2011 Sales Performance Study of 2,000 Companies
CSO Insight's most recent Sales Optimization Report reveals the following data and key trends for 2011:

• 8% More Reps Made Quota in 2010 vs 2009
• 8% More Companies Attained Revenue Plan in 2010 vs 2009
• Sales Turnover Rates down to 26%
• Sales Training Investments up 9.5%, increasing customer's marketplace and sales management training

The breakdown of companies was 43% small business, 31% medium, 26% large enterprises. The segmentation of sales team size was as follows: 59% < 25 reps, 11% 25-50 reps, 13% 51-250; 5% 251-500 reps, and 12% 500+ reps.

The study shows that while 85% of firms increased quotas in 2010, there was improved performance by sales professionals, reps and managers in a rebound year. This cautiously bodes well for 2011 as we more forward with leaner and wiser sales machines.

Do You Know Your Sales Readiness Score?
Trained 180 telecom reps one week, a team of networking reps another week, then a handful of solar product reps at one event, then a team of international software reps in another. A key similarity across them all is a varied application of Sales Playbooks, easy to follow, easy to use best-practice tool books that reflect collaboratively developed street-level sales and marketing content.

And now playbooks are truly going interactive with sales playbook automation technology from firms like Playboox of San Francisco. A customizable cloud-based sales coaching system integrated with Salesforce.com and built on the versatile Force.com platform that enables sales excellence:

• Sales process and best practices reinforcement
• Sales management defines, deploys and evolves content and tools to improve sales effectiveness and accelerate new-hire ramp-up
• Salespeople access game plans, guides and sales tools at point of need
• Time-saving automation of CRM notes and activity logging
• Monitor deal health and improve forecast accuracy by keeping score.

It's as flexible and practical for a Fortune 500 company with hundreds of salespeople as it is for an early stage Start-up with only a handful of reps.

Are you institutionalizing best-practices across your team? Do you know your Sales Readiness Score?

Whiteboarding Works
A company's top account manager learned to sell using whiteboards this month. She just closed the company's largest deal in history the first time she used it. Another rep closed one of his largest deals the first time he utilized the whiteboard.

What's the deal? It's all about a logical and business-issue focused talk track utilizing visuals and avoiding premature dives into product features and technical details. Works great with executives, in fact, works best with senior management as it drives better account penetration and consultative selling.

It's the new modern selling skill set that many companies and reps are adding to their tool kit.

Can you whiteboard?

Rule #17 - Reading Makes Perfect
(Excerpts from 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness, by MXL founder, Michael Griego.)

...Indeed the cumulative impact of reading 15 minutes daily over the course of a career is profound. I learned this lesson as a naïve young college student during my first time spent away from home on a summer job.

I worked for The Southwestern Company of Nashville, Tennessee, as a student salesman. At the beginning of my first summer, after driving into Nashville for one week of sales training with thousands of other students, we were each given a box of materials. Apart from sales scripts and training materials, the box contained three books: How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, The Magic of Thinking Big, by Dr. David Swartz, and The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino. At that point in my life, I had only vaguely heard of Dale Carnegie and his book; the others were completely foreign to me. We were instructed to spend 15 minutes each morning reading these books between the time we awoke and the time we knocked on the first door at 8 a.m. While my sales roommates thought this suggestion was silly, I wanted to follow the instructions of successful Southwestern managers so I could earn the average $2,500 summer commissions dangled in front of us for successful student salespeople.

I did read those three books that summer. I did earn $2,500, $6,500 and $10,000 in commissions over my three summers' experience. Better yet, I developed the habit of reading good material to get my head and heart right. I've been reading these types of sales, business, motivation and inspirational books 15 minutes every morning since that first summer of 1976. My personal library has expanded greatly over the years. More importantly, my mind has expanded and grown strong and wise through the consistent feeding of good content that educates, stimulates, motivates, encourages and inspires. Indeed, the cumulative effect of consistently reading good material for the profession you have chosen, and your personal life, even only 15 minutes per day, is profound. In no particular order, here is a list of some of my favorite sales/business books...

Tolerable Sales Management
"It is impossible to imagine anything which better becomes a ruler than mercy." - Seneca

Email: sales@mxlpartners.com

Phone: 650-279-3467

Web: http://www.mxlpartners.com