NEW YORK, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
- SMBs in South Africa,
Ireland and New Zealand are ranked among top
sellers
- Brazilian and South African teams close sales fastest,
taking on average 28 days, followed by Chile on 29 days
- Higher performing companies commonly achieve around 37%
conversion rate
- Manufacturing sales enjoys the highest conversions, whilst
real estate agents work the hardest
- Higher sellers make a third (34%) more activities from a
mobile device
Pipedrive (http://www.pipedrive.com), the leading sales CRM
platform and tool of choice for salespeople in scaling companies,
today published its annual 'Global Sales Review 2017' report(1)
analyzing tens of thousands of sales teams worldwide. The
anonymized metadata provides a snapshot of sales performances
across 34 different countries, and spans a range of sectors.
Insights from Pipedrive's user base of 70,000 companies help the
platform to design valuable new functionalities.
Key findings
Pipedrive customers are primarily smaller businesses selling
high value products and services in a sales process that requires
customization and multiple touchpoints or interactions over a
period of time.
Data from Pipedrive shows variations in sales team performances,
with clear differences across regions and industry sectors. Higher
performing teams - those that beat their industry and regional
averages - saw a typical conversion rate of around 37%.
A strong focus on the right actions is a key driver of success.
Organizations with low conversion rates conduct 30% more
activities, approximately two more per deal, than higher performing
ones. Focusing on the right sales actions means that more deals are
completed.
Overall, high performing companies are quicker to sales results
- their salespeople have stronger impact on customer decisions, and
do less actions but the right actions to close sales.
Old World vs New World differences
South Africa is top of the
conversion rate league table. Its salespeople convert a staggering
21.5% of all leads. Having incurred several recessions in the past
decade, it suggests a real need to improve productivity and
safeguard livelihoods. Countries following closely include
Ireland (21%), New Zealand (21%), Australia (19%).
Western European countries are not the best at converting deals
into sales. For example, France
(13%), Denmark (14%) and
the Netherlands (15%) score lower
whilst UK and Portuguese businesses both fair marginally better at
16%. Swiss teams lead Europe by
far on 19%. The USA, which
arguably invented selling as we know it, comes in the middle of the
pack (16%). It could be argued that lower conversion rates in these
regions can be attributed to more established economic conditions
and tighter competition.
Across all users, the average time for closing a deal is 40
days. For such 'sales velocity', Brazilian and South African teams
close sales fastest, taking on average 28 days, followed by
Chile on 29 days. European sales
people generally take far longer to close deals. The slowest are
Belgian teams taking 56 days, whilst the Dutch are in the slowest
five, taking on average 50 days to close a deal. Portuguese users
rank in the middle for time efficiency, landing deals around 37
days. Both UK (46 days) and USA
(44 days) rank towards the bottom of the lists.
The ability to predict when deals will complete is clearly
valuable from the perspective of managing income flow. Spanish
teams lead the way here, on average being able to predict deals
down to the correct day. The trend is towards over-optimism, with
the next most accurate teams being Austrians with +4 days margin of
error, and Swiss on +5 days. Colombian teams are the most
inaccurate with predictions, on average closing deals +25 days off
target.
Manufacturing is a standout sector
The manufacturing sector records a 31% conversion rate, meaning
that on average every fourth deal is closed. This is the highest of
all the industries and nearly double the average. Trading and
construction are runners-up followed by creative industries.
This can perhaps be explained by the fact that much
manufacturing sales activity is inbound, and/or enters a sales
pipeline already heavily qualified. Runners-up are trading (retail
and wholesale), construction and creative agencies.
Teams working in finance are most likely to prefer phone calls
as their modus operandi - around four to win a deal. In software
and app development, emails are more favoured, requiring three to
close a deal. The most lunch meetings are scheduled for those
working in health and real estate. The sectors most likely to hold
face-to-face meetings are real estate and manufacturing, clearly
linked to their on-site sales process.
Mobile increasingly important
The highest ranking sales teams perform far more sales
activities via mobile devices than lower performers - above average
performers added one third (33%) more activities via a mobile
device. For example, mobile users can capture key information from
meetings, while it's fresh in their minds. Salespeople need full
and reliable access to their sales pipeline from everywhere, and
the best salespeople are taking full advantage.
CEO & Co-founder of Pipedrive, Timo Rein comments, "We collate our Global
Sales Review to help salespeople learn which techniques and best
practices, tools and technologies can deliver for their region or
business sector. As sales is increasingly global in nature, success
can also depend upon knowing how to address multiple markets with
subtlety".
Pipedrive Gold package
Pipedrive's suite of award-winning packages are equipped to
greatly optimise the work of sales teams. Launched in recent weeks,
and priced at $29/month, the
Pipedrive Gold package offers strategic functionality to make sales
activities more agile, targeted and connected.
Key features include:
- Scheduler - lets you share your availability so clients
can book a time that works for you both
- Products - a customisable catalogue of a company's
including costs, notes, and more
- Sales Inbox - Send and receive email fully synchronised
with other email clients in use, with customisable templates and
signatures, and integral tracking and analytics
- Smart Contact Data - retrieves valuable data about sales
leads from online sources at the click of a button
Rein adds, "As much as data can pinpoint trends, we also apply
it to our own work, in order to continuously learn, benchmark and
improve our platform - such as with our new Gold package
features".
Every aspect of Pipedrive Gold is designed to support teams in
driving their sales through their pipeline efficiently.
Businesses can enjoy a two week, completely no risk free
trial at http://www.Pipedrive.com.
More findings from the research can be viewed online at
Pipedrive's Global Sales Performance Review page.
(1) An analysis of 59,980 small and medium sized companies
using the Pipedrive platform in 34 countries during December 2017.
About Pipedrive
Pipedrive is the tool of choice for salespeople in scaling
companies - the sales CRM pipeline platform that makes selling
simple. Pipedrive keeps things moving, stops tasks falling through
the cracks and removes the tedium of admin. Pipedrive ensures that
sales activities remain targeted, ambitious and realistic. Today,
over 70,000 customers in 170 countries, and across 100+ industries
leverage Pipedrives' award-winning software to manage their sales
process.
Founded by seasoned sales professionals, Pipedrive launched in
2010. It is one of the fastest growing cloud-driven SaaS companies
worldwide, having raised $30m in
funding from investors including Atomico, Bessemer Venture
Partners, Rembrandt Venture Partners and Paua Ventures.
SOURCE Pipedrive