Attended Selling Power  Webinar: 2010 Sales Performance Challenges; Jim Dickie and Gerhard Gschwandtner recently and heard one of my favorite presenters, Jim, present a litany of sorry statistics from the beginning of 2009 (undoubtedly worse today), which I share with my readers:

• 59% — the percentage of salespeople who exceeded quota (the lowest ever measured)
• 86% - the percentage of companies that raised quotas (with poor performance, how can they expect to make quota?)
• 67% — the percentage of companies that froze or reduced lead generation budgets (fewer leads means lower performance)
• 13% — the percentage of companies that invested in sales training (no training.  no improvement)
• Under 25% — the percentage of companies that invested in sales tools (no tools. no improvement)

The conclusion is clear. The world of sales is badly broken.The techniques and approaches of the past no longer work.

What can YOU do about it?

Here’s what I recommend.

1. Go buy the book Inbound Marketing buy Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah and read it at least twice.
2. Then read eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale by Ardath Albee.
3. Then take what  you learned and get to work.

Please talk to us if you need help.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed white papers, How to Find New Customers and Definitive Guide to Making Quota, as well the ebook, Prospect Driven Marketing. Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.

In addition, Jeff’s hosting a great free webinar on content marketing with Joe Pulizi (Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers on March 11th at noon ET.  Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/536492297.