Sales Performance Scorecard Study Introduction

Peter Drucker’s observation struck us as being particularly pertinent as we discussed the theme for the 2024 Sales Performance Scorecard study analysis. Turbulence in the B2B world is rearing its head in several areas including: continued economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, environmental concerns, fears of how to manage/control volatility surrounding AI-driven disruption, etc. This is, in turn, creating an environment for businesses to proactively examine the transformative changes across all functional areas within an organization (sales included) that will be required to be viable now and going forward.

In the in the Nov-Dec ’22 issue of the Harvard Business Review, we along with Benson Shapiro and Boris Groysberg at Harvard Business School, introduced a new way of looking at revenue enhancement strategies. It was based on examining yesterday’s logic for what successful sales performance optimization entailed, factoring in changes in buyer/seller dynamics, and analyzing the current state and potential for leveraging AI in sales. Two key factors that we introduced were five levels of both sales process and customer relationship strategies that organizations could elect to adhere to in how they engage clients. To put us all on the same footing, here is how each of the levels of process and relationship are defined: