyed.

Sales Excellence Study 2012

© Copyright 2012 Mercuri International Group AB

70%

70%

70%

30%

40%

60%

30%

30%

6

Differentiated selling

If we apply these percentages to the differentiated

selling matrix it becomes apparent that Top 10%

and Boom 10% are facing different aitudes

among their customers. The Top 10% have to do

less of Assertive

and Consultative Selling than the Boom

10%. This is not by coincidence as we will see on the

following page.

Top 10%

Boom 10%

21% Assertive

Selling

21% Expert Selling

49% Relational

Selling

9% Consultative

Selling

28% Assertive

Selling

18% Expert Selling

42% Relational

Selling

12% Consultative

Selling

Sales Excellence Study 2012

© Copyright 2012 Mercuri International Group AB 7

Main competence strengths of salespeople

Relational Selling competencies (being service

minded, building rapport) are well developed within

sales at all levels. But when it comes to

competencies more related to the new demanding

situations, the Top 10% are much more skilled than

the Boom 10%. They have the right competencies

in the crucial assertive and consultative selling.

The biggest differentiators are in the “new” skills

strongly linked to the two major challenges of the new

buying landscape : facing buying autonomy and facing

resistance. Among Boom performers, there is a

competence gap, from the “classic “ sales skills to the

“new skills landscape” . Yet this is where many

companies still make their training investments.

Illustration 1: To what extent do you agree the following statements (top 2 boxes out of seven), n=1.150 Statements with differences > 20% between top 10% and Boom 10% are marked in red

61%

54%

67%

68%

77%

69%

67%

76%

75%

79%

85%

78%

85%

83%

84%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

... are assertive, convincing, having charisma, being resistant to failure

... working in a very structured way (activity planning, seing priorities

for customers and products)

... are experts for the customer’s business their processes

and markets

... building rapport and relationship, have social competence,

are emphatic

... are service minded, give the customer what he expects