Improving Sales Execution in the B2B Market

The Size of the B2B Opportunity

As of last year, the Fortune 500 alone accounted for $13.7 trillion in revenue, $1.1 trillion in profits and 2/3 of US GDP.   B2B represent over 30% of total private equity deals, double that of B2C. Yet, capitalizing on this opportunity is challenging for two reasons:

Increasing Complexity of Buyer Journey

·  22% longer B2B sales process than five years ago (CSO Insights)

·  7 stakeholders now needed to make a B2B buying decision (Gartner)

·  57% of the decision process complete before engaging sales

Execution Gaps Persist

·  85% of marketing collateral goes unused (CEB)

·  53% of reps make quota, the 5th consecutive year of decline (Gartner)

·  82% of decision makers say sales reps are unprepared (Biznology)

Execution is believed by many to be the single biggest determinant of value creation, yet, the knowledge-execution gap remains the bane of today’s B2B sales and marketing organizations. This increasing gap has creating an outsized opportunity for those companies which can close it through modest improvements in a small handful of metrics. 

A modest improvement in only 3 metrics can have a dramatic improvement in outcomes and your company’s value.  Each of these metrics can be driven by aligning on a few key decisions, embedding them into the operating fabric of the sales organization through the CRM system and driving a common sales cadence which creates accountability for performance.