IDC Sales Advisory Practice:
2009 Top 10 Sales Predictions
1. Selling strategies that worked in 2008 will not work in 2009
2. Companies that significantly reduce their sales and marketing investments in 2009 will likely be gone by mid 2010
3. Companies that blame their lack of selling on the economy will fail by mid 2010
4. Sales organizations will be asked to do more with less
5. Companies have cut T&E budgets deeply. Most will lose valuable face time with customers and prospects. Those that shift headcount to inside sales will provide similar levels of customer touch at lower cost…and drive higher customer satisfaction
6. Sales organizations that bolster dedicated investments in lead quality and demand generation will be rewarded with significantly higher sales productivity. This is no time to hide!
7. Organizations that cut sales training in 2009 will suffer. Organizations that bolster sales training in 2009 will prosper
8. Savvy organizations will use the economic downturn as justification to replace direct sales “laggards” with well enabled inside sales. Customer (and employee) satisfaction and sales productivity will rise accordingly
9. If you remain confident & customer focused, understand the impact of the economy on your customer and strategize to serve them accordingly, your organization will be well positioned to thrive in 2010 and beyond
10. Continued support of customers during the downturn will earn loyalty (build relationship capital) when the turnaround comes
Source: IDC 2009
2 comments:
Lee, the mid-year assessment of 2009 performance in the tech sector will be very telling. While hope isn't the solution to the economic downturn, maintaining a positive outlook might be one of the few things that keep people going. Set-backs are a given. It's how you respond that's really important.
I commented on a previous post (Tech Sales Barometer) about several points on that list.
But I had one more comment with respect to prediction #1.
We have been observing sales people who work in high performing sales organizations across most sectors. Top performers tend to possess a high degree of business acumen. These days they are using that business acumen to articulate how their products/services will directly contribute to their customers getting through this economic crisis.
We see this as a level deeper than the old ROI/business case, which is increasing revenue, decreasing cost, mitigating risk.
So I completely agree with the first prediction. We believe the selling strategy we've been observing will work in many sectors. Perhaps IT as well? Interested in your thoughts, Lee.
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