Part 1 | 127 Businesses Talk Sales Acceleration; The CRM System Skinny You Need to Know

Part 1 of 3

As the sales landscape continues to change for organizations, the Center for Sales Leadership at DePaul University regularly conducts best-practices research to provide sales professionals and academics with timely information, insights, and direction on a range of sales and sales technology topics. Currently the center is trying to develop an understanding of one of the rapidly evolving areas of sales today: Sales Acceleration technology products and services.

Used by an increasing number of leading sales organizations, the evolving area of sales acceleration products and services represents the application of various technologies to an organization’s existing CRM systems to enhance both the effectiveness and efficiency (velocity) of the selling process. Selling effectiveness requires a mix of organizational practices and operational behaviors, inclusive of CRM and sales acceleration technologies that drive sales performance.  

In the first part of this three part series examining the Depaul study, we’ll look at the performance profile of the businesses surveyed, as well as their sales acceleration profiles.

A 127 small to medium sized businesses as well as large organizations across the United States and Canada, were used in the survey. Here’s the “skinny”:

• Survey respondents reported an impressive net sales increase of 35.2% over the prior year.
• Acquisition of new business has accelerated, reaching 51% of annual sales.
• A small part (25%) of the sales force exceeded quotas, delivering most of the gains.
• The typical deal size range reported was between $10k and $50k.
• Current levels of missed quotas are far too high (42%) and correlated with the significant turnover of 26.9% reported for inside sales positions and 25.7% for outside sales positions.

The most utilized CRM system to manage the sales process is Salesforce.com, with an average use of 5 years across currently installed CRM systems. A significant (76%) number of the organizations utilize a defined sales process, with the “Top 3” most utilized sales models being value selling (various), strategic selling (Miller Heiman), and FAB. A significant number of respondents (38%), were presently not utilizing any of the sales acceleration technologies.

The sales acceleration technologies utilized the most by sales organizations include data subscriptions, communications and dialing technology… followed by predictive intelligence and lead scoring, lead flow management, gamification, and data visualization. Good examples of dialing technologies are Click Dialer, Personal Dialer, and Team Dialer. These three technologies have proven to achieve significantly more conversations than manual dialing. A good example of predictive intelligence would be Adaptilytics which uses advanced machine learning and data mining algorithms based on a prospect’s installed technology, intent to buy, contact data and best time to reach.

For more information on how organizations are using sales acceleration tools, please download Depaul University’s Sales Acceleration and Sales Effectiveness survey or view our webinar to hear Richard A. Rocco, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for Sales Leadership explain more.

In the second part of the Depaul survey review we’ll examine the insights regarding selection and use of current sales acceleration technologies and services.

Author: Senraj Soundar, CEO, ConnectLeader