It's been a long time since I've read a book that has the potential to shake up the sales profession!
But Making the Number: How to Use Sales Benchmarking to Drive Performance, the new book by Greg Alexander, Aaron Bartels, & Mike Drapeau is one that will.
The authors show you, step-by-step, how almost any sales organization can improve dramatically - and I mean that! But it's not a cakewalk. If you're an entrepreneur or sales leader, you'll definitely want to check it out.
While you're waiting for your copy to arrive, here's Part I of my interview with the authors:
1. What motivated you to write this book?
We all came to the subject from separate paths. Greg came from the sale management and was tired of the claim that sales artistry trumped sales measurement. Aaron came from sales operations and was frustrated with the difficulty of comparing one organization to another. Mike, who came from marketing, had struggled to find a way to depict the inefficiencies in the Sales-Marketing interface.
2. How do you define "sales benchmarking?"
It's a rigorous methodology that uses empirical 3rd party sales data to help executives understand how they're performing relative to a peer group. The output of this effort is:
- Accurate identification of sales process weaknesses
- The ability to prioritize improvement initiatives
- And the ability to apply best practices.
3. How does sales benchmarking benefit the individual?
There is a whole chapter in the book on just this very topic. Let me quote:
“Sales benchmarking allows salespeople to better manage their most precious resource—time. It allows salespeople to focus on those opportunities with the highest probability of success.
"Data-driven decision making enables sales reps to eliminate non value-adding activities that consume selling time.
"Furthermore, it can assist individuals in making more informed decisions about which types of companies and for what kind of sales leadership to work.”
In summary, the book title says it all - a sales leader will make their number after reading this book.
4. What's the difference between sales benchmarking and sales analytics?
Sales analytics is when companies collect and analyze sales data. They run reports, compare current to past performance, stack rank sales reps, and attempt to build forecasts.
In order to do sales benchmarking, an organization must be doing some form of sales analytics. The difference, though, is that with sales benchmarking, an organization also does the following:
- Adopts a common classification scheme for their internal data.
- Compares internal data to external data of peers.
- Leverages sales best practices from high performers in other industries.
- Tracks leading indicators.
Sales benchmarking helps you compare what your organization is doing to companies in other industries - as well as make significant improvements to you bottom line in the process.
On Thursday, I'll publish Part II of my interview. The authors will answer these questions:
- How does sales benchmarking help predict sales performance?
- What are the first steps in getting started with a sales benchmarking effort?
- How much does something like this cost?
- What are two or three takeaways for everyone who reads your book?
Once again, if you'd like to check out this book on Amazon, here's the link.
