- June 17, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The article starts with a few Fathers Day reflections but does move to sales so please stay with me for a moment. It all connects!
On Fathers Day I found myself thinking about how our son has grown from a little boy to a 22-year-old man. Back then, he was in awe:
- Of how strong I was; but now he is significantly stronger than me and does the heavy lifting
- Of how hard and far I could throw a baseball; but now he throws it three times further than I can and at twice the speed
- Of how I knew everything; but now he knows more about more topics than I can fathom
- About my ability to easily navigate lane switches, turns and parking places; and now drives as skillfully as I do
The point is, most people change over time and ten examples came to mind rather quickly:
- Their points of reference
- Their situational awareness
- Their capabilities
- Their intensity
- Their perspectives
- Their outlook
- Their commitment
- Their motivation
- Their appreciation
- Their hobbies
But for as much as I can write about how people change, there are some things that don’t change and it gets me very fired up.
Perhaps you know someone who is slim and fit, but often asks, “Do I look fat?” Or maybe you know someone who is obese but doesn’t believe they have an eating problem.
After devoting nearly 40 years to sales development, I can tell you this with absolute certainty:
Those who believe they need help, do need help, but it’s never as bad as they think it is. And those who do not believe they need help, usually need it more than those who think they don’t need help.
This applies to the C Suite and Sr Sales VPs when considering the needs of their sales organizations, as well as to sales managers and salespeople when considering their own needs.
There are some areas of selling where people are more dysfunctional than others. Those areas include, but aren’t limited to these ten:
- Sales Process and Scorecard – Only 44% of salespeople are following their company’s sales processes and most of those sales processes are missing key milestones, improperly sequenced and missing a scorecard. Salespeople who are best at sales process are 461% more effective than the bottom half of all salespeople.
- Selling Value – Salespeople who are strongest at selling value are 960% more effective at this than the bottom half of all salespeople.
- Taking a Consultative Approach to Selling – Fewer than 25% of all salespeople are able to take a consultative approach and uncover urgency. The salespeople who are best at selling consultatively are 2133% more effective than the bottom half of all salespeople.
- Pipeline Management – 74% of all closable opportunities are in the wrong stage of the pipeline and actually belong in an earlier stage. The salespeople who are best at qualifying are 1516% more effective than the bottom half of all salespeople.
- Coaching – Only 7% of all sales managers spend the appropriate amount of time coaching salespeople and veteran sales managers score an average of only 35 on the coaching competency. 72% of the coaching that does occur is not tactical or strategic coaching. Sales managers who spend at least 50% of their time coaching salespeople have salespeople who average to be 20% more effective than those who don’t.
- Need to be Liked – Salespeople who don’t need to be liked are 51% more likely to close an opportunity than those who do need to be liked.
- Comfortable Discussing Finances – Salespeople who are comfortable having conversations about money are 69% more effective overall than those who aren’t.
- Motivation – The most motivated salespeople are 2000% more motivated than the bottom half of all salespeople
- Commitment to Sales Success – The most committed salespeople are 1766% more committed to sales success than the bottom half of all salespeople
- Suitability for the Role – Only 56% of the bottom half of all salespeople are well-suited for the selling role they are in
(All data courtesy of Objective Management Group)
Companies have CFOs, controllers, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and bookkeepers, yet the companies all retain accounting firms and use payroll companies.
Companies have in-house counsel but they all retain law firms.
Companies have asset managers and property managers but they all use real estate agencies, landscaping firms and snow removal firms.
Companies use insurance agencies, benefit firms, banks and more.
For some reason, a plurality of executives think way too highly of their company’s sales capabilities and believe they will figure it out themselves. Egos and hurt feelings take priority over sales best practices, the right people in the right seats, sales competencies, and sales processes.
While Kurlan & Associates has successfully helped thousands of companies optimize their sales functions, performance and maximize revenue generation, there have been a number of companies which, instead of getting our help, or the help of another sales consultancy, decided to do nothing. In most cases it was because they either didn’t want to upset anyone, thought they could do it themselves, or thought their mediocre growth didn’t need improvement. In other cases the fear of change was simply too paralyzing for the decision makers and they “couldn’t commit” to making the necessary changes. My accountant, lawyer and banker would never in a million years allow me get away with using those reasons as excuses not to change.
Isn’t it time to stop all of that dysfunction and treat sales in the same way that companies treat the other professions?
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