Developing a benchmark for company‐wide sales capability

Abstract

Purpose

Based on a broad set of indicators of individual and company capabilities, this research sets out to establish a meaningful, straightforward benchmark of sales performance for a cross‐industry group of 19 companies, based on the perceptions of their salespeople.

Design/methodology/approach

The establishment of the benchmark involved the completion of questionnaires by 426 salespeople across 19 companies.

Findings

The research identified some areas for development common to most companies in the survey.

Research limitations/implications

Although comprehensive, this survey needs to be repeated over time to maintain the benchmark. Benchmarking can be helpful to many companies trying to improve their sales capability.

Originality/value

This is a practical case study of a benchmarking approach to developing the sales function in a number of organisations.

Citation

Sweet, C., Sweet, T., Rogers, B., Heritage, V. and Turner, M. (2007), "Developing a benchmark for company‐wide sales capability", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 18-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850710721363