5 Informative Infographics To Guide Your Sales Strategy

Let’s face it — you can’t spend time pouring over must-reads to be effective at closing deals and getting the job done.

The good news is that there are visual, scannable resources out there that allow anyone to consume massive amounts of information in well under two minutes. The following sales infographics cover everything you need to know to remain relevant in today’s market — from changing customer behaviors to the seven personality traits of top salespeople.

Ready, set — start skimming. 

Infographic #1: How To Get Your Sales Mojo Back

This infographic from Harvard Business Review and SAP drives home the reality of today’s selling environment, where empowered buyers have just as much (if not more) information than sellers.

Salespeople who win are the ones who add value to the sales process by helping their prospects filter out the noise and understand what they should focus on to do their job more effectively. In fact, 72% of decision-makers say the sales rep’s ability to help solve business objectives is a major influence on their buying decision.

Infographic #2: What Makes An Effective Sales Process

This infographic from KissMetrics has a wide range of interesting stats on everything from optimizing lead response time, to the benefits of ‘smarketing’ (sales and marketing alignment). Some of the highlights:

• 13 percent of sales reps bring in 87 percent of the revenue
• 35-50 percent of sales go to the vendor that responds first
• The number 1 personality trait of top salespeople: Modesty

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Infographic #3: MegaTrends For Sales In 2014

Better, faster, stronger. According to this recent infographic from McKinsey, massive changes in technology, demographics, business economics, and customer behavior are ushering in a New Age of Selling that relies on continuous engagement — not just transactions. Bottom line: Sales leaders need a clear strategy to survive and thrive in the days ahead.

Infographic #4: We Need More Female Sales Leaders

Last month, LinkedIn released eye-opening data on the representation of women by job function, title, and industry across the social network’s 300 million plus member profiles.

What they found: While the percentage of women holding sales roles has increased slightly over the past 10 years, that percentage decreases when moving up the ranks — the C-Suite and VP-level have the smallest percentage of women in sales

Encouragingly, the infographic closes with valuable advice from today’s top female sales leaders on how more women can push past the persona and get into sales leadership.

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Infographic #5: The Hidden Costs of Failed Sales Managers 

Sales managers are critical to overall sales team success, yet many receive little to no development support from their organization.

This infographic from CEB clearly illustrates why companies must invest in the selling, coaching, and innovation skills of their sales managers, or it will cost them big time. Some highlights:

• The cost of a single failed sales manager can be as high as $4 million
• New sales managers only receive 1/3 of the training time that frontline sellers receive
• Sales managers who are effective at people management can improve retention by 40 percent