Results are In - my first Sales survey

Kia ora LinkedIn Community

I recently made the decision to wind down A Sounder Life - John Holt in its current form, so I could focus more closely on areas in our ecosystem that are:

a) Crucial for company success

b) Lacking in contemporary training, thinking and lived experience

c) In sync with my personal experiences and can make a big difference for many

And guess what's at the centre of it all?

SALES and SALES CULTURE! Perennial challenge areas for companies of all stages, sizes and industries.

Shockingly, I haven't come across any university worldwide that offers a dedicated degree in Sales or provides comprehensive tools and resources similar to those available for marketing, demand generation, or product management.

SO, I'm on a mission to change that for our Kiwi ecosystem and beyond. I'm building a community and resources to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Sales and Sales Culture in organisations with momentum and continuous improvement mindset.

Let's get on the same page about Sales Culture - what is it? :

Sales Culture is the heartbeat of a thriving business, guiding every customer interaction and serving as the foundation for successful sales strategies. A strong sales culture is customer-centric, focusing on understanding customer needs and providing solutions rather than just selling products. It fosters empathy, active listening, relationship-building, a growth mindset, continuous learning, personal development, and collaboration. It values both success and failure as learning opportunities.

In other words, everyone contributes to the strength or weakness of a Sales Culture.

Earlier this month, Angie Judge highlighted a recent experience as a customer of a SaaS product, where a company showed a lack of effort and engagement during her subscription renewal, leading her and her team to decide not to renew. The feedback that her post attracted demonstrated that this was far from a unique experience.

A bit like the absence of sales degrees at universities the lack of consistent and pervasive customer centricity in organisations is a common ocurrence in many companies and industries and a massive cause of customer churn and loss of revenue and referrals.

For me Sales Culture encompasses the entire organisation and business process, from identifying sales leads, closing deals, servicing customers, and seeking additional opportunities to offer other products and services.

But now to what respondents shared -

Sales Survey Results

A big thank you to all who participated! Although it was a small survey and my first experience with Mailchimp, it was valuable for validation and learning.

- 75 respondents in total: 36 Founders, 21 CEOs, 12 Head of Sales, and a few Board Directors.

- Top 3 obstacles to achieving sales goals: 1) Converting suspects to prospects 2) Generating leads 3) Closing opportunities

- 80% rated their organisation's Customer Centricity at 3 or less (on a scale of 0 to 5).

- Only 3% rated their Sales Culture as highly developed and effective.

Below the % of respondents that said they had access to training on key sales areas:

30% Sales fundamentals

24% Building Ideal Customer Profiles

19% Building Sales Process

14.5% Customer Experience

8.1% Optimising close / win rates

Several respondents commented on the lack of formal training and development programs and the challenges of minimizing digital customer acquisition costs, managing time and resources, and navigating complicated sales processes.

Conclusion and Next Steps

The face-to-face survey with an additional 10 founders confirmed the online survey results. While lead/demand generation is a well-known challenge, the direct correlation between closing deals, converting suspects to prospects, and the limited sales training available further validated room for more support and resources in these crucial areas.

So, a big THANK YOU for helping me get a step closer to figuring out where to start.

I’ve started work with a small number of founders as pilot customers to refine processes and content.If you feel you have some areas that would be worth discussing and useful for my pilot feel free to contact me - [email protected]

Noho ora mai !