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I Need Sales/marketing Function Benchmarks?
Posted By: kwhoffman* on 12/15/2004 12:37 PM (CST) 125 Points
My client would like to benchmark his sales/marketing function (in the chemical industry) against other companies. Where can I purchase reports with benchmarking data broken down by (european) geography? for example:
In southern europe, # of reps. # of client visits, # of minutes/hours spent with client, # of order placed per visit, etc.

Posted by: bobhogg Accepted Answer
1/4/2005 6:12 AM (CST)
kwhoffman...

Sounds like your client is looking for what most companies would consider as "commercially-sensitive" information!

So, other than indulging in industrial espionage (and that is, I believe, VERY expensive!), I cannot immediately think of readily available sources of the information you describe unless...

...there must be trade associations in the chemical industry that might have have some data that could help?

Good luck,
Bob
 
Posted by: leskennedy Accepted Answer
1/4/2005 12:56 PM (CST)
Hi KW - these questions can be answered at a high level with some benchmarks related to sales process and the complexity of the sale. As an example, if it is a transactional chemical sale - one call to the purchasing agent might be enough. On the other end of the spectrum, if the sales cycle is more complex, with multiple decision makers in multiple locations,...then you may have a larger revenue outcome, with a longer sales cycle. Much of the benchmarks have to do with the complexity of the sale, and the complexity of the buying decision making process. If you have a good handle on the sales process, then we can drill down more deeply to get the answers you seek.

Les
 
Posted by: Leaky Funnel Accepted Answer
1/16/2005 10:16 PM (CST)
Hi KW

There's a real shortage of the kind of information you are seeking. Together with MarketingProfs, I have just conducted a global survey to obtain many powerful benchmarks on Sales and Marketing. Although its focus was the alignment (or lack of alignment) between Sales and Marketing, we also obtained information which will help you. For example, Sales and Marketing spend as a % of revenue by industry by geography by company size, sales force size, close rates, and many other benchmarking data as well as alignment issues like planning, lead qualification and more. 60 Questions all up and 1300 participants so far.

When released, the full report from this benchmarking study will be made available free to all Premium members as a part of their subscription with MarketingProfs (this is one of the reasons why I am a Premium Member). It's not too late to participate in the survey yourself and thereby gain free access to the report once published. If you do, please endeavour to answer the questions on behalf of your client rather than for your own business. See http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=78261786041

Separately, my company does Sales and Marketing benchmarking in a number of industries where B2B is more common that B2C, and if you'd like to discuss offline, I'd welcome the discussion.

Good luck with your enquiry. Cheers, Hugh
 
Posted by: Adrian.Teotoc* Member Response
1/18/2005 12:23 AM (CST)
Hi! Informations like that you need is difficult to find, because is a privacy politique of a company. But once you know what are the indicators that you want to compare with others companies, you may search on websites of your competitors or in the articles reffering at that industry.
Good luck!
AT
 
Posted by: tjuhnke Accepted Answer
1/21/2005 1:54 AM (CST)
You cannot focus on what is not there, simply put there is nothing out their for benchmarking and or ROI analysis of companies, whether they are competitors of some other industry. This is part of the competitive advantage, keeping this information internal.

However, what you can do is create an internal reflection for your client. Create internal benchmarks, i.e., if they think that generating a lead should cost them less than $100, investigate what they are spending currently.

Additionally, you can always play the role of a make believe customer with your competition - secret shopper like, and make a call attempt to ask the sales person how long it typically takes, how often they talk, what is the % closure rates.

I really think what is going to be a better alternative is to ask the client for goals, where they think they currently are, then do an analysis of where they actually are performing. You can then give them some methods to get them to where they want to be, if they are already where they want to be have them increase their goals.
 
Posted by: Val (Moderator)* Moderator Response
1/22/2005 4:39 AM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question, since its more than two weeks old. We do this to make sure members' contributions are rewarded in a timely manner and to improve the visibility of newer questions.

Thanks, so much, for participating!
Val (Moderator)
 


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