• Sales biggest hero in retail (34%) but slips to third place across all industries (24%)
• Procurement languishing joint last with HR on nine per cent

Sales skills are overlooked and undervalued in all industries except retail, according to new research from Huthwaite International.

The YouGov study asked business decision makers from a range of sectors which departments they considered the ‘heroes’ in businesses. While sales came out top for those in retail on 34 per cent, across all industries surveyed sales slipped to third place (24 per cent), behind research and development on 32 per cent and production and manufacturing on 26 per cent.

Tony Hughes, CEO at sales and negotiation experts Huthwaite International, comments: “Businesses operating in the retail sector understand that sales are crucial, but other industries still don’t seem to give credit where credit is due. Possibly they believe that services and products just sell themselves, which is certainly not the case.

“Skilled salespeople build value for the product or service they sell, working with customers to understand their needs and how these needs can best be served. It’s not a …Read More