{"id":51137,"date":"2019-05-16T19:03:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T19:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=51137"},"modified":"2023-03-06T14:56:11","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T03:56:11","slug":"dont-be-a-sales-blast-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/au\/blog\/dont-be-a-sales-blast-from-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t be a sales blast from the past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sales has changed dramatically since the \u201990s<\/a> and, while that decade  might be fun for the occasional trip down memory lane, sales has come a long way since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it\u2019s fun to look back at the way we used to do things in our industry, to realise how far we have come and what advancements mean for us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember the days in sales when we used to keep records on a spreadsheet, with columns to record data and rows for each customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically that system wasn\u2019t very good at separating certain types of information, such as sales and support events, or \u2018opportunities\u2019 and \u2018customer service\u2019. Such information was generally crammed into a \u2018Notes\u2019 column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes this was a paper-based system. Sales teams used a ring-binder and pages had to be sorted. Sheets of paper had to be removed when a contact was made with a customer, then re-ordered to ensure the sequence was always correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worst of all was the old, spreadsheet processes usually didn\u2019t have a proper, master version. This meant data would go missing because somebody had it on their laptop and their hard drive failed, or they lost their laptop, or they left the company.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Over the past five years there has been a 15% drop in the number of salespeople hitting their quota, from 63% to 53%.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n