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Mike Stokes: Indicator CEO on the survey of sales team leaders and company growth · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News talk edb Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio might.
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  Speaker 2: Have some new insight from the business coal face of
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  Speaker 2: this country. The Sales Teams is a survey five hundred
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  Speaker 2: liters eight thousand reps. The word is it's still very tough,
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  Speaker 2: no kidding, but there is lights if you look. The
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  Speaker 2: indicator CEO and found of Mike Stokes is with us
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  Speaker 2: on this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Mike.
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  Speaker 2: This optimism we find in your survey and the recovery
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  Speaker 2: coming our way in the latter part of twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: five that driven by hope or fact a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of bias.
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  Speaker 3: I think I would call it realistic hope. So there
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  Speaker 3: is optimism there, but there's also a realization that there
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  Speaker 3: are some challenges still, particularly in the first six months
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  Speaker 3: of the year.
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  Speaker 2: And does it very widely depending on the industry you're
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  Speaker 2: dealing with, No.
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  Speaker 3: Pretty much, right acrosst career industry. We saw really toughly
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  Speaker 3: year last year. But the optimism is the same for
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  Speaker 3: this year.
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  Speaker 2: And so the banks are saying first half as hard,
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  Speaker 2: second half is better. You would agree with that. Your
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  Speaker 2: they suggests that yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: We're strongly think that minute, you know, earliest that sales
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  Speaker 3: letters saying in the survey that the earliest we'll recover
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  Speaker 3: from a recession will be second half of the year,
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  Speaker 3: but a number of still saying twenty twenty six as well.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so thirty nine percent of companies, this is how
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  Speaker 2: bad it got. Thirty nine percent of companies got growth
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  Speaker 2: last year. That's not many, so it was as bad
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  Speaker 2: as it gets.
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  Speaker 3: It was the lowest we've seen since we started the
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  Speaker 3: survey in two thousand and eight, so it was it
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  Speaker 3: was tough. And not only that, it was thirty two
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  Speaker 3: percent that's declined in revenue, so some pre start numbers there.
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  Speaker 2: So when we talk about the stuff, you know, at
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  Speaker 2: our level, inflation, interest rates, the commercial level in the
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  Speaker 2: real world, all that sort of stuff, is that what
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  Speaker 2: affects you you guys as well?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so. I think the biggest the biggest hit
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  Speaker 3: that we had from a sales perspective, a revenue perspective
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  Speaker 3: last year was that budgets declined. Companies took a lot
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  Speaker 3: more time to make decisions about whether they would purchase
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  Speaker 3: specifically you know, good size investments, and what we noted
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  Speaker 3: that really that because of the nature of the reduction
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  Speaker 3: in demand, salespeople really only hit about forty three percent
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  Speaker 3: of them at their target for last year.
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  Speaker 2: Is that budget thing psychological? I mean, if I feel bad, therefore,
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  Speaker 2: what do I do? I know, I'll cut my budget
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  Speaker 2: and so it becomes a vicious cycle.
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  Speaker 3: It's definitely a confidence thing. Definitely a confidence thing, and
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  Speaker 3: it certainly is a vicious cycle. Sales leaders and salespeople
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  Speaker 3: who note a pretty optimistic bunch. So if they're saying
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  Speaker 3: that we still got some challenges ahead, it's likely to
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  Speaker 3: be the case.
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  Speaker 2: And what about the comparison between New Zealand and Australia.
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  Speaker 2: What can you tell.
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  Speaker 3: Us Australia was similar. They were expecting a better last
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  Speaker 3: year than they got, which was interesting. But their optimism
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  Speaker 3: is slightly higher than in New Zealand's slightly higher. And
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  Speaker 3: what we see?
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  Speaker 2: All right, Mike, appreciate the insight. Mike Stokes, Indicator, CEO
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  Speaker 2: and founder.
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