Grading sales performance in 2011, and predicting 2012

The Heinz Marketing/OnTarget second-annual “Executive Outlook” survey was released this morning, with some moderately successful evaluations of sales & marketing improvement in 2011, and tempered optimism about 2012.

Some specific findings:

• For the second year in a row, more than 70 percent of business leaders surveyed reported being encouraged by how their organizations are responding to business challenges
• More than 90 percent of organizations made changes to their sales & marketing strategy in 2011, including more discipline in the sales process and increase emphasis on serving existing customers
• Twenty-two percent of respondents gave their organization an “A” for winning new business (up from 19% last year), with 57% giving their organization a “B” (up big from 47% last year)
• Despite these and other optimistic outlooks, only 31 percent of respondents reported that their sales and marketing teams were more focused and motivated in 2011, implying significant room for continued performance and sales improvement into 2012

Check out a full copy of the survey summary here, or email me for more detail and “verbatim” response samples from the respondents.