In this ebook, Sales Performance International's senior leadership and consultants share their view on trends expected to have the greatest impact on sales, and ideas for business and sales leaders to adapt.

1. 2017
Predictions for the Sales Profession
- What to Expect and How to Adapt -

2. © Sales Performance International, LLC. 2
The sales profession is always changing, because
sellers must constantly adapt to changes in
economic, political, cultural, and market forces. As
the world changes, so too must salespeople
respond. And, those sellers who can align and adapt
first are those who can achieve a competitive
advantage.
What kind of changes can we expect to see for the
sales profession in the coming New Year? Here is a
compilation of perspectives and opinions from Sales
Performance International executives and
consultants. We’ll revisit these at the end of 2017
and see how many of our prognostications turned
out to be accurate.
Contributors
Keith Eades, Founder and CEO
Jurgen Heyman, Global Chief Operating Officer
Dario Priolo, Chief Marketing Officer and Practice Leader
Robert Kear, VP of Innovation
Tim Sullivan, Director of Business Development
Dr. Trevor Byrd, Senior Data Scientist
Jimmy Touchstone, Director of Learning and Development
Artur Trezbunia, SPI Health Product Manager
Andy Smith, Senior Consultant
Steve Smith, Senior Consultant
Grant Cox, Senior Consultant
Nick Maslanka, Senior Consultant
Philip Everhardt, Senior Consultant

3. Keith Eades
Founder and CEO of
Sales Performance International
Demand creation was a top challenge for organization in 2016, and will continue to be a significant
challenge in 2017.
Prospects are being overrun with content marketing through email and social media. More and more, interaction occurs on mobile
phones, where users won’t complete web forms. And, everyone is now leery about becoming a “lead” and being nurtured to death by
overzealous lead development reps.
Organizations must find new ways to break through the noise, build awareness and credibility, and ultimately, create qualified
opportunities for their sales teams. More than ever, companies must know their buyers, segment their markets, and focus their
messaging for maximum relevance. This will require deeper and higher quality market research, agility to personalize messaging and
outreach, and the ability to create credibility and relevance at a glance.
Achieving this outcome requires unprecedented cooperation between marketing and sales, and an intimate knowledge of the
customer. See for yourself how much time your marketers spend talking to customers and how well they really understand how, when,
and why customers buy. Most won’t have a clue, and that’s a problem.
If there’s one thing to do differently in 2017, it’s conducting a “Voice of the Buyer” study to get everyone in your company grounded on
your current buyer behavior and preferences.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 3

4. Jurgen Heyman
Global Chief Operating Officer
Companies will continue to struggle with selecting, developing, and enabling sales managers.
Too many organizations still promote high-performing salespeople into leadership roles, without proper training or support. They also
buy point-solution technology in the hopes that it will be the silver bullet, only to be disappointed when the technology doesn’t get
used.
Rather than taking a piecemeal approach, companies should establish a proper sales management cadence that makes sense for their
business, and then train sales managers to execute. Leave nothing to chance. Most sales managers need to know what to do and when
to do it. Then, they need to be taught how to do it and be supported as they master new capabilities.
Developing sales managers is easier if they have a sales process to manage their salespeople against. It also requires an understanding
of the sales management competencies needed for success, and how incumbent managers compare against the model through
assessments. Once these gaps are known, a targeted developmental program can be established, progress can be tracked, and
everyone can be held accountable for improvement.
If there’s one thing to do differently in 2017, it’s to quit taking a half-hearted approach to sales management development. These are
the people who will lead change on your frontlines. Invest in them wisely.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 4

5. Dario Priolo
Chief Marketing Officer and
Demand Generation Practice Leader
In 2017, the roadmap for implementing and sustaining account-based marketing (ABM) will be
written, tested, and possibly perfected.
There has been a tremendous amount of hype in the market about ABM. Over the past six months, I’ve had conversations with at least
fifteen companies that claim to be an ABM-enabling technology. In reality, most are predictive, personalization, or ad retargeting
solutions that are trying to ride the ABM wave. Fortunately, one technology, Engagio, met our objective for executing ABM at scale by
helping us to coordinate our marketing, business development, and sales resources.
Through my conversations with clients, it was also obvious that the focus is on “why to” do ABM versus “how to” do it at scale. We’ve
carefully mapped and documented our procedure, as we’ve brought our own ABM program live. And, with a bit more experience, we
believe we’ll have a proven roadmap that we can use with our clients that want to do ABM well.
If there’s one thing to do differently in 2017, it’s establishing a practical planning process to protect and grow business in key accounts.
Even if you want to do ABM, you will need solid account plans to execute against. The two work together and are inseparable
components of generating business in accounts.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 5

6. Robert Kear
Vice President of Innovation
In 2017, I expect more organizations to adopt a development approach based on
actionable sales competencies.
In the past, companies would apply blanket training across sales teams, like spreading peanut butter on crackers.
Some training was undoubtedly needed, but much of it was wasted. In the absence of measurement, there was
little or no accountability for reps to learn, or managers to coach and reinforce the new behaviors.
A competency-based approach enables organizations to determine what “good” looks like for key sales roles, and
through assessments and analytics, determine how each rep compares to the standard. The result is a gap analysis
for each professional that can be used as a basis to create individual development plans. As sales reps progress
through their development plans, they can be periodically reassessed to determine how they are improving. This
approach is much more efficient and effective, since development is focused on areas of greatest need.
If there’s one thing to do differently in 2017, it’s to adopt a more data-driven approach to sales development.
Ensure that you have valid competency models defined for, at the very least, each major sales role in your
organization. Then, use the competency models and assessments as a basis to determine developmental needs,
track progress, and drive accountability.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 6

7. Tim Sullivan
Director of Business Development
Last year, I predicted that a differentiated customer experience will be paramount for sales
success, and I think it will be even more important in 2017.
We saw the importance of optimizing the customer experience rise among our clients throughout 2016. An increasing number of both
B2B and B2C organizations realized that their biggest differentiator is their ability to deliver a quality customer experience. The biggest
part of that experience is provided in the initial and most critical interactions with the sales team. Today, more than half of buyers’
perception of a company’s brand is based on their interactions with sales professionals. As a result, many of our largest clients cited
the importance of improving their customers’ experience as a principal driver for sales performance improvement initiatives.
With increased global competition and ever-shorter product life cycles, it is increasingly difficult to sustain any competitive advantage
through product leadership alone. Organizations that fail to equip their sales professionals with the processes, methods, tools, and
content to deliver a consistently excellent customer experience, will soon find themselves at a severe competitive disadvantage. How
organizations sell to customers is becoming even more important than what they are selling.
If there’s one thing to do different in 2017, it’s measuring the quality of customer experience and taking steps to ensure that you are
delivering one that is of consistent high-quality.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 7

8. Dr. Trevor Byrd
Senior Data Scientist
In 2017, the most important thing for salespeople to be able to do is to plan.
The competitive landscape and buyer behavior is changing at a break-neck pace, and selling is getting more and more complex.
Increased uncertainty and complexity mean that planning in sales is more important than ever.
Remember, planning takes place on multiple levels. It happens at the territory and account level, and it happens at the opportunity and
call level. The more you know and the more your reps are prepared, the better you can create winning strategies and allocate
resources where they can make the greatest impact.
Effective planning typically required a consistent process to plan against, tools to enable the planning process, planning skills, and an
appropriate planning cadence.
If there’s one thing to do differently in 2017, it’s looking at your planning methodologies to determine if they are suitable, and to make
changes to make them more effective and efficient to execute.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 8

9. Jimmy Touchstone
Director of Learning and Development
Learning and development technology is evolving very quickly, and L&D professionals must get on
board to support today’s learners, especially in sales.
The workforce is being heavily influenced by millennials and near universal use of smartphones. People’s learning preferences and
expectations have changed, especially in sales, and L&D organizations are trying to adapt. Although traditional, structured learning has
value, it must also be supplemented with unstructured approaches.
Individuals have become conditioned to acquire knowledge differently, and expect educational experiences to be highly relevant to
their role, that are accessible in different modalities. We expect the learning to be continual process, and not a onetime event. We also
want to learn from my peers and other experts as well. In fact, we view different sources of learning as more valuable than others. We
hear this consistently from learners, which aligns with how they consume information and interact with our peers in non-business
related situations.
If there’s one thing to do differently in 2017, L&D leaders and practitioners must get in synch with their learners. Learning organizations
that don’t adapt to service their internal customers with a modern learning architecture are going to lose credibility. Learners will seek
their own avenues for information and personal improvement, and it may or may not be in concert with strategic initiatives.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 9

10. Andy Smith
Senior Consultant
The Internet of Things (IoT) movement and subsequent digital transformation trend are
top of mind in global leadership teams, and represents an unprecedented economic
opportunity for those who sell solutions to enable this transformation.
IoT and Digital Transformation are rapidly changing the expectations from buyers, thus creating significant challenges in the
traditional sales and marketing approach for technology organizations. Business Decision Makers know that they need to do
something but they aren’t sure what. There isn’t any universally defined standard for IoT, creating even more confusion on
what to do, where to start, how to measure, and how to evaluate IoT or DT options.
If you sell technology, services, or solutions to enable IoT or digital transformation, then the one thing to do differently in
2017 is moving from being product- to solution-centric. The sales organization that can collaboratively create a vision and
lead a customer through a buying process (to include implementation), will establish themselves as trusted advisors or IoT
“category leaders.” Business Decision Makers own Digital Transformation and IoT initiatives, not Technical Decision Makers.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 10

11. Steve Smith
Senior Consultant
Technological advances are disrupting the status quo everywhere. Industries are converging, new
competitors are emerging, and business models are transforming with surprising speed. This
presents significant challenges for sales teams in 2017.
High tech used to be an industry of its own. That is no longer true. Today, every industry leader is high-tech. They leverage and combine big data,
cloud computing, services, and mobile computing to expand their market, acquire and cultivate and manage relationships, and operate to create a
competitive advantage. The Internet of things (IoT) and cognitive computing is coming fast, which will cause additional disruption.
Speed is one of the biggest challenges in businesses today. Whether it's execution of strategies, time to market or reacting to changes in the
market, rapidly changing buyer behavior, or new global economic realities, those who use technology as their source for rapid quality decision
making, followed up by technology supported execution, improve their chances of growth and success exponentially.
If you’re going to do one thing differently in 2017, it’s ensuring that your sales team is hyper-connected with prospects, customers, and their sales
support ecosystem. Leading sales organizations are investing in having account and opportunity strategy, guidance, knowledge, and learning at the
fingertips of their sales and sales support teams. Mobile solutions, such as sales playbooks with integrated tools, updated by marketing and on-
demand learning, are critical in differentiating sellers in “how” they cultivate, manage, and grow relationships. In light of a scarcity in talent, selling
organizations must leverage innovative technology (performance support systems) to design high-impact employee experiences - attract, manage,
monitor, coach, and develop sellers and managers, and thereby encouraging high-potential sellers to stay.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 11

12. Artur Trzebunia
Product Manager – SPI Health
Companies that sell to hospital and healthcare systems must dramatically reinvent their key
account manager (KAM) roles.
Everything, from job design to recruiting, onboarding, development, and compensation, is changing to address the new demands of
selling into a consolidated, multi-practice/specialty, patient-oriented healthcare environment (e.g. IDNs, ACOs).
This transformation is challenging, as organizations shift to a new sales and operations model without disrupting current business. It
involves upskilling and hiring experienced key account managers that can effectively navigate new healthcare networks.
If there’s one thing to do differently in 2017, it’s viewing the development of KAMs as a transformation and not a training event.
Carefully defining the KAM role and validate competencies for an effective KAMs in your organization. Then, use these competencies,
along with valid, reliable assessments to guide hiring and development. The effort should be led by the business. Although training is
important, the change needed in most organizations is so significant, that it will take much more than a training program for successful
change.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 12

13. Grant Cox
Senior Consultant
Driven by rapid changes in the selling profession, companies will struggle with fundamental sales
execution in 2017.
It is easy to be seduced by new technology promising to be a silver bullet, but technology without good execution seldom delivers
expected results.
There are three or four things that companies must do with every opportunity in order to advance the sale or qualify out – fast. It
appears that the new administration in the US will stimulate growth. If this is the case, then sales organizations must prioritize where
they focus as more opportunities emerge. Account planning and strategy will take on a greater importance, because the limiting
factors will be time and resources to win business.
If there’s one thing to do differently in 2017, it’s taking advantage of the favorable business conditions to grow and build wealth.
Economies are cyclical, and growth will taper off at some point. Salespeople who make the bulk of their income on commission should
maximize their earnings, and build a nest egg for possible slower times in the future.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 13

14. Nick Maslanka
Senior Consultant
In 2017, more sellers will be affected by an uptick in mergers and acquisitions.
The equity markets are pushing record highs, and the pace of innovation, disruption, and competition is intense. All
of these factors will drive opportunities and the need to strengthen in the face of new competitive threats.
It’s well known that few mergers and acquisitions deliver on expectations. These events are highly disruptive,
especially among customers and sales teams that must deal with several difficult situations and decisions.
Distractions eat into productivity, and good people concerned about their future start looking for jobs elsewhere –
often with your competitors.
If you’re going to do one thing differently in 2017, get the sales force and customer integration aspects of M&A
right. Remember the Hippocratic oath – do no harm. Slow and steady will help you win the race. Start by protecting
your largest and most important customers. Then, adopt a common sales process, language, and systems. Then,
look at the organization necessary to maximize value and define the new sales roles clearly, as well as the
competencies necessary for success. Then, assess your talent to select the right people and better understand how
to manage them to their full potential. Sales managers are critically important and must be selected with great
care.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 14

15. Philip Everhardt
Senior Consultant
It seems that everyone wants to be a SaaS Software company – and this will affect how people sell
in 2017.
Start-ups, traditional enterprise IT and industrial companies, and professional services firms are transforming and converging to some
cloud-based services. When done right, a SaaS subscription model is very sticky, builds equity through predictable, recurring revenue,
and provides considerable operating efficiencies. Who wouldn’t want this model?
However, transforming to a SaaS, subscription-based model is very challenging and potentially disruptive. How you engage their
customer is different, the buying process is different, and the need to ensure adoption and renewals is very different. More than ever,
you will be 100% vested in your customer’s success. If they don’t succeed, then they won’t renew and you will probably lose money.
If you are transforming to a SaaS model, or if you customers are embracing one, then the one thing you need to do in 2017 is make
sure you fully understand the scope of change. Every function in your organization will be impacted, so take time to do your homework
and go into the transition with your eyes wide open. Study other companies that have attempted, both successfully and unsuccessfully,
so you don’t repeat their mistakes.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 15

16. About Sales Performance
International
SPI is a global sales technology, training, and
analytics company that leads organizations into
a new world of possibilities to improve sales
effectiveness.
With SPI, organizations more effectively
develop and enable their sales teams, and
equip leaders to drive continuous, measurable
improvement. Through our fact-based and
data-drive approach, we empower your sales
team to drive sales results faster, with less risk
and lower cost.
© Sales Performance International, LLC. 16
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