The De Paul Center for Sales Leadership is one of the leading sales learning institutions in the country. Every few years the University publishes the Sales Effectiveness survey which observes the sales practices and results of over 435 organizations across 10 business sectors. Some useful insight is shared in this report:
Age profile – % by age
– 14% 18-25
– 27% 26-35
– 27% 36-45
– 20% 46-55
– 12% 56 and over
Annual Hiring Levels
– Less than 50 hires per annum – 68%
– 50-249 hires pre annum – 21%
– more than 250 hires – 11%
Value of Education in Sales Hiring – Percentage of sales managers that considered the education levels below very important
– Some prior training – 50%
– College 48% (37% for business college)
– Graduate 22%
* 30 of new hires did not have a college degree.
Number of Face to Face Interviews Prior to Hire
– 2 interviews or less – 31%
– 3 interviews – 39%
– 4 or more interviews – 30%
Interview Time with New Hires
– less than 1 hour – 14%
– 2-3 hours – 43%
– 4-5 hours – 26%
– 6 or more hours – 17%
Cost of Entry Level Sales Hires
– Less than 20k – 43%
– 20k-40k – 23%
– 40k or more – 34%
Time to Turnover for Entry Level Sales Hires
– Less than 12 months – 33%
– 13-24 months – 29%
– 25 months and onwards – 38%
* The number one reason for leaving was unmet expectations
Cost of Turnover
– Average cost of turnover approximately $49,508
* When acquisition, training, lost time and replacement were factored in, the average cost of turnover rose to approx. $115k
On-Boarding and Development
– organizations that had some sort of on-boarding process – 73%
– firms with an on-boarding program of 30 days or less – 60%
– primary method of determining success of training – informal management appraisal – 72%
Average Earnings by Performance
– top third of reps – $188k
– middle third of reps – $107k
– bottom third of reps – $65k
Sales Process
– value selling – 47%
– strategic selling – 38%
– conceptual selling – 28%
– spin selling – 25%
– proprietary model – 19%
* 54% of firms claimed to use the sales process always or frequently.
photo courtesy of Salvatore Vuono | freedigitalphotos.net
Eliot Burdett
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)
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