Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

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  1

  frankjask

  04/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  Not everyone can be a top performer - but not everyone needs to be. I don't like argument by analogy, bu look at the New York Yankees over the years. Times where they had nothing but stars and they lose to the Devil Rays. Times when they had a mix, they win championships.
  
  I would want to know from the CSO study what the average experience level of top performers was relative to bottom performers. The bottom performers are younger reps that are still developing.
  
  And even top performers need to develop and refine their skills.
  
  That doesn't mean there is not a lot of bad training and managing going on though...

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  2

  v.jordan@...

  04/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  I beleive that attitude and personality have alot to do with sales performance and results. Training is good to redefine skills and it is possible to clone a sales model but you cant clone the attitude, motivation and drive. The other important thing to factor in is that the manager needs to understand that not all sales reps have the same triggers for motivation, if you understand what drives an individual to perform then you can manage them based on that. Of course the other factor with all sales negotiations is understanding that personality of the buyer comes in to play also. We have different personalities in our sales staff and we use that to our advantage. I've matched the reps to the buyers personality style and business style and it works, but interestingly the top performer may have tried in an account and not got anywhere, whereas the personality and sales style of another rep gets works. product offering is the same....
  

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  3

  Brian Rock

  04/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  There are a few assumptions in this analysis I'd question.
  
  For one it presumes that sales training is intended to bring lower performing sales people up to the levels of the stars, and that the start performance is unchanged.
  
  Let's say Sharon Star is turning over $6m while Mike Mediocre is doing $1m. After training Sharon is up to $9m while Mike is doing $1.5m. She's still six times more productive, but it would be a strange conclusion to presume that this means the training was ineffective.
  
  Secondly it doesn't factor in the competitive landscape. If your competitors are improving you might need training simply to hold ground, much less increase sales.
  
  I agree with frankjask this doesn't mean there isn't poor training and management. But it may not be as simple as Geoffrey suggests.

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  4

  rawdaddy

  04/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  Is building a ?world class? sales team ? where everyone is a top performer ? an impossible feat? First off the word team and "world class sales people" don't really go together, do they? All the ?world class? sales performers that I've know, are not really interested in work as a team. They are highly motivated, not really looking for sales training, although they would probably attend if offered. They are looking for what kinds of support am I going get in order to meet my goals.
  
  I agree with you that they are born and not made. ?World class? sales performers would hit their numbers with or without training, with or without a sales manager, and with or without a CRM system in place.
  
  But here comes the next question. Are these ?world class? sales performers, Hunters or Farmers, or are they both? I have met very few ?world class? sales performers that are both.

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  5

  alechoi

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  Sales perfomence is driven by personality and attitude, though training improves skills to make a sales star.Customers`percepion has big impact on sales that has to be well handled,with the skills acquired especially where there is cognitiv perception.
  I agree perfomers are born but training clones a star

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  6

  upshift

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  Training, attitude and a desire to win would be my choice.
  
  On a personal level I would also require a strong belief that
  the product or service would provide value to the customer.
  However I fully realize that one can be a star performer
  without the latter.

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  7

  smackintosh

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  Sales Stars are like leaders - you can tune and tweek them but the true naturals - the stars are definitely born not made. I work for Glengarry Group Consulting and we provide leadership assesment and constantly are asked the question are leaders made or born - you decide but the answer seems clear to me - unleash the power of me!

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  8

  JacquesWerth

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  As a practical matter, it pays to get a behavioral profile on salespeople before you pay to train them. Such profiles are very affective in predicting their future performance, and their ability to learn a new sales process. In many cases, it is far better to replace poor producing salespeople than to keep them. The cost of a behavioral profile is less than a week?s pay.
  
  When we are brought in to train a sales force, some of the sales stars usually refuse to participate. We believe that there is no good reason to insist that they do.
  
  The stars that do participate usually achieve the highest percentages of productivity improvement. In general, the higher the productivity of each salesperson before we did the training program, the higher the increase in the percentage of their productivity improvement.
  
  The further down salespeople are on the productivity ladder, the less likely they and the company will benefit from providing them with sales training. Sales managers that keep poor performers usually cite the 80/20 rule in their own defense.
  

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  masummers

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  Sales stars have initiative and drive which can't be taught

  Sales stars in my experience have two things that can't be taught, but speak to one's character, initiative and drive. These things won't be gained from sales training. An individual must make the decision internally that these values are important to them. That said, most top sales performers have gained some skills to make them succeed. If they haven't, even those who have initiative and drive and are preforming at a high level, could perform at an even higher level by honing their skills.

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  Tom Canning

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  Let the team be diversified! (to some degree)

  Geoffrey,
  
  Interesting post I must first say! Let me go out on a limb and after 5 cups of coffee this morning say " you don't need to build a world class team with everyone a top performer" Why? Because if you match to the customer, heck - you've got some "non-star" customers and accounts you're probably dealing with! Take an all-star performer and they will bail on you and that customer in pure frustration. Take a B player - and you will have a match in heaven. They may be an overall B player - but for that customer, quota and job - they perform A+. Sales is not one size fits all - just as the team needs to be as diversified as the target or installed customer base. Just a flip side observation I thought I'd share...
  
  -Tom

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  Ellen Nichols

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  I agree with Frankjast. The numbers only tell part of the story
  regarding how well developed the reps skills are and how
  productive they are. HOWEVER, i also agree that many sales
  managers do a horrible job interviewing and hiring. We need
  to take a page or chapter from The Selection Solution which
  teaches managers the basics of performance based screening
  and interviewing. It changed our sales team and our results.

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  12

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  Tom:
  Only five cups? Lightweight...

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  colinparker

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  We have worked closely with many sales organizations over the years and consistently find that most companies have several misconceptions about training their sales people.
  
  Here is what our years of experience and research have shown:
  
  When sales performance is not what is needs to be, companies automatically think that classroom-based training is the solution.
  
  The pace and content of training classes are typically determined by the trainer instead of the learner.
  
  Terminology used is centered around ?training? rather than ?learning?.
  
  Learners are required to progress at the same speed, in the same way, at the same time.
  
  Although we clearly live in an electronic age, materials used are still paper-based.
  
  Learning is crammed into a few days and experience has shown that only a small fraction actually gets applied.
  
  Organizations spend a lot of time and money on event-oriented training courses and give little attention to ensuring that what was learned is then transferred to the workplace.
  
  Post-training evaluation sheets evaluate the trainer ? evaluations seldom verify what the salespeople are able to do.
  
  Performance aids are rarely used to guide performance. It is assumed that knowing about something somehow automatically will translate into being able to do it.
  
  Organizations spend large amounts of money on training and then will spend nothing for months or even years.
  
  We have done sales evaluations and assessments at large multinationals to small sales teams of 5 and 6 and I am still floored by the huge percentage of sales people who don't have the basic skills. The majority of sales programs try and but some clever spin on the sales process making sure their sales people not only understand the skills but can actually perform the skill when the rubber meets the road.
  
  Doing it right doesn't mean that everyone is a sales star but it should mean that your sales force has the skills to actually perform their jobs.
  
  Wow, I think I am agreeing with Geoffrey...well at least until he posts about marketing
  
  Colin Parker
  Red Giraffe Strategic Sales & Marketing
  

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  GregoryLong

  04/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  Time for a contrary view to many of the replies. Seems like the prevailing view is "all you need is desire (or attitude or ...)" To add to the data Geoffrey presented, Star sales teams often outperform average teams by as much as 180%.
  
  While it may not be possible to 'clone' the stars, it is very possible, and has often been done, to move the average or good performers closer to the stars. Closing that gap between good and great can reap huge benefits.
  
  How to close the gap? Focus first on developing a model for how the stars do their work. Then develop ways to transfer those approaches to the average. And it's not usually about training (only 11% of the time is training the key answer). It's most often a combination of other factors: information, tasks, mental model, etc.
  
  Bottom line - yes, the gap can be closed. No, training won't do it. And, yes, it's leadership's responsibility to make it happen.
  
  Best
  Greg Long
  glong@veritrexgroup.com

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  15

  Woodywagon

  04/23/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  All of the training in the world will not prepare you for how you will react under fire. During WWII it was a known fact that despite all of their training, most casualties occurred within the first combat encounter. If you survive that first hour, day or week in the field you were more likely to survive. Like any other activity the more you practice the better you get. Hit the streets. Get bloodied. Come back in. Share your experience. Work with mentors or veterans and get back out there and do it again. When possible, make joint sales calls with other reps. Work in your company's booth at a trade show where you will hear over and over the sales pitch and demos delivered by both the sales and techical staff. Your best coach is not always your sales manager. Your best mentor is one of your peers who is also in the field every day. Why one of your peers? Many sales managers still believe in the "Winning By Intimidation" method. This may be the last person a young sales talent seeks out. Who wants to get beat up for admitting a weakness to their manager? The sales manager's job is to monitor and assess your needs. Many managers only track activity and rarely get out in the field to participate in customer facing activities.
  Don't get me started.

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  Sid Herron

  04/23/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Can Every Rep Become a Sales Star?

  My observation about sales training is that most "selling systems," whether it be Sandler, Bosworth, or others, are really attempts to put a framework of behavior guidelines around what the "Sales Star" seems to do intuitively. If the non-Stars, for whom this behavior is not intuitive, are willing to discipline themselves and work at it, then, as Greg Long says, they can close the gap between themselves and the stars.
  
  It's also important for salespeople to know themselves and understand what they have to do to be successful. I once worked for a national company that had a sales rep in Cincinnati who consistently ranked with the top producers in the entire country. We were, of course, trying to figure out what behavior made our "stars" so successful, so we could coach the non-stars. Her manager's comment was that she wasn't the most knowledgeable about our products, and she wasn't the best presenter or closer. But she understood that sales was a numbers game, and she understood her numbers, and she worked her backside off to make sure that she put enough opportunities into the top of the funnel to get what she needed to come out the bottom.