Companies Hold Back Their Salespeople, Reports Industrial Performance Group Study.NORTHFIELD, Ill. -- Profit and revenue suffer because companies keep their salespeople sales·peo·ple pl.n. Persons who are employed to sell merchandise in a store or in a designated territory. from selling more, suggests a new study by the Industrial Performance Group. The study surveyed more than 1,500 salespeople from 17 industries on how they spend their time. "There's untapped potential in salespeople, and giving them more time to sell can increase financial returns," said Robert Nadeau Robert Nadeau (born 1937-03-10) is an American aikido teacher holding the rank of 7th dan shihan in the Aikikai. Trained in Japan by the founder of the art, Morihei Ueshiba, Nadeau was one of the first Aikido teachers in Northern California. , managing principal of the Industrial Performance Group. "It pays to free up your sales force's time." Salespeople from manufacturers and distributors throughout North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. participated in the study, which involved several trade associations and publications. The study found that salespeople spend just eight percent of their time prospecting and qualifying new customers. Yet they spend 23 percent of their time dealing with problems and mistakes, searching for information and expediting orders. In total, they spend 62 percent of their time on "non-revenue-generating" activities and just 38 percent of their time selling. This limits revenue and earnings, while increasing operating expenses Operating expenses The amount paid for asset maintenance or the cost of doing business, excluding depreciation. Earnings are distributed after operating expenses are deducted. . Outsourcing (1) Contracting with outside consultants, software houses or service bureaus to perform systems analysis, programming and datacenter operations. Contrast with insourcing. See netsourcing, ASP, SSP and facilities management. and restructuring are partly to blame. As companies scale back customer service and other areas, customers turn to salespeople for help with problems like missing paperwork or incorrect shipments. Salespeople spring into action to address these problems, but this "firefighting 1. firefighting - What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational problems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and I spent the whole afternoon fighting fires." 2. " uses up valuable time. Though salespeople must respond to urgent customer problems, companies can take basic steps to begin freeing up their time. The Industrial Performance Group identified five common barriers that prevent salespeople from selling more: (1) outdated out·dat·ed adj. Out-of-date; old-fashioned. outdated Adjective old-fashioned or obsolete Adj. 1. work processes, (2) lack of focus, (3) too little or too much information, (4) outdated sales training and (5) inability to execute. "Management can start small by finding simple issues and fixing them," Nadeau said. "If managers free up just an hour or two of each salesperson's week, the financial results can be surprising." More details on the study, including a fact sheet, background, graphics and a sales performance calculator calculator or calculating machine, device for performing numerical computations; it may be mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic. The electronic computer is also a calculator but performs other functions as well. , are available on the Industrial Performance Group's Web site, www.indusperfgrp.com. About the Industrial Performance Group The Industrial Performance Group specializes in helping manufacturers and distributors increase sales volume and improve profitability in supply chains and distribution channels. The company offers sales training, seminars, consulting and other services, as well as a wealth of information at www.indusperfgrp.com. For more information, call 1-800-867-2778. |
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