As a sales consultant I continue to be amazed at the lack of attention many companies give to their sales program or sales effort. This is commonly reflected in the absence of a sales plan and goals, sales training or even a budget for these necessary parts of a successful business. As a result the sales effort is many times a “fly by the seat of your pants” fiasco that is done only if time and money is left over from creating a product or service.  Unfortunately, often the  sales and ultimately the financial success of the company become the responsibility of a person or group of people that have little or no real training in the area of sales. This problem is derived from the lack of realistic priorities. Thank goodness our nation’s military don’t pull a bunch of guys out of the Postal Service, give them a gun and drop them in war zone in Afghanistan and say “fight”. Our nation does many things wrong, but this is one thing they do right. They train, educate, train some more and then send them into battle. Once finished, they return home and train some more.

I’m talking about placing importance in an area where importance is needed. With that being said, here are some pretty interesting facts about sales in the United States today that were just report by “Outbound Excellence”.

  • Over 1 Trillion dollars is spent on the Sales Forces in America each year.
  • Over 12.3% of all jobs in America are Sales related
  • Top Sales producers outperform “average” Sales producers 2-1.
  • Top Sales producers outperform “low” Sales producers 10-1.
  • Replacing the low Sales producers with “average” Sales producers can raise sales 20%.
  • Sales training improves Sales by 23%.
  • A 5% reduction in customer reduction can increase profits from 25% to 80%.
  • The cost of retaining a customer is 3-10 times cheaper than acquiring a new customer.
  • 50% of America’s Sales managers claim to be too busy to train and develop their Sales team.

Take a few minutes and look at your Sales program. Think about what it would mean to your company sales if you elevated your “low” producers to average or even high producers. Just remember, most good sales persons are not hired, they’re created by good Sales training and part of good Sales programs. The answer is……put a Sales training program in place. Know who’s producing and who’s not. Improvement of any type requires effort like evaluation of your Sales program and Sales team and then taking the steps to make it all better.

Also, what would it mean to your profits if you retained an additional 5% of your customer base? Would 25%- 80% more profits be helpful about now.  Remember, the cost of getting a new customer to replace a lost customer is 3-10 times greater.

Great facts that hopefully will encourage you to ask tough questions and ultimately make positive changes.  Just remember…..”nothing ever got better without changes” and nothing moves until it’s sold.