The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Corporate culture has arguably always been important, but in recent years it’s become a popular point of discussion. To some, it’s become a buzzword, with an overabundance of content and discussions surrounding it. However, our 2019 Media Sales Report revealed some telling information related to how salespeople and sales managers feel about the culture of their company and industry today. 

Company culture is becoming even more important as the modern workplace continues to evolve. This is proven throughout the report as the biggest takeaways are related to how prepared salespeople feel to face the future and how likely they’ll be to recommend their company as a great place to work.

Why is sales enablement important? Because buyers are more informed, and selling is more challenging than ever before. Our 2019 Media Sales Report found that some of the major challenges in sales today are that sales reps’ time is not actually spent selling and salespeople are simply not equipped with relevant materials.

Sales enablement is a strategy that aligns marketing, sales, and operations while lowering costs, increasing revenue, ensuring brand integrity, and ultimately closing more deals. Even the most talented sales reps can benefit from the right support, structure, and technology.

So, why did nearly 1 out of 4 sales managers feel that they don’t have the right sales collateral pieces to help their sellers in all stages of the sales process?

Want to know the secret to booking more first-time appointments with new prospects? It might surprise you!

In the recent Media Sales Report, we learned 93% of sales managers agree that salespeople should be averaging 4+ calls per week. However, 40% of sales managers believe that their salespeople are missing the mark at only 2 to 3 calls per week. 

Add to this the finding that 85% feel that appointments with prospects are harder to secure today than they were 5 years ago, and this leads us to the secret to booking more appointments.

All great sales managers will tell you that training and development are the cornerstones for building an exceptional sales team. The sales industry constantly changes and evolves as prospects learn and alter tactics to deal with enthusiastic salespeople. And, every salesperson needs to learn how to adapt to these changes and continue to grow in their field of knowledge.

This is why sales managers and salespeople share common ground when it comes to learning and developing new skills, but as the 2019 Media Sales Report found, there’s still room for improvement when it comes to performance.

Highly-talented salespeople are more in-demand than ever. In fact, of the top ten emerging high-growth jobs listed by LinkedIn, five of them are some form of sales role. One significant result from our recently published 2019 Media Sales Report is that salespeople in these roles (and other sales positions) don’t want to be paid on 100% salary. 

Salespeople have repeatedly told us they want the opportunity to make as much as they can. Research supported this with over 57% of the salespeople saying that they prefer a salary plus commission structure with 30% to 40% of their total compensation coming from salary.

Rethinking the sales organization is a big topic in the media industry. Knowing how to compensate is just scratching the surface of what we uncovered in this year’s Media Sales Report. While compensation is one way to motivate salespeople and bring them to your organization, non-financial elements also play a significant role when it comes to hiring, coaching, and development.

The Center for Sales Strategy conducted two online surveys during the second quarter of 2019 with sample groups representing sales managers and salespeople in the media industry. With the data from these surveys, our team researched, analyzed, and compiled The 2019 Media Sales Report to deliver key findings and insights from the surveys to help drive sales performance in the year ahead. This report studies the landscape over the past year, including the expectations for sales managers and the strategies employed by media sales professionals to assess their impact across five key topics: Compensation and Sales Team Size, Training and Development, Number of Appointments and Sales Process, Sales Enablement, and Culture and Industry.

Read on to check out our key findings, and download the full report for more insight from these surveys!