New Study Reveals What Separates Average Sales Organizations from Great Ones

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Velocify, the market leader in cloud-based intelligent sales automation software, today announced the release of a new study that shows how high-performing sales organizations differ in attitude and structure from average and underperforming organizations. The study, "The Sales Organization Performance Gap," co-authored by Velocify CEO Nick Hedges and Steve W. Martin, a sales expert, author and professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall Business School, reveals that the best sales teams regularly set more aggressive goals, employ more structured sales processes and share more optimistic opinions about their team members and sales organizations.

Key highlights from the study, which was commissioned by Velocify and involved nearly 800 sales executives, managers and front-line sales reps, include:

• High-performing sales organizations set higher quotas and expect fewer sales reps to meet their quota
• Mediocre sales organizations were slower to fire underperforming sales reps
• The best-performing sales teams were more likely to describe themselves as a "cohesive group"
• High-performing sales organizations put more emphasis on structured sales processes and monitoring than average or underperforming organizations

"High-performing sales organizations share key operational and cultural characteristics that average and under-performing sales teams often lack," Martin said. "The detailed findings in this research can help executives and sales leaders identify key areas to focus on to build a highly successful sales team."

Aggressive Goal-Setting, Team Mentality and Structure Drive Success

Three key differentiators separated the great sales teams, which saw higher annual revenue growth, from mediocre teams that experienced mostly flat or declining growth, according to the study.

Aggressive Goal Setting: The best performing sales teams consistently set higher quotas and expected fewer sales reps to meet quota.

• 46 percent of respondents at high-performing organizations said that less than 60 percent of salespeople should make quota, compared to just 30 percent of respondents at average and under-performing organizations.
• 18 percent of high-performing sales organizations indicated that salespeople will be terminated for poor performance after one quarter compared to only 2 percent of average and 5 percent of underperforming organizations.

Team Mentality: A team-oriented outlook was more prevalent among high-performing sales organizations.

• High-performing sales organizations were nearly twice as likely to describe themselves as "a cohesive group of like-minded individuals" than people at lower-performing organizations, who more often described themselves as "a loose collection of individuals."
• The best teams also viewed individual talent as a lesser factor for sales success than mediocre groups, but were less likely to include below-average salespeople – exhibiting a more unified sales culture.

Process-Driven: High-performing sales organizations were more likely to employ a structured sales process than others.

• High-performing sales organizations were almost twice as likely as underperforming organizations to describe their sales processes as "closely monitored" or "strictly enforced or automated."
• High-performing sales organizations ranked "disciplined sales process and systems usage" as the second most important factor separating great from good sales organizations. They were also more likely to closely monitor lead follow-up than lower-performing organizations.

"We are excited to release this new research intended to help sales leaders improve team performance," said Nick Hedges, president and CEO at Velocify. "This research validates that successful sales organizations are not only striving for improved team cohesion, but they're also looking to process-driven sales technology, like Velocify, in order to accelerate performance and revenue."

The findings of the study were based on anonymous responses to a 42-question survey of nearly 800 sales professionals, including quota-carrying salespeople, sales managers and top-level sales executives. To get a full report on the study results please see here.  

About Velocify
Velocify is a market-leading provider of cloud-based intelligent sales software, designed for high-velocity sales environments. Velocify helps sales teams keep pace with the speed of opportunity and increase revenue by driving rapid lead response, increased selling discipline, improved productivity, and actionable selling insights. The company has helped more than 1,500 companies across a variety of industries improve customer acquisition practices and sales performance. Velocify was recently recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte and one of the 50 Best Places to Work by Glassdoor.

For more information about Velocify or its technology, please visit the company's website and blog, or follow the company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube.

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SOURCE Velocify

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