- December 19, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When his boss couldn’t understand why Fred wasn’t performing, we performed a sales force evaluation and among the things we focused in on was Fred.
Fred’s Sales DNA was generally quite good but when it came to his selling skills, there were a few problems that explained everything.
- ALL of his skills were top of the funnel skills – in other words, he could prospect and find opportunities but he did not have any skills to gain traction, move the opportunity forward, and get the opportunity closed.
- He was not suitable for working independently. He needed to be part of a team.
- He was not a self-starter. He needed a daily prod from a sales manager.
So while the original question was “How come?”, the new question is “Is there any hope?”
In Fred’s case, the skills can be developed through the appropriate training, the problem with self-starting can be solved with some pro-active sales management – twice daily accountability calls – and the working independently problem can be solved with joint sales calls.
That’s Fred’s story.
Would you like to hear my story? Recently I was interviewed by Aaron Ross, for his Predictable Revenue Blog. This was a little different from most of the interviews of me because we strayed from sales and covered music and fatherhood too. Click here for the interview.
What’s the story behind your non-performers?