by Ron D’Andrea
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Take this quick test and find out how good you are.
Identify which of the following facts are true. (Answers listed at the end.)
- 1 million B2B salespeople (20%) will lose their jobs to self-service eCommerce by 2020.
- 77% of buyers don’t believe sellers understand their business well enough to be helpful
- 77% of buyers want customized, integrated insights and data.
- 67% of buyers have completed their buying process before they reach out to a sales rep.
- 57% of purchase decisions are complete before a customer even calls a supplier
- 0ver 40% of sales opportunities end up with no decision.
- Only 2% of sales happen when two parties meet for the first time.
- In a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7 people are involved in buying decisions.
- Only 33% of inside sales professionals’ time is spent actively selling.
- 15% of every sales rep’s time is simply leaving voicemails with 80% of calls going to voicemail and 90% of first time voicemails not being returned.
- 17% of salespeople think they’re pushy– compared to 50% of prospects.
- The perfect length for an email to obtain a response is between 50 and 125 words.
- High-performing sales organizations are twice as likely to provide ongoing training as low-performing ones.
- 80% of deals require 5 follow-up calls after a meeting but 44% of salespeople give up after 1 follow up
- Nearly 57% of B2B prospects and customers feel that their sales teams are not prepared for the first meeting.
So how many did you think were true?
In fact, they are all true and hopefully you can see just how complex sales environments have become. The noise, competition and time management required to create a strong pipeline is becoming ever harder to achieve as the world becomes more and more globalized.
As a sales person, can you stand out? Create a different type of conversation? Generate interest and value where there wasn’t any previously? This is what’s required in order to win new business and protect your and your company’s future.
