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The 80/20 Selling System™ for building top-performing sales teams
Why is the 80/20 Selling System™ critical to the success of your company's sales effort? It is critical because 80/20 sales team performance is usually caused by a breakdown in one or more of the three components that are the focus of the 80/20 Selling System™. Let's examine these three components in more detail.
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“55% of the people earning their living in sales should be doing something else” and “Another 20% to 25%
have what it takes to sell, |
Wow! These are some sobering statistics! They say straight out, in plain English, that more than half of the people working in sales should be doing something else for a living! How did these people manage to land sales jobs in the first place? Why weren't they "weeded out" during the recruiting process?
Most of these hiring mistakes result from the fact that most hiring decisions are based solely upon SUBJECTIVE information. After all:
- What is a resume? It is a job applicant's subjective description of his or her capabilities and experience, written for the sole purpose of convincing the reader to invite the job applicant to an interview.
- What happens during interviews? Interviewees attempt to answer questions in a manner that makes the best impression. Meanwhile, interviewers form personal opinions about interviewees' qualifications.
According to Lou Adler, author of Hire With Your Head:
"More errors are made during the first 30 minutes of an interview than at any other time. Emotions, biases, perceptions, stereotypes, and first impressions are powerful human forces that profoundly affect individual judgment." |
I'm not suggesting that subjective information is useless. Subjective information is a valid and valuable component of any "people decision". However, if decisions based solely upon subjective information produce an undesirable result 80 percent of the time (remember the 80/20 rule?), doesn't it make sense to consider making a change?
We can help you add quality OBJECTIVE information to your sales hiring decisions with specialized sales assessment tests. Unlike most sales assessment tests, our tests aren't limited to personality and behavioral traits. They also identify:
- How quickly the individual learns (a critical factor in sales training)
- How precisely and effectively the individual communicates, both verbally and in writing
- How talented they are at asking questions and picking out important pieces of information from the answers (crucial for effective opportunity qualification and maximizing account penetration)
- The individual's selling style (Consultative, Relationship, Hard Closer, etc.)
- The individual's relationship preference (Hunter, Farmer, Hybrid)
- How effectively the individual will prospect for new sales opportunities
- And much, much more!
Click the following link if you would like to learn more about how our specialized sales assessment tests can help you identify the Right People for your company's sales organization.
1b. Performance-Based Recruiting
While adding objective information to the sales recruiting process will help you identify top sales performers more accurately and consistently, it is not the entire solution to the problem of sales recruiting failures. You also need to improve the quality of the subjective information that you gather.
If you want to improve the overall quality of your sales job candidate pool, a great place to start is by focusing your recruiting ads, telephone screening calls, and in-person interviews on performance-based measures. For example:
- How you will measure your new salespeople's performance during their first 30, 60 and 90 days?
- What activities will you expect them to perform?
- What results will you expect these activities to produce, and in what time frame?
We can help you implement an effective performance-based recruiting process. This process begins with writing unique recruiting ads that attract the right sales job candidates and convince many poor candidates to de-select themselves. Plus, we will help you create lists of questions that will focus your telephone screening calls and interviews on the specific activities that are most critical for success in YOUR company's SPECIFIC sales job!
For more information on performance-based recruiting, download our FREE performance-based recruiting special report from the MySalesTest.com website.
Component #2: The Right Processes
2a. Developing an effective Sales Compensation Plan
More than 40% of the questions we receive from 80/20 Sales performance website visitors pertain to sales compensation. The #1 question is, "What commission percentage is typical for selling _______________?"
If you are looking for a "magic formula" for sales compensation, we're sorry to have to disappoint you. It simply doesn't exist. We have yet to find a reliable resource that can provide information such as:
"For a sales job in (X) industry in (Y) geography, the total target compensation is (Z). This compensation is made up of (A)% base salary or draw, (B)% commission, (C)% bonuses, and (D) % other incentives."
With that said, there ARE specific questions and concepts that can help you develop an effective sales compensation plan. Click the following link if you would like more information on how to develop an effective sales compensation plan.
2b. TRAINING new salespeople to become productive at finding and qualifying opportunities...QUICKLY!
After you hire a new salesperson, what's the next step? Usually it's training to familiarize the salesperson with your company's products and services. But, how can you get your new salespeople "up to speed" in the shortest possible amount of time, especially if your company has a large portfolio of products and services?
Many managers believe that salespeople need to become experts in order to sell a product or service effectively. To develop this expertise, companies invest large amounts of time and money in exhaustive product and service training. Unfortunately, when salespeople leave these training sessions, they often have no idea how to FIND or QUALIFY opportunities for the product or service they were just "trained" to sell!
This leaves the salespeople frustrated, as they feel the time spent in training was wasted. Management is equally frustrated with their salespeople's inability to gain traction with new products and services and their inability to learn to sell the company's entire portfolio of products and services.
What's the solution to this dilemma? A unique product and service training approach that focuses on teaching salespeople how to FIND and QUALIFY opportunities for specific products and services. Click on the following link if you would like to learn more about our Get Dangerous Quickly™ product and service training.
2c. INSPECTING sales ACTIVITIES, not just results
When salespeople produce results, it makes perfect sense to inspect those results. You can do it by asking questions such as:
- How much revenue is each salesperson producing?
- How profitable is this revenue?
- How does each salesperson's performance rate when compared against quota?
- How does it rate when compared against the performance of other sales team members?
What do you do if you don't like the answers to these "results inspection" questions? What do you do when a salesperson shows some flashes of ability, but their performance is not consistent? How do you determine what the problem(s) might be? For that matter, how do you determine whether a brand new salesperson is performing enough of the RIGHT activities to meet their 30, 60 and 90 day performance goals?
To answer these questions, you need to inspect your salespeople's ACTIVITIES. Activity inspection provides an "early warning system" for many sales performance problems. Plus, when activity is inspected regularly and consistently, it helps create and reinforce your company's sales culture.
Effective sales activity inspection processes are described in detail in Chapters 16 and 17 of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Team Performance. If you would like additional assistance, contact us to schedule a no-obligation telephone appointment. We will be happy to discuss your current situation and suggest strategies for improving the effectiveness of your company's sales activity inspection processes.
2d. Eliminating STALLED opportunities from your company's pipeline
What is the condition of your company's sales opportunity pipeline? How many of the opportunities have been stalled at the same step in the sales cycle for weeks…or months?
Your company bases very important decisions on sales forecasts and the opportunity pipeline. If they are inaccurate, or if opportunities do not close in predictable time frames, it can wreak havoc on vital financial measurements such as revenue, profit, and cash flow. This makes maximizing the accuracy of sales forecasts and opportunity pipelines critical to your company's success!
An effective process for eliminating stalled opportunities from your company's sales opportunity pipeline is described in detail in Chapter 17 of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Team Performance. If you would like additional assistance, contact us to schedule a no-obligation telephone appointment. We will be happy to discuss your current situation and suggest strategies for:
- Separating reality from fiction and fact from opinion when analyzing sales opportunities
- Focusing your time and attention on helping your salespeople advance sales cycles with REAL prospects
- Helping your salespeople determine how much prospecting activity will be required to generate enough real prospects to consistently make their numbers
Component #3: The Right Prospects
3a. Comprehensive Prospecting Plans
Some companies do such a terrific job of demand generation (advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, etc.) that their salespeople never have to prospect. These lucky salespeople have access to more leads than they will ever have time to pursue.
Unfortunately, the reality in most companies is that salespeople must source some or all of their own leads if they are to have any hope of achieving their sales targets. COMPREHENSIVE Prospecting Plans will help your salespeople maximize their return on prospecting time invested.
What is a Prospecting Plan? Basically it is a calendar that lists a salesperson's prospecting activities and the amount of time they intend to invest in each activity. The most effective prospecting plans don't focus on a single activity; instead, they include a MIX of activities. Examples include:
- Cold Calling
- Networking
- Referrals
- Strategic Alliances
- Speaking
- Writing
Which prospecting activities do your salespeople perform? How productive is each activity? Are your salespeople's opportunity pipelines as robust as you would like them to be? Is your company meeting its revenue growth targets?
If you are not satisfied with the results from your salespeople's prospecting activities, contact us to schedule a no-obligation telephone appointment. We can discuss your salespeople's current prospecting activities and suggest strategies for helping them boost performance by building comprehensive prospecting plans that focus on the right prospecting activities for your business!
3b. Turn your company's website into a Sales Lead Generating Machine!
Does your company have a website? How many sales leads does your website generate? What percentage of your website visitors contact your company to request more information?
Websites can be powerful demand generation tools, but only if they are intentionally designed to accomplish three very specific objectives:
- Help visitors RAPIDLY answer two questions: "What does this company do?" and "Is there anything here for ME?"
- Encourage visitors to OPT-IN to receive free information resources: This keeps website visits from being one-shot opportunities. If you offer visitors the opportunity to opt-in to receive free, value-added information, and you provide truly useful information on a regular and consistent basis, you will earn trust and build relationships. This increases the likelihood that your website visitors will buy from you over time.
- Motivate ACTION: If a website page is going to motivate a reader to take action, the focus needs to change from you, your company and your products and services to your visitors and their problems. Plus, web pages that motivate action are not distant and aloof. Instead, reading them feels like a one-on-one conversation between you and the reader. The copy engages the reader's emotions, plus provides enough supporting details to enable the reader to feel comfortable making a decision to buy online or to contact your company for more information.
Most website designers are just that - designers. They probably know how to design attractive, visually appealing websites. But, do they know how to write compelling sales copy? Are they familiar with proven strategies for convincing visitors to contact your organization to request more information about your products and services?
If you would like your company's website to generate more sales leads, contact us to schedule a no-obligation telephone appointment. We will review your current website and suggest strategies for turning it into a sales lead generating machine!
Apply the 80/20 Selling System™ and beat the 80/20 rule in sales team performance!
Would you like to explore how the 80/20 Selling System™ can help you end the frustration of 80/20 sales team performance, once and for all? Give us a call or send us an e-mail. We will be happy to schedule a no-obligation telephone appointment to discuss your company's specific situation.
Give us a call today!
80/20 Sales Performance
10559 East Tierra Buena Lane
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
Toll Free: (866) 531-3917
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