2011 Sales Performance Study
CSO Insight's recent Sales Optimization Report reveals that salespeople are knowledgeable about their products. However, there are clear weaknesses when it comes to effectively understanding buyers, cross-sell/up-sell, selling value and forecasting accuracy:

Meet or Exceed Expectations
- Effectively present Features and Benefits = 67%
- Differentiate from Competition = 69%
- Align Solutions with Customer Needs = 68%
- Generate Accurate Bid/Proposal = 85%

Needs Improvement
- Understanding Customer Buy Process = 40%
- Effectively Cross-sell/Up-sell = 47%
- Sell Value/Avoid Discounting = 42%
- Forecasting Accurately = 54%

This data shows that salespeople, for the most part, know their products, but are lacking in areas not typically emphasized in training across sales teams.

Top Lead Generation Programs
In the same 2011 CSO Insights sales study, when people were asked to list their Top 3 Lead Generation Programs, here is a listing of the Top 5 most effective (based on quality/quantity of leads) and the Bottom 4:

Top 5
1. Email Marketing = 62%
2. Live Events/Tradeshows = 45%
3. Web Site Registrations = 33%
4. Webinars = 31%
5. Telemarketing = 29%

Bottom 4
10. Social Media = 12%
11. Blogs, Podcasts, MobileMarketing = 11%
12. Newspaper/Print Ads = 4%
13. TV/Radio = 3%

Rule #19 - Prioritize Your Accounts and Opportunities
(Excerpts from 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness, by MXL founder, Michael Griego.)

In my days of selling IBM computer equipment, I sold the first computer to a company called The Nature Company, a retail establishment with several stores in California. As a young sales rep I performed all the right steps in getting the sale closed and set up for implementation with the third-party software provider and the service team. As we often did back then, we celebrated the setup and installation of the system with a bottle of champagne, in this case on a late Friday afternoon.

The following Tuesday there was an implementation scheduling meeting with the software company; the next week there was a "kickoff" meeting with the hardware service and support team. For the next five weeks there were meetings at the account dealing with the smooth implementation of the company-wide system. I was at every one of those meetings. As a good sales rep I attended these sessions even though they were not my meetings nor did they require my attendance. In the sixth week I went to lunch with The Nature Company's Director of IT who managed the implementation. He told me he was extremely pleased with the whole experience, that all was going well, that he was pleased with our software recommendation and the service and support team was outstanding, and that he appreciated my involvement throughout the process. He then said, "But Mike, I have one question for you: Don't you have anything else to do?" He said "It's not like we're going to spend any more money; it'll take the rest of the year to fully absorb this installation." The question and comment hit me like a ton of bricks. He was absolutely right. I was spending unnecessary time with a comfortable customer when I should have been out finding and selling more new business prospects like The Nature Company. The lesson was not lost on me.

It was the beginning of a process of prioritization of my accounts that has stuck with me as a territory rep, as a sales manager, as a VP of Sales, and as strategic sales consultant and trainer. The Account Prioritization Matrix concept is deceptively simple...

7 P's of Management Success (and Sales)
"Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance!" - Dr. Eugene Jennings, Professor of Business Strategy, Michigan State University