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| Poor Sales Management Costs UK Mid-Size Businesses Over £65 Billion in Lost Revenue Callidus Software warns that the UK's mid-size organisations are missing out on the equivalent of up to 10 percent of revenue due to poor sales force management. This extra turnover, which equates to £65.5 billion, would come from more focussed salespeople, optimised incentive plans and increased visibility of operations. Given current economic turbulence it could be critical to the survival of mid-size businesses. Previously the benefits of increased automation through sales performance management were best obtained by larger organisations. However the growth of on-demand computing provides a flexible and cost-effective way for smaller companies to benefit from SPM. The on-demand model allows businesses to pay a monthly charge to use software hosted outside their organisation, reducing overall costs and administration. In recent research, industry analyst firm Gartner stated that through 2010, enterprises will miss the equivalent of 5 percent to 10 percent of annual sales as "lost opportunities" that could have been captured through improved management of sales territories, quotas and compensation plans. There are 48,090 mid-size businesses in the UK, employing between 100-500 staff. Demonstrating their importance to the UK economy they have a combined turnover of £655 billion - 39 per cent of the UK's GDP, despite only making up 1.26 per cent of the total number of UK companies. This means that improved sales management could deliver £65.5 billion extra potential income for mid-size organisations. "Mid-size organisations are the backbone of UK business and are critical to the overall economy", commented Bill Schuh, VP for Europe at Callidus Software. "By not having a proper handle on their sales functions they are currently missing out on a huge revenue opportunity. With belts tightening across the economy, now is the time to look at better control of sales in order to improve the bottom line." Sales performance management can deliver both efficiency savings and revenue increases, through: • Reducing cost of sales compensation administration by automating previously manual processes; • Avoiding compensation miscalculation through better sales visibility; • Increasing sales through a better motivated, focussed salesforce and channel; • Improving customer retention by incentivising staff through customer service metrics; • Adjusting the focus of sales to react to competitor or market activity. "Until now, SME's could not afford the benefits of sales automation. On-Demand levels the playing field and empowers mid-size businesses to reap the same benefits of sales performance management delivered through a model that meets their needs", concluded Schuh. Callidus Software provides on-premise and on-demand sales performance management software. The technology closely manages incentive compensation, tracks actual sales versus planned sales and effectively administers products across both direct and indirect sales channels. Callidus Software's solutions align corporate objectives with sales execution. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Computing News :: home page |