SBS International exposes inefficiencies in B-2-B sales

Many well-established business-to-business sales teams close on only 7% of their vetted prospects. Since the sales cycle is often 10-18 months long, this low success rate can be very expensive. SBS International, a UK-based project-rescue consultancy, has just released the results of its 10-year study of the business-to-business sales processes. The study identified that the issue was the paucity of good resources: There are a finite number of good large prospects in the marketplace and a limited number of trained, knowledgeable sales people. The real goal is using these limited resources efficiently to generate revenue. The issue is time and focus, rarely money. SBS research shows that most companies should and can expect to double efficiency of their sales resources by applying a few simple principles. The most important of these principles is to assess success by stages rather than at the end of the sales process—enabling management to make timely and informed improvements along-the-way regarding training, product development and hiring.

Key Findings of the SBS research:

• Business-to-business sales success rates are near 7% from identified prospect to implemented client. This success rate is measured from experienced sales teams selling to well-qualified prospects.

• The best Blue Chip sales teams with well known products lose 22% of the prospects who said “yes” at close. This means a salesperson invests over 250 days to get a “yes” and then loses more than one-fifth of those victories!

• There are a finite number of good, large prospects in the marketplace and a limited number of trained, knowledgeable sales people. Neither good sales people nor good prospects are a commodity—yet many large companies act as if they are.

To read the full text of this release, please click on the following hyperlink: http://www.sbsinternationalltd.com/Pages/Sales%20and%20Marketing/salescyclepaper2005.htm