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The drive to achieve high performance through sustained top-line growth is dominating the strategic agenda of most global companies, and that has placed an even more intense focus on the productivity of sales organizations.
Many corporate leaders have been trying to meet the challenge to generate growth and improve sales effectiveness by focusing on process improvements, cost reductions, sales tools and training. However, for most, sales results are not paying back the investment in improvement initiatives. Our research and experience points to the fact that many companies are devoting inadequate attention and resources to their sales operations—the processes, infrastructure and administrative support that underpin everything a sales organization and its people do.
Transforming sales operations can result in improved sales performance and increased margin optimization. Companies can realize comprehensive benefits by improving sales operations: reduced expenses, an increased rate of sales, more repeat sales and improved margin optimization.
Gasping for air: What's putting the squeeze on sales operations? Why is the operational dimension so critical to achieving high performance through sales effectiveness? Operations serves as the vital two-way conduit between the customer and the rest of the organization. It's the essential layer that enables activities such as placing the order and working with finance, accounting and legal. It's directly responsible for managing the enterprise through the salesperson to the customer, as well as from the customer to the salesperson and back into the enterprise. Unfortunately, back-office cost reductions have left sales organizations gasping for air from an operational perspective: Not enough hours in the day to meet sales quotas; too much time spent on administrative tasks and not enough time spent actually selling.
Here are some indicators that all is not well with the typical company's sales operations:
Accenture believes that a transformation initiative with the goal of driving high performance through reengineered sales operations should proceed according to the following general steps:
March 31, 2008