If you want to increase sales revenue you will need to develop some new sales talent management strategies. Innovative strategies can successfully drive more revenue for your organization. Imagine how your sales revenue could be improved by replacing low sales performers with top sales performers or average sales performers. Wouldn’t it be great to understand what drives your top sales performers so that you can hire people with the same talents, qualities and competencies? Every sales team is made up of at least three levels of sales talent.
Top Performers (top 20%) – The high performing salespeople who consistently bring home a disproportionate share of the sales revenue. What makes them great is that they have an established and disciplined method of selling. They make better than average decisions on where to invest their time and efforts. Hiring top performers is the talent selection goal.
Average Performers (middle 60%) - Consistent sales performers that make up the middle area of the typical bell curve distribution of sales performance. Hiring average sales performers is acceptable.
Low Performers (bottom 20%) – Low performing salespeople who struggle to contribute. These members of the sales team are missing critical skills or traits that interfere with their success. Hiring a low sales performer is a talent selection mistake, that negative impacts your company’s bottom-line.
Building a High Sales Performer Model begins with identifying the human qualities, competencies, and talents that your high performing salespeople have in common. Through a brief study of the current high performers, you are able to identify the key characteristics driving their performance, whether it be personality traits such as assertiveness or extroversion, aptitudes in areas such as critical-thinking or creative problem solving, or combinations of personality traits, cognitive abilities and emotional intelligence. High Performer Modeling is a strategy for establishing a ‘blueprint’ of the ideal sales candidate. The benefits include:
The average turnover rate in sales is about 40%. The cost of turnover in sales positions is estimated to be about 1.5 times their annual compensation. Your bottom-line is bleeding substantial profits if you have turnover. We have a proven sales talent management system that can enable you to identify, develop, and retain high performing sales reps. Here are the steps needed to reduce sales staff turnover:
Sales Process Incentives - Focus on rapid lead response time, lead conversion ratios, ideal customer profiling and identifying which next steps lead to sales. These are the process metrics that will drive existing deals forwards and bring new prospects into the pipeline. Invest in marketing automation software. It will quickly take your sales prospecting to another level. These software systems integrate digital marketing, social media efforts, and email marketing campaigns. Do you know what traits are shared by your top customers? Find out everything you can about your best customers and develop your ideal customer profile. If you have deals in your pipeline that do not conform to this ideal profile, qualify them again, as they are far less likely to close.
Sales Outcome Incentives - It is far easier to sell more to customers that have already bought into your products and services than it is to create a new customer. What additional products & services can you offer to your existing customer base? Your sales staff have different preferences for motivational incentives, so why not use the incentives they prefer, to obtain better sales outcomes.
Contact us for more discussion and implementation of proven sales talent management strategies.
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