Can You Read Your Sales Manager's Mind?

Here's a quick game to assess how well you understand the priorities of the average sales management team.

The Rules: I give you two objectives that a sales manager might consider a high priority. You pick the objective that most sales managers thought was more important of the two.

Here's the first question:

Question #1: Which does sales management think is more important:

• Capturing New Accounts?
• Improving Up-Selling/Cross Selling?

Note: This post is based upon a free white paper from the leading market research firm CSO Insights.

Photography by Elena Elisseeva

You are correct!
CSO Insights, a top market research firm that focuses on sales issues, recently asked sales managers at more than 2,800 companies what they considered their three top objectives for 2010. According to that study, 54.7% named "capturing new accounts" while only 27.6% named "improving up-selling and cross-selling."

Click for next question » Wrong!
CSO Insights, a top market research firm that focuses on sales issues, recently asked sales managers at more than 2,800 companies what they considered their three top objectives for 2010. According to that study, 54.7% named "capturing new accounts" while only 27.6% named "improving up-selling and cross-selling."

Click for next question » Question #2: Which does sales management think is more important:

• Reducing Cost of Sales?
• Improving Customer Loyalty?

Click for next question » You are correct!
According to the CSO Insights study of more than 2,800 companies, only 9.2% named "reducing cost of sales" as a top three objective, while 23.7% named "improving customer loyalty."

Click for next question » Question #3: Which does sales management think is more important:

• Optimize Lead Generation?
• Reducing Administrative Burden on Sales?

Click for next question » Wrong!
According to the CSO Insights study of more than 2,800 companies, 27.1% named "optimize lead generation" as a top three objective, while only 7.7% thought "reducing administrative burden on sales" to be similar important.

Click for final question » Question #4: Which does sales management think is more important:

• Increasing Sales Effectiveness?
• Increasing Reorder/Renewal Rates?

Click for your final score » Wrong!
According to the CSO Insights study of more than 2,800 companies, 46.3% named "increasing sales effectiveness" as a top three objective, while only 10.4% saw "increasing reorder/renewal" rates as important.

Click for your final score »

YOUR SCORE:

• 0-1 correct answer. Uh oh. Sales managers might as well be a completely different breed, perhaps even from another planet. Best you plan to stay in a sales position.
• 2 correct answers. Hmm. You've got a vague idea of how sales management thinks, but their real priorities elude you. Maybe you should look into an MBA...
• 3 correct answers. Not bad. You're pretty sharp when it comes to understanding sales management. Don't get too cocky, though.
• 4 correct answers. Hey! Are you a sales manager? If not, you've apparently got the chops to do the job -- at least the prioritizing part.

IMPORTANT: Want to read the original research. Here's a FREE WHITE PAPER that has the topline findings.