1. Business Services
By Leff Bonney, Professor of Marketing, Florida State University
analyzed using statistical techniques to detect differences
After reviewing the data from the 2010 Miller Heiman Sales between the 2009 and 2010 survey data and to look for major
Best Practices Study, it appears the main challenges facing differences in the responses from business services staff and
the business services group are quite similar to those of 2009. staff representing World-Class Sales Organizations. This type
The down economy continues to apply downward pressure of analysis yielded interesting insights as to the state and
on business services companies in terms of pricing strategies trends in the business service sector. It also provided some
and general financial performance. Like last year, business interesting insights into the ways that business services firms
services customers are applying commodity buying strategies may be able to overcome the apparent commoditization of the
to these services and it appears that business services sales services that they provide.
personnel are at a loss when it comes to formulating effective
selling strategies.
Unfortunately, the down economy is continuing to hurt
The business services industry is made up of firms that
business services firms with general financial performance
specialize in support services for commercial businesses.
decreasing from the 2009 to 2010 versions of the Miller
Examples of the type of firms operating in this industry include
Heiman study. In 2009 it appeared the business services
commercial document management companies, staffing firms
firms were showing very low growth across the spectrum
and facilities management. There were 140 business services
of performance metrics indicating the these firms were still
respondents who completed the 2010 survey.
showing some positive performance in 2008-2009. However,
Two research methods were employed in generating this now these same firms are beginning to see actual declines in
business services report. First, interviews were conducted with key performance measures. For example, the average sale per
sales representatives and managers working in the business customer in 2009 was flat compared to the previous year but in
services sector. The interviews were analyzed looking for this year’s study business services respondents indicated that
specific trends or patterns. Second, the hard data obtained sales per customer were down 1-5 percent. In some sense,
from the 2010 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study was this is a logical progression of events given the slow recovery

2. in the general economy. Services tend to lag product declines reported lower quota achievement compared to most of the
in that business services are often seen as key aspects of other industries reported in the 2010 Miller Heiman Sales Best
doing business that cannot be reduced as easily as product Practices data. However, this could also be due to a slow
expenditures. However, it appears that as the economy response of business services firms to the downward pressure
continues to show little to no growth, service expenditures are of the economy and the fact that the industry was still showing
finally beginning to decrease on a per customer basis. signs of growth in late 2008 resulting in unachievable quotas in
the following year. Regardless, it represents an area of concern
The interviews with business services managers reinforced
for business services firms.
this idea as one manager indicated that their customers are
beginning to apply more traditional, commodity purchasing In terms of customer retention and growth, the business
processes and procedures to business services purchasing. services sector is in a holding pattern. 2010 respondents
“Things are changing quickly. It has been a long time since indicated that customer retention was flat compared to very
we made sales calls on purchasing managers, but in the last low growth in 2009. The same pattern exists for new account
couple of years, we have had to build relationships with the acquisition and the number of qualified opportunities/leads;
purchasing department. We are also having to comply with 2010 shows no change in new accounts and leads while
more stringent purchasing requirements which unfortunately 2009 showed slight growth for these two important metrics.
means more bidding on projects compared to years past,” In summary, the business services sector can best be
says Bill, a manager at a major business services firm in characterized by no growth in new customers and holding
Tallahassee, Florida. steady with current customers. Downward pricing pressure
however, has eroded sales per customer resulting in lower
Further analysis of the 2010 data supports the centralization of
sales revenues for business services organizations in 2010
purchasing processes of business services clients. Differences
compared to slight growth in revenues in 2009.
between the 2009 and 2010 data show that business services
sales reps are dealing with fewer decision makers. Likewise,
the smaller buying center uses more stringent selection As previously mentioned, the analysis of the 2010 data included
criteria in the purchasing process. In 2010, business services a review of the perceptional gaps between business services
respondents were more likely to say that customers required respondents and respondents from companies identified
formal ROI calculations in purchasing decisions than in 2009. as World-Class. Specifically, a group of high-performing
A business services sales representative interviewed for the companies was used as a point of comparison and labeled
study said, “We are getting pretty beat up by the purchasing “World-Class Sales Organizations.” A robust system for
process. Our customers are asking for bigger discounts which determining World-Class Sales Organizations was developed
we are giving without much upside for us other than we get based on complex factors that contribute to revenue growth.
to keep a customer.” Again, the survey data supported this To be considered as a World-Class Sales Organization,
in that more 2010 respondents indicated that they are giving companies were evaluated based on an algorithm that
price concessions while getting less in return compared to incorporates their activities in each of the six sales elements
2009 respondents. Ultimately, this is beginning to spill into covered within this survey. Additionally, these sales elements
rep quota achievement as business services respondents correlate to superior sales performance. Once all World-Class

3. Sales Organizations were identified, comparisons to business World-Class Sales Organization respondents said that their
services firms across all aspects of the survey were made. performance review process includes a coaching element.
The largest gaps between World-Class firms and business This is more than two times the number of business services
services firms were identified as a means of highlighting respondents with only 39 percent reporting that their firm
major areas for business services firm improvement. included coaching elements in performance reviews. Finally,
World-Class respondents were 3.5 times more likely to
This comparison method revealed two major areas for
say that the sales meetings effectively reinforced the sales
improvement that business services firms may want to
process than sales staff representing business services
consider in the near future. The first theme relates to managerial
firms; 82 percent for World-Class firms versus 23 percent
support of business services sales representatives. The data
for business services firms. From the analysis, it seems that
from the survey revealed that sales managers from World-
World-Class firms are achieving superior sales performance
Class Sales Organizations spend more than twice as much
in the down economy by leveraging the talent and knowledge
time coaching reps compared to managers from business
of their sales managers via a more conscious effort to coach
services firms. Respondents from World-Class firms
the sales force.
indicated that their sales managers spend 40 percent of their
time coaching sales representatives compared to business The second area that business services trail far behind
services sales managers who spent just 15 percent of their World-Class Organizations is in the level of coordination
time coaching sales reps. Similarly, nearly 90 percent of all across key groups within the company. The biggest indication
that business service firms lack a coordinated response to
the commoditization of their services is in the alignment
between sales and marketing. Close to 90 percent of World-
Class firms indicated that sales and marketing were aligned
35% 90% versus just 25 percent of business services firms. Another
indication of poor coordination between the marketing and
sales functions is found in business services firms’ inability
to put together a coherent, formalized value proposition
necessary to satisfy more sophisticated services buying
22% 84% 31% 90%

4. centers. Eighty-nine percent of World-Class Organizations switching to other service providers.” The analysis of World-
indicated that they have a compelling value proposition versus Class and business services firms demonstrated that there
36 percent of business services firms. is a direct correlation between sales manager coaching and
coordinated actions across the firm and being able to get
This lack of coordination not only exists between marketing and
value in return for price discounts. This is evidenced in the
sales in business services firm, but also between sales reps
fact that high levels of coaching and coordination led to 60
and upper management. Seventy-five percent of respondents
percent of World-Class firms reporting that they are able to get
from World-Class firms indicated that there was a formal
value in return for price discounts. In contrast, the low levels of
process for engaging upper levels executives in the selling
coaching and coordination led to only 18 percent of business
process. This is three times more than business services firms
services firms reporting that they are able to leverage their
where just 22 percent of the respondents said that there was a
discounting efforts.
formal process for executive-to-executive selling in their firms.
In firms where the executive management team is not involved
in direct selling efforts, managers will often still be involved
in evaluating deals that sales representatives are pursuing.
One way that upper management exerts influence on deal-
17% 57%
making is by setting established procedures for investing
in large deals; more importantly, by setting procedures for
when to stop investing in large deals. The heavy emphasis
on established procedures for working on large deals is yet
another area where World-Class firms outpace the business
services group at large. Fifty-seven percent of World-Class
firms reported having established procedures in place for Another key aspect to overcoming pricing pressure is to look
investing in large deals whereas only 21 percent of business for non-traditional customers who may not be as familiar with
services firms reported having similar procedures. the business services industry as traditional customers. Again,
the impact of manager coaching and coordinated action in
The two themes, managerial support and coordinated
reaching out to non-traditional markets was assessed in both
responses to changing markets, are key drivers that can
the World-Class and business services groups. Like leveraging
reverse the effects of downward pricing pressure. Regardless
discounts, coaching and coordination were directly correlated
of the industry, when faced with downward pricing pressures,
with success in selling into non-traditional markets. The end
firms should try to leverage price discounts into something
result was that World-Class firms were roughly twice as good
that provides some value in return. An example of leveraging
at moving into these new markets as business services firms.
pricing discounts is to get longer time commitments from
These results suggest that business service firms should
customers. One manager interviewed for the study mentioned,
strive to get managers more involved in guiding sales reps
“We have not been doing a good job with asking customers
into new markets and that marketing staff and the executive
to agree to longer-service agreements despite the fact that
management team should also become active participants in
we continue to offer lower prices to keep the customers from
the effort to sell to non-traditional clients.

5. leaving the printing firm to work for a major pharmaceutical
The business services industry is not immune to the negative company where he served as a senior sales representative. In
effects of the down economy. As revealed in this year’s Miller 2003, he returned to the University of Georgia where he earned
Heiman Sales Best Practices Study report, business services his master’s in Business Administration and in 2004 he entered
firms are experiencing downward pricing pressure from the doctoral program at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville
established clients with no growth in new accounts. The end where he received his PhD in marketing.
result is an industry whose firms are faced with decreases in
overall revenue. However, as demonstrated by World-Class
firms, business service firms may be able to offset some of The 2010 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study is the
those negative effects by becoming more adept at leveraging seventh annual effort to determine the broad challenges
the price discounts they offer to established customers. currently facing the sales profession. The respondents included
Being able to move into non-traditional service markets is an in this report are limited to those who are selling in what
additional avenue for overcoming the performance challenges Miller Heiman has defined as a complex selling environment
in the business services industry. To accomplish these two - those who are required to influence multiple decision makers
strategies, the data shows that business services firms should in what is typically a long sales cycle. Looking at the sales
encourage more active coaching of the sales force from organization in six main areas, study participants were asked
front-line sales managers and more disciplined, coordinated to respond with their level of agreement regarding 51 critical
actions from other groups such as marketing and the upper sales activities. This report is specific to responses from the
management team. business services industry, which included 130 participants.
Leff Bonney The survey was designed as exploratory research to collect
Leff is a professor of marketing at Florida State University. He primary data using a structured design. Formal statistical
specializes in B2B marketing with research interests including procedures were used to analyze the data. Such procedures
sales force integration into other organizational functions and included exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis,
sales force innovation. Leff has authored articles appearing in regression analysis, and frequency analysis. This is the seventh
The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, The European year of this study.
Journal of Marketing, and Industrial Marketing Management
as well as other leading academic publications. In addition to
After the broad issues and metrics were reviewed, the instrument
research, Leff teaches in the Florida State University Sales
was subjected to a pretest. The final instrument contained six
Center (www.fsusalesinstitute.com) which has won numerous
sales elements and a customer environment section with a total
awards for its sales education and training.
of 51 closed-end questions based upon a 7-point Likert scale for
Prior to returning to academia, Leff spent nearly 10 years in sales responses of Strongly disagree, Disagree, Somewhat disagree,
and sales management. He started his selling career as a sales Neutral, Somewhat agree, Agree, Strongly agree. Fourteen
representative for a large commercial printing company. Leff metric-type questions were included in this study. Finally, six
held several positions in sales and sales management before demographic questions were included.

6. Data for this study were collected from late-September 2009 Busines Services Titles
through late-October 2009. C-Level Executive 13
President/GM 14
Sales VP/Director 37
Responses were solicited globally from sales professionals Sales Manager 22
who are currently or have been in contact with Miller Heiman. Sales Representative 15
However, the study was not limited to Miller Heiman clients. Marketing 3
We actively pursued a cross section of participants, industry Training 13
and geography, for the study from a variety of databases. Human Resources 2
The comparisons provided in this report include World-Class Business Development 22
Sales Organizations compared to business services sales Account Management 9
organizations in the study and perception gaps among C-level, Sales Operations 2
sales management, and sales force positions.
Business Services Size of Deal
$0 - $5K 19
The large number of responses to this survey adds to the $5K - $25K 39
previous six years’ momentum and validates that this is one $25K - $100K 35
of the most comprehensive and statistically reliable research $100K - $250K 20
efforts on sales effectiveness done to date. More than 25,000 $250K - $500K 13
sales professionals have participated in these studies to date. $500K - $1 million 5
$1 million + 19
The substantial number of responses received for this year’s
report was from a broad cross-section of industries, positions,
Business Services Sales Geographies
and company sizes. Respondents included in this report are
North America 63%
only those who are in the complex selling environment, defined
Europe 24%
as needing to influence three or more people in the sales cycle.
Australia 6%
(In addition, this self-reported factor was cross-validated within
Africa 1.5%
the study.) Of over 1,992 total responses, 1,502 responses met Latin America 1%
the criteria of “complex selling environment.” Other 4.5%