Companies Flourish Even During Challenging Economic Times
ATLANTA, May 19, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Class 100, a statistical
assessment and ranking of the world's most productive sales forces, shows that
organizations with high-performing sales teams are reaping significant
corporate financial benefit, even in today's sluggish economy.
The report introduces a new metric, known as Return on Sales, that links
sales effort to shareholder return. Produced by the data analytics firm Sales
Benchmark Index (SBI), the World Class 100 bases its findings on the trailing
24-months of more than 11,000 public companies, cutting across industry
segment and organization size. SBI concludes that Return on Sales, calculated
using a proprietary formula with inputs from expenses, growth rates, and
operating margins, is the best indicator of corporate performance.
"The sales force holds the key to improving the customer experience -- one
of the most enduring competitive advantages," said Greg Alexander, chief
executive officer of Atlanta-based SBI. He added, "The causality is clear.
Those organizations with premier sales forces have premier valuations. This is
true even more so in the current economic climate."
To produce the World Class 100 rankings, SBI benchmarked each company
against a relevant peer group, both in terms of industry segment and annual
revenue. The result was a normalized score for the Return on Sales metric that
enabled comparison of otherwise unlike companies and revealed the following
about those who made the top 100 list:
-- They realized a median shareholder return of 19% while all other
organizations experienced a median loss of 5%
-- They produced 89% Return on Sales while all other organizations
averaged only 7%
-- They incurred only 40% of the expense that non-world class sales
forces incurred
-- They grew revenue 35% year-over-year, compared to a median 6% for all
others
At the top of the World Class 100 is Google, followed by companies of
varying size that span a broad range of industries including basic materials,
capital goods, consumer products, energy, finance and insurance, health care,
hospitality and food service, media, pharmaceuticals, professional/business
services, technology and software and telecommunications. The top 10 of the
World Class 100 includes:
1. Google
2. SunPower
3. Genentech
4. Moodys
5. Quicksilver Resources
6. Garmin
7. Thermo Fisher Scientific
8. Crocs
9. Sigma Designs
10. Aircastle
"The World Class 100 is a scorecard for companies looking for better
shareholder return. It offers a dashboard for sales execution and operational
excellence," Alexander noted. "The ability to sell effectively opens up the
opportunity for market advantage; the challenge is in knowing how to get
there. Sales benchmarking represents a fail-sure technique to diagnose the
areas in most need of improvement."
About Sales Benchmark Index
Sales Benchmark Index, a strategic advisory firm, helps executive
leadership understand how well they are performing relative to a peer group
and World Class levels. Sales Benchmark Index is differentiated through its
use of empirical data, a repository of over 11,000 companies across 19
industries, 12 years of history and over 250 sales metrics. Through SBI's
sales benchmarking services, a company can deploy comparative data sets to
identify the improvement opportunities available through leveraging best
practices of World Class sales forces. For more information, visit
www.salesbenchmarkindex.com or call 1-888-556-7338.
SOURCE Sales Benchmark Index
Vikki Meldrum, +1-216-241-3020, vmeldrum@dix-eaton.com, for Sales Benchmark
Index
