Does Your Sales Force Agree With Your 2014 Strategy?

As we all work hard towards a strong 2013 close, most heads of sales and sales enablement are also setting their sights on 2014.  As you get ready to put the finishing touches on your 2014 strategies, let’s not forget to ask one important question – what does the sales force think?

There are a lot of things we could do to improve our business, and everyone has their opinion of what the strategy should involve.  Unfortunately, that makes it harder for everyone to fully buy into yours.

So what does everyone really think your priorities should be?  Do all levels in the organization (from reps up through executives) agree?  Where do they disagree?  What about different regions?  Business units?  If not, where is the disconnect?  And how do you get everyone on the same page?

Understanding how different audiences view priorities and understanding where disagreement lies is a critical way to help you build a better strategy and ensure the buy-in necessary to execute.

One tool that many heads of sales, sales ops, and sales L&D leverage for this is CEB’s Anatomy of a World Class Sales Organization.  The Anatomy breaks Sales down into the 24 critical attributes or capabilities of world class sales organizations, and allows you to capture feedback on how employees view current performance against a research-based definition of world class.

You’ll also be able to view where agreement or disagreement lies around priorities.  This will help you decide which strategies will be accepted with open arms and which strategies might require more of a communication plan to ensure everyone understands why these initiatives are so critical.

Whether the gap is a perception gap (the sales force doesn’t understand the critical importance of one of your strategies) or a performance gap (everyone agrees, we just have to figure out how to get better), it’s essential to know this information in order to effectively execute on your 2014 plans.

CEB Sales Members, learn more about the Anatomy of a World Class Sales Organization or listen to a webinar replay to understand more about the Anatomy tool. Be sure to also check out our other Diagnostics and Benchmarks that can help you plan for 2014.