- Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study identifies key behaviors that contributed to better growth results in sales performance metrics among World-Class Sales Organizations.

RENO, Nevada, April 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Miller Heiman Research Institute released today the results of the tenth annual Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study, the largest global study of selling and sales management best practices in complex, business-to-business selling environments.

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"Sales leaders have a unique and valuable resource available to them as a result of this study," said Sam Reese, CEO, Miller Heiman. "We conduct this research annually to help sales leaders make more informed decisions about where to focus their time and resources in the pursuit of world-class performance."

The study defined an exclusive group who outperformed in customer management activities and organizational efforts such as operations and management execution. Representing less than five percent of the study participants, this group – referred to as World-Class Sales Organizations – outperformed in several key metrics when compared to other study participants including qualified lead volume, new customer acquisition, average account billing, quota achievement, and revenue growth.

Miller Heiman's annual study seeks to understand what makes an organization successful from year to year. The latest results came from data collected globally during the fall of 2012 and included more than 1,100 professionals at companies in complex selling environments regarding the sales activities and performance practices in their organizations.

"The consistency of the activities we've been studying over the past 10 years, plus our exclusive focus on the complex selling space, is unmatched," said Joe Galvin, Chief Research Officer, Miller Heiman Research Institute. "This data allows us to provide a depth of information that is just not available anywhere else."

Three defining attributes of World-Class Sales Organizations emerged from this year's analysis.

1. Customer Core: World-Class Sales Organizations have the customer at the core of everything they do.
2. Collaborative Culture: World-Class Sales Organizations are able to function as a team.
3. Calibrated Success: World-Class Sales Organizations know why they are successful.

According to Galvin, these attributes are consistent with the strategic imperatives that many sales leaders will be focused on solving throughout 2013. The study findings confirm that World-Class Sales Organizations are achieving significantly better growth compared to their peers across the measurements included in the study.

Additional new data emerging from the 2013 study includes insights and benchmark data to help sales leaders measure the practices within their organizations against others:

• Trends in CRM data confidence among sales management
• Performance effect of time spent with customers
• Common activities that keep salespeople from spending adequate time with customers
• Productivity data of World-Class Sales Organizations
• Priorities of sales management where time spent is most valued
• Percentage of organizations that share the results of customer satisfaction/loyalty programs with customers and with internal departments
• Year-over-year change in the need to significantly discount in order to win business
• Average number of organizations that leverage the best practices of  top performers to improve others

To schedule an interview regarding the findings, contact the Miller Heiman Research Institute at research@millerheiman.com.

About the Miller Heiman Research Institute

The Miller Heiman Research Institute provides world-class research and unparalleled perspective on global best practices to help B2B sales organizations improve sales productivity and performance. Our team of sales and research experts synthesize content and data on relevant topics, emerging trends and best practices for sales leaders so they can apply this knowledge to solve strategic issues specific to their organization. To bring precision to our clients, Miller Heiman Research Institute benchmarking capabilities provide sales leaders with third-party data to identify new areas of opportunity, prioritize strategic investments that will have the most impact, and measure team performance over time.  For more information, visit www.millerheiman.com/research_institute.

SOURCE Miller Heiman