SALES LEADERS PREDICTING GROWTH

A RECENT survey of some of New Zealand’s most progressive sales leaders has highlighted that the clear majority are expecting 2018 to be a growth year.

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed in the 'Mood of the Sales Leader' poll were ‘bullish’ or ‘upbeat’ about growth opportunities in 2018, and whilst 41 percent are expecting business conditions to be more challenging they are still expecting growth.

The survey was undertaken by sales consultancy firm Indicator and gathered the results of 138 contributors who were personally responsible for more than $6.5 billion in revenue and sales teams in their thousands across a broad range of industries.

The survey focused on the different expectations of 2018 compared with 2017 and included questions on employment, challenges, price reviews, training and development and areas of improvement or focus in 2018.

In good news for the employment market the survey highlighted that 63 percent were expecting to increase the size of their sales team in the year ahead. And 88 percent of companies had planned for a growth budget.

The number one concern to sales leaders was increased competition, both from existing and new-to-New Zealand market companies.

For many leading sales teams finding and developing sales talent is a considerable challenge and so it was no surprise that recruitment featured prominently and was listed as the second biggest challenge.

Indicator CEO Mike Stokes was pleasantly surprised with the level of positivity about the next 12 months and commented that sales leaders are in a unique position to view the market.