Thanks to Larry Levine and Dave Kurlan for sorting this quote out
In a recent blog Larry, quote from this article, which is from 2014 and so little old.
Dave pointed out that this had changed to
"5% of salespeople are “elites” who are great at selling. Another 15% are doing well but could do better. Then there are 80% who are failing. There is a serviceable group of 30% who can handle simpler selling challenges, and the bottom 50% are the weakest salespeople in history."
From the article I've passled.
The thing is sales people are losing their relevance and this is accelerating as the pandemic drives people to digital.
What Does Gartner Say About Sales and Digital?
Interesting article by Gartner, here are some of the highlights
"Over the next five years, an even greater rise in digital interactions between buyers and suppliers will break traditional sales models."
"The Gartner Future of Sales 2025 report predicts that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels. Chief sales officers (CSOs) and other senior sales leaders must accept that buying preferences have permanently changed and, as a result, so too will the role of sellers."
"Sales organizations must be able to sell to customers everywhere the customer expects to engage, interact and transact with suppliers"
"Gartner defines the future of sales as the permanent transformation of organizations’ sales strategies, processes and allocation of resources, moving from a seller-centric to a buyer-centric orientation and shifting from analog sales processes to .... digital-first engagement with customers."
"Gartner research shows buyers typically only spend 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers when considering a purchase. With less and less customer face time, virtual selling via digital channels will predominate."
"B2B sales reps need to embrace ... a new manner of engaging customers, matching their sales activity to their customers’ buying practices and information-collecting needs."
But My Clients Are Not on Social - Really?
The latest social media figures from Simon Kemp, Hootsuite and We are social are out and here are the highlights.
"More than 4 billion people around the world now use social media each month, and an average of nearly 2 million new users are joining them every day."
"The world is spending more time on social media too, with the typical user now spending roughly 15 percent of their waking life using social platforms."
"Social media adoption has jumped by more than 12 percent in just 3 months"
"The time we spend using connected devices continues to rise"
"A clear ‘age gap’ defines digital use in the workplace"
"Marketers may be missing out on some of today’s biggest digital opportunities"
The research is clear, social media has changed society and changed the way we do business.
Total world population: 7.81 billion people
Number of people using mobile phones around the world: 5.20 billion
Global internet users: 4.66 billion
Worldwide social media users: 4.14 billion - 53% of the world's population use social media in other words, more people use social media than don't use it.
However, when it comes to social media, users clearly prefer mobile devices. Kepios analysis reveals that 99 percent of the world’s social media users access via mobile devices, but just 1 in 5 use a laptop or desktop computer.
The struggle we see for business is that leaders are "scared" of social media. Sales and Marketing leaders "think" they understand social, or won't admit they don't. The same for sales people, they think they understand social media, when they don't.
Here is an example, Mark Woodhams, a Senior Sales VP from Blackline thought he knew all about social and was blown away - see this post.
Another example is James Stirk, he wrote an article about how he thought he knew all there was to know about social and how wrong he was.
And Catherine Coale, wrote about how Telstra Purple was transforming to being a "social" business. A social business, not being a non-for-profit, but being a business that uses social strategically, rather than tactically.
Don't believe me, contact them.
Social Media Adoption Accelerates
Where Do We Go From Here?
For those unsure of what to do, DLA Ignite will complete a review of your current social / digital / virtual / remote selling capability. For free.
We will take your team (up top 10) and perform a complete root and branch Social Media Performance Assessment.
Sales, Marketing, Management, Technical, HR. Procurement ....whoever you want to include.
This will include: Profiles, connections, followers, inbound and outbound activity, content, engagement, follow up, results.
(Happy to provide the list of deliverables).
We will map your business against the DLA Ignite baseline and present back to you our findings. We will show you where improvements can be made and what results should be expected. No hard sell, just present back to you a road map.
You entered lock down analogue, this is your chance to leave this pandemic, digital.
Please contact me here or one of the DLA Ignite team here, so please pick one of our industry experts or one of our experts in your geographical locality. Our website is here.
At my weekly meeting with Objective Management Group's (OMG) COO, John Pattison, we discussed compatibility in the context of another finding we call FIOF or "Figure it Out Factor." Candidates that have a FIOF score of 75 or better ramp up more quickly than other candidates. Compatibility is weighted pretty heavily in the FIOF finding because of how it influences the ramp-up time of new salespeople. The more compatible a salesperson is with your selling environment, the more quickly they should ramp up because they've "done this before."
