Last week, PGi kicked off next year’s webinar series—“Strategies for Sales Success in 2012.” Gerhard Gschwandtner, Selling Power and Ryan Kubacki, Holden International discussed Ryan’s transformational sales performance methodology based on 28,000 seller surveys and 50,000 competitive deals.

The bottom line is salespeople still struggle to make quota. While sales quotas have risen nearly 33% over the last four years, 25% fewer reps meet their numbers. In fact, only 50% of reps make quota. (Source: The Bridge Group)

This isn’t good for companies, and it sure isn’t good for reps. So what can we do differently in 2012 to get the results we need and want.

Here are the key points, Sparknotes-style:

1. View sales and sales performance management as a science. Science is consistent and can be repeated. Do you have a formal methodology for sales coaching? What about deal reviews? Do you use the right sales performance management tools, such as sales compensation automation?
2. Learn to see the invisibles. Top performers intuitively notice and act on intangibles that accelerate their sales cycle. What are those business drivers? Check with your team. My top performers are those who connect with prospects through social media.
3. Act first. In sales, speed wins and slowness kills. Top performers act quickly when opportunities arise. For example, one of our iMeet reps recently saw a TechCrunch tweet announcing one company’s recent VC funding. Because he acted fast, he closed the deal in 7 days.
4. Align your entire organization. Cross-department collaboration is key—especially with sales. Build a corporate culture that encourages sharing. Align internal capabilities with external opportunities. Having the right collaboration tools will help you improve your sales ROI.
5. Do a post-mortem. Ryan recommends going beyond the traditional curb side conference immediately after a call. Once a month, conduct an in-depth review of an important with your entire sales team. If everyone can’t be in the same room, use video conferencing to make sure your discussion quality stays high.

This is the ideal time to do a 2011 deal review for your organization. Take a look at the entire year. What did you do right? Wrong? What can you do better?

Share your thoughts—and be sure to join us for the next webinar with Nancy Martini, PI Worldwide on Wednesday, January 11 at 2:00 pm EST.

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Make sure you get a copy of Ryan’s upcoming book, The New Power Base Selling, for more.