- January 4, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
As I continue my journey through the Bible, I’m still reading Numbers and in chapter 12, verse 26, God tells Moses that there will be dead bodies among those who turn away from God.
At this point in the Bible, God is telling Moses about the land where the Israelites should move and continue their lives. Moses explained that most of his people don’t want to move and are fearful of being slaughtered by the current occupants of the land. God makes it clear to Moses that there will be consequences to anyone who turns against him.
And there it is, in black and white, in the Bible, from 5,000 years ago: Accountability.
Coincidentally, accountability is one of the competencies at which most sales leaders are lacking. How many sales leaders hold their salespeople accountable for any of these 25 required achievements (requirements vary by role) in addition to quota/revenue targets:
- Call Attempts
- Conversations
- Emails/LinkedIn Messages
- Meetings Booked
- New Opportunities
- Pipeline Value
- Pipeline Quantity
- Win Rate
- Average Sale
- Referrals/Introductions Obtained
- New Accounts
- Account Growth
- Increase in Territory/Vertical/Target Customer Revenue
- New Customers
- Sales Cycle Length
- Follow Ups
- CRM Compliance
- Meeting Agendas
- Sales Process Milestone Achievement
- Sales Improvement (via training, coaching, mentoring, videos, books, blogs, podcasts, etc.)
- Strategic Account Plans
- Account Retention
- Average Gross Profit
- Average Account Value
- Lifetime Account Value
There are more but you get the gist of it. You can even score relevant items and integrate them as a component of compensation. But that’s a conversation for a different article.
Getting this right has three parts.
The first part is to identify the applicable things you can measure and set appropriate targets for each applicable item while making sure that each salesperson understands the requirements. The second part is holding salespeople accountable to those targets. The third part is having and following through on consequences for failure to meet the required targets.
Many sales leaders fail to set targets for much more than revenue/quota and perhaps 2-3 others from my list. Nearly all sales leaders fail to have and/or explain the consequences to their salespeople so they are aware of what will happen if they fail to meet the required targets for items 1-25 as well as quota/revenue. Without targets, accountability, and consequences, most sales leaders will struggle to grow revenue, meet profit requirements and forecasts.
Having a job in sales should not be the equivalent to membership in a country club, where you are welcome until you resign. On the contrary. It’s a privilege, and with it comes a requirement for sales excellence, not sales mediocrity.
So far, the common theme from my biblical analogies has been, If God could do it and find it both ethical and moral, then certainly sales leaders can fearlessly execute the least comfortable, but most important functions of their roles. The prior installments of the Biblical Sales Force series are:
Sales Leaders, you can do this and if you need some help, guidance, training, coaching or mentoring, you know where to turn. We are always ready to help you.
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