Miller Heiman, the Reno-based provider of sales force development resources, found that talent and customer insight are seen as increasingly critical to success in a new study of 2,300 sales professionals.

The study found that the greatest difficulties in sales effectiveness are an inadequate process for replicating the talents of top performers, an inability to generate new prospects and a failure to effectively sell new products and services. “Some organizations are meeting [these challenges] by fundamentally changing how they view customers,” according to the report. “To do so requires sales leaders to really understand how customers think. The best sales organizations in the world are creating value for their customers, rather than articulating what they believe the value to be.”

When asked to state the most significant strategies, or drivers, of sales force effectiveness, respondents overwhelmingly ranked having the right talent as the number one driver influencing the overall effectiveness and productivity of a sales organization, according to the study.