Value of unrealized B2B sales potential is larger than the GDP of 77 countries – combined!
We have been having conversations with customers and prospects to help them realize the true potential of their sales and marketing functions.
Implications of unrealized sales potential for businesses and business leaders:
Every business leader we have spoken to has felt that there is more that can be done with their existing sales organizations.
If you look at it from their perspective, this is an opportunity to increase their revenue without a significant impact on their overheads from Sales & Marketing and General & Administrative expenditure. Hence not only does this increase revenue, but also increases the quality of revenue by impacting EBIT directly.
Implications of unrealized sales potential for industries and dependent domains
We wanted to help ourselves and such business leaders realize the significance of this fact. So, we went about to estimate what can be the impact of realizing this potential in the USA.
The revenue from B2B sales in two industry segments – manufacturing (NAICS 31-33) and Architecture & Engineering Consulting (NAICS 5413 & 5414) for the year 2018 was about $6.35 Trillion.
(Source US Census Fact Finder. Sorry we could not get more recent and authentic government published data for the US).
After our empirical assessment, we arrived at the unrealized sales potential from these industries to be around $555 Billion (8.74% of the realized sales).
Yes! That is roughly the GDP of Poland in that year. If this “Unrealized B2B Sales Potential” was a country, it would be larger than the GDP of 77 countries – combined! In a ranking, it would be larger than at least 170 countries.
Implications of unrealized sales potential for the global economy
All of that is only for two industries and in one country. Now imagine the size of unrealized sales potential lying across all industries in all the economies of the world. Realizing that potential can not only have a huge impact on the health of businesses, but also a major shove to the global economic progress. As argued earlier, the quality of this revenue is higher resulting in an increase in profitability and free cash. All of which could be used for further boosting organizational growth.
Also Read: Earn the Market Share You Deserve with Value-Driven Marketing
How are salespersons best placed to save the world?
In a lot of ways, realizing the full potential of B2B sales is not just a business problem, it is a global economic point of concern. However, solving this is not an impossible challenge. While there is no one silver bullet, the answer to this is no more than simple sales & marketing common sense. We have proof from success stories that tell us that allowing salespeople to do sales is the simplest of some of the steps that a B2B business can take. Let us see what this means.
What stops the salesperson from being the hero they are?
The salesperson’s success is measured by the revenue he brings to the company or at the least the number of deals he wins. In high-ticket, value-conscious, and complex sales processes involving multiple decision makers (like the 2 industries we have analysed earlier in this article), the success of the salesperson depends on his ability to be in front of his customer. Maybe digitally in the post Covid19 world.
But often the salesperson is inundated with tasks that keeps him/ her away from engaging with the customer to nudge them along the sales cycle by demonstrating value from their products or services. They could be preparing sales decks, doing prospect research, making CRM entries, doing travel arrangements, building a database, preparing sales reports, following on payments due or sometimes even coordinating response to RFPs/ RFQs.
While none of these activities are less important, these do not need a customer facing salesperson to complete them. By allowing the salesperson to focus on engaging with the customer and removing all such activities off their desk, we allow them to fully utilize their time to win more deals and bring more revenue.
Similarly, empowering the salesperson with the right level of prospect intelligence that can deliver a compelling proposition to the right prospect at the right time can also help remove all distractions from the funnel.
For example, knowing that the 20th prospect on the call list has a compelling need to use their product or service mix is the most important piece of information for the salesperson. This helps prioritize the prospect ahead of 19 prospects allowing higher chances of quicker success.
Reduced sales cycle, improved conversion ratios and better utilization of sales bandwidth are all happy side-effects that any business would not mind
Never late to leverage the business’s unrealized potential
There are many such means to achieve better results from your B2B salesforce. The benefits of doing this is also crystal. The decision to make that happen is now in the hands of business leaders and sales administrators who have the power to make a change.
After all, people with the power to make a positive change, also have the responsibility to do so.
