For 25 years, CSO Insights has been surveying and analyzing sales organizations to find out what works and what doesn’t. Over the last few years, we’ve noted a substantial decline in many key leading indicators for sales performance, including percentage of sales representatives who are making/exceeding their quota. When we look underneath this statistic to the root causes, sales leaders tell us the same thing: buyers’ expectations have changed. In fact, in our recent World-Class Sales Practices study, three-quarters of sales organizations told us that customer expectations had changed significantly, impacting their business. This is not surprising when you keep in mind that business buyers are consumer buyers too. Their expectations for what is possible (pricing transparency, seamless interactions, omni-channel, personalization, self-creation) have skyrocketed as new players in the retail market continue to revolutionize consumer buying.
At the same time, there is much discussion in the marketplace about the future of
