The business headlines in 2009 have been littered with earnings releases stating sales are down year-over-year and confirming corporate lay-offs, cutting bonus pay programs and slashed budgets.

Companies went to great lengths to reduce their cost structure to align expenses with declining revenues. Now with another financial reporting period and earnings season looming, the word on the street is that while companies have managed to adjust their costs they are struggling to achieve sales and revenue targets.

Probably the most daunting trend is the one we collectively need to address. In their 2009 Sales Performance Optimization Survey of more than 1800 firms, industry analysts CSO Insights found that the percentage of salespeople meeting their quota dropped in 2009 from the previous two years to only 58.8%, signaling difficult times ahead. The top two initiatives Sales Executives called out for 2009 were to increase sales (hardly surprising) and to increase sales effectiveness.

The same survey posed some interesting conclusions on this point: “We do not believe that success in 2009 will be achieved by making more sales calls. The number of calls—face-to-face meetings or on the phone—has already been increasing over the past few years with minimal impact on sales results. The real objective is going to be how to make great calls: motivating stakeholders to meet with you; creating a sense of urgency that moves evaluating your solutions to the top of their priority list; differentiating yourself from the competition; selling value rather than discounting prices; creating a compelling business case to get the project approved now. These will require your salespeople to be more effective at selling than they were in 2008.”

“Sales Effectiveness: How to Reach New Levels of Sales Performance,” written by Dave Batt, StreetSmarts CEO, outlines the challenges organizations currently face with delivering top line sales performance and how to address these challenges head on. Plus, it includes step-by-step methods for improving sales effectiveness and the business impact it can provide sales-led organizations.

Download your free copy by visiting http://www.streetsmarts.com/solutions/sales-effectiveness. There is no registration required.