Understanding the Sales Force

I was forwarded an email that originated with from a colleague’s client that read, “…Many candidates are advised to not take on line sales assessments before at least a phone conversation.”

Hiring salespeople is scalable until you get to a dilution point – very similar to the expansion that took place in baseball. When I was growing up in the 1960’s, there were 16 teams and expansion made it 20. Today, there are 30 teams and despite integrating more African American players, then Latin players and now Asian players, there isn’t enough pitching or depth on most teams. Pitchers with ERA’s above 5.00, who never would have made it to a major league team 40 years ago, make 40-50 appearances a year. And hitters that can’t run, throw or catch, but hit home runs from the cleanup spot as designated hitters, would never have risen beyond the minor leagues back then.

The following email was recently forwarded to me. As you read it, look at the descriptors which the client references in the personality assessments. They’re not sales descriptors, so in essence, we have another example of an assessment which claims to be measuring one thing, but actually is measuring another:

Somehow, I got thrown into the middle of an internet disagreement between Brad Smart, author of Topgrading, and Bob Corlett, a blogger who calls himself The Staffing Adviser.

The latest interview between Jonathan Farrington, CEO of TopSalesWorld, and me is available here.

We discussed why only 17% of all sales managers are effective at coaching and the conversation was very enlightening.

It only takes 15 minutes to listen to the entire Podcast and you won’t be disappointed.

So why aren’t more sales managers effective at coaching salespeople? Here are my top 19 reasons and I left #20 open so that you could add your two-cents worth.

When Objective Management Group (OMG) evaluates a sales force, 1 of the 26 questions we answer for clients is, Can You Shorten Your Sales Cycle?”

Last week I wrote an article, Now That You Have a Sales Process, Never Mind, that was very critical of an article that appeared in Harvard Business Review. The authors were nice enough to clarify their position and, even if you read my original article, it’s worth revisiting because of the additional discussion that took place after it appeared.

I subscribe to several newsletters written by medical doctors who practice natural medicine. They not only provide healthy nutritional advice and natural cures, but also expose the mainstream media, doctors, FDA and pharma for pulling the wool over our eyes and publishing so much misinformation. And the misinformation is killing people!

I’ve seen this happen in youth baseball so many times. Let’s say it’s a ground ball and the third baseman boots it for an error. Of course, the next ball is hit right at the third baseman again and this time he fields it cleanly, but makes an error on the throw. And just as if it were programmed to happen, the third baseman is suddenly a target, balls coming at him and him alone, as he appears helpless and unable to make a clean play to put a merciful end to an inning. You could say he has been busy, but not very successful.

I had two conversations that were in stark contrast to one another.

The first was with an executive who told me that the company must have their salespeople selling more consultatively to better differentiate themselves in the global market, so they began training on SPIN selling – a year ago. I told him that was a good start and wondered if they experienced the same thing as most companies that train on SPIN selling – it is a great questioning strategy but their salespeople simply can’t apply it or execute it.