Marketing Times - March/April 2008 - (Page 10) Second, technology is the driving the force behind many of the changes which have accelerated globalization. Thomas Friedman, in his famous work The World is Flat, demonstrates how U.S. accounting firms are acquiring new clients by delivering superior tax assistance at a fraction of the cost. They are able to achieve this through the use of technology to integrate foreign outsourced tax accountants as part of their service offering. To some this is a threat. However, to others, especially forwardlooking business leaders, this represents an opportunity. As the automobile and the telephone radically changed the sales function, so too will telecommunications and the new computing environment. The salesperson as the “closer” will go the way of the pay phone and instead will become synonymous with “consultation”. The technology-enabled salesperson will have at their fingertips the information, education, and training to be world class in this business function. The falling cost of data storage, computing power and network bandwidth will allow for the evolution of the sales department to one of strategic significance. Third, becoming world class in the sales function is now possible to achieve and demonstrate. Companies have long wanted to be world class in sales but did not understand what that meant or how to get there. Through benchmarking, business leaders can objectively understand how well their sales force is performing compared to a relevant peer group and to world class organizations. There are four basic assets needed to benchmark: large repositories of empirical data, software technologies to automate the benchmarking process, a taxonomy to defined sales process and sales metrics, and experts trained in business statistics. These assets, long available to finance, manufacturing, information technology and human resources, are now commercially available for sales leaders. World class in the sales function can now be defined, measured, and attained. For those interested in learning more, please visit www. salesbenchmarkindex.com and download the World Class 100, an assessment of the world’s 100 most productive sales forces. The World Class 100 research is differentiated form other sales research in that it is concerned with: • Empirical data, not survey results which summarize people’s opinions • Metrics utilized by World Class sales forces • Contrary indicators signaling the beginning or decline of sales force excellence • Depicting performance significantly above or below the benchmark mean • Operating statistics that enable sales leaders to understand how a future chain of events can be triggered by a present day action 0 marketingtimes http://www.smei.org http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com http://www.smei.org
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