5 Key Questions for Sales

We’ve just returned from the 2013 CEB Sales and Marketing Summit in Las Vegas (our annual conference of 600+ sales and marketing members), where we discussed, among other things, the next generation of commercial talent. Given all the changes taking place on both the supplier and customer side, we find ourselves questioning how this impacts commercial and talent strategy moving forward.

Before diving into the implications on organizations’ strategies, let’s first take a look at the various changes impacting the sales and marketing environment today:

Changing Impact of Information—because of information overload, customers are now stuck in permanent ‘assessment’ mode. There is so much information for them to sort through, sales cycles are extending and deals often stall or end in no decision. As our research shows, customers are now 57% of the way through the purchase decision before engaging with a supplier.
Changing Nature of the Customer—it’s a fact: the days of the single decision-maker are over.  Bigger buying groups are now the norm – in fact, the average buying group size today is 5.4 people. And it’s twice as hard to reach group consensus on a decision as it is for an individual to make a decision.
Changing Nature of Work—the different paths that customers are taking to learn, and the different buying authorities/groups sellers face are resulting in greater variability than ever before. The sales process becomes less predictable in this world – throughout the sales process sellers must now infer, adapt, and anticipate customers’ reactions and possible roadblocks.

Combine this together and what becomes clear is that we’ve entered a completely new commercial environment – a more variable world that includes lengthening sales cycles, more stakeholders to select and manage, and increased steps to deal closure.

All of this change taking place obviously has significant implications on organizations’ commercial strategy, and in particular, their talent strategy. After sharing these findings with members in Las Vegas, the first question they (understandably) asked was: Is our current talent equipped to handle this new environment?

Well, in order to understand the talent they need today, organizations must first understand the environment in which that talent must operate and succeed today.

And the best way to understand that environment starts with answering these five key questions:

1)      Do we know who is involved in a typical customer purchase?

2)      Can we map our customers’ progress through that purchase?

3)      Can our reps exercise necessary judgment to impact that purchase?

4)      Can our marketers’ disrupt the customer’s purchase?

5)      How do we know?

Only once you can answer YES to all of these questions will you have an in-depth understanding of today’s commercial environment and therefore, an understanding of the talent (and support tools) you will need to succeed.

We would love to hear from you. Are there any questions you would add to this list that you believe are required to properly understand today’s buying environment? Let us know in the comments section below.

CEB Sales members, learn more about how you can empower your reps to sell to today’s empowered customers, or read more about today’s new era of selling.