In this economy, sales execution is on everyone’s mind. With fewer
opportunities for new account penetration and new business development, it’s
absolutely imperative that your sales professionals win a higher percentage of
their transactions every single quarter.
While many sales training and productivity firms
flood the market with messages about how to boost performance, choosing which
options to insure success this month, this quarter and this year is more
challenging than ever. Recent research shows that the best sales organizations
are focused on how to leverage the key selling skills of their top performers to
improve everyone else’s performance. One of the most cost-effective approaches
yielding impressive results is sales performance coaching. Coaching is all about
helping your sales professionals read situations better and adjust their selling
style appropriately.
Establishing Peak Performer Benchmark
Though the concept of sales coaching is not new,
recent research indicates that optimal coaching outcomes are achieved when the
sales organization establishes the benchmark for peak performance. Specifically,
what is it about the “A” level sales professionals that makes them so unique?
Understanding these characteristics, called the Success DNA, is essential to
coach and improve the performance of the entire team.
Over the last 3 decades, researchers have refined a
series of scientific conclusions identifying an individual’s core behaviors as a
consistently accurate measurement for understanding peak performance. Continuing
research has shown that behavioral indicators have high correlations to actual
performance results across a variety of employee roles as opposed to selling
styles or methods. Behaviors can be simply described as attitudes and
competencies that really define the Success DNA for your sales professionals.
Like any measurement criteria, establishing the
benchmark for performance is the first step. In team sports it’s usually the
win/loss record. In selling, it needs to be more granular. Regardless of the
variables measured, the same standards need to be used for all sales
professionals within a logical organization. Therefore, selling organizations
can have separate Success DNA measurements for territory sales groups verses
National Accounts sales groups.
By measuring the peak performers and using their
results to establish a benchmark, sales managers can now compare the “B” and “C”
level sales professionals to the benchmark to see the specific root causes
behind inconsistent or poor performance results. Analytics at this level can
help sales managers understand why certain reps have issues at various points in
sales campaigns.
Applying the Peak Performer Benchmark to
Everyone
To see the implications, let’s examine a specific
sample behavior; a sales professional’s need for harmony. A sales rep’s score
relative to the top performers’ benchmark will often reveal how the rep is
likely to act at critical points in a sales cycle when persuasion is required.
For instance, when trying to persuade a prospect at
an important decision point, the sales professional may need to ask questions
that will make his prospect uncomfortable as the answers will surely lead to a
commitment to move ahead with the sale. If the benchmark results show that the
peak performers in your organization have moderate scores on this attribute, but
the sales professional in question scores higher, he or she will likely
underperform in these situations. The propensity to avoid difficulty (reflected
in a high need for harmony) is likely to have a negative impact on this sales
campaign. As a result, the alignment needed to move the buying process forward,
is often missed or glossed over. In cases where the competition understands the
situation and executes more effectively (thus achieving a higher degree of
alignment), your rep will eventually be completing your version of a lost sales
report while his competitor is celebrating the win.
Knowing the Success DNA of your sales organization
allows managers to work one-on-one with each sales rep for personalized
coaching. Research shows that the top sales organizations significantly out
perform their competition when their coaching and training program is driven off
the organization’s Success DNA. Sales managers who have embraced this leadership
strategy witness shorter sales cycles and higher win rates on a consistent
basis.
Applying the Peak Performer Benchmark to the
Hiring Process
When the sales organization’s Success DNA is
applied to the hiring process, equally impressive results are achieved. For
years, hiring new sales professionals has been a time consuming task and
problematic. It’s not a reflection of poor interview skills or lack of effort,
but simply the difficulty in uncovering the cogitative behaviors associated with
each candidate’s Success DNA.
However, managers who understand their
organization’s Success DNA have a clear advantage when it comes to selecting
between new hire candidates. Hiring managers can now clearly see where each
candidate specifically differs from their peak performers. By infusing science
into the process, the inconsistency of a gut decision can be supported with fact
based analytics.
In a typical scenario, you may have identified five
candidates who meet each of your overall requirements. This short list has been
through a complete interview cycle. Each of the candidates appears to be a good
fit and reference checks show no “red flags” or danger signs. While most
managers would be burdened with this decision phase, managers who have their
organization’s Success DNA mapped are clearly in control.
For instance, using the Success DNA, the
candidate’s profile reveals that he is exceptionally unstructured. He comes to
the interviews seemingly nonchalant. He rarely has prepared materials, and his
spontaneous comments – while refreshing, seem somewhat out of context at times.
Follow up calls to his references indicates a strong track record but confirm
your observations of this unstructured approach. Though it is clear that the
candidate’s selling style was effective in his previous organizations, it may be
a liability in yours, due to his unstructured approach.
This added insight can now be factored into the
hiring manager’s decision process for evaluating this candidate against the
strengths and weaknesses of the other candidates. Should this candidate turn out
to be the best, the hiring manager can now proactively coach this new rep to
mirror the structured methods used by the benchmark group. The coaching can
stress a higher respect for the transaction related details and the instruction
can be delivered consistently until the rep has embraced the new process.
Additionally, the manager can ask proactive
questions around the new rep’s prospect list looking for selling situations
where the buyers have a very formal buying process where a structured campaign
is absolutely required. These selling opportunities will be the manager’s focus
during the transitional quarters as this new hire is likely to struggle in
situations where the tendency exists to be more spontaneous if not coached
effectively by the sales manager.
Benefits of Measuring the Success DNA of Your
Organization
Sales organizations that measure their Success DNA
have a clear advantage in this shifting economy and realize significant
performance improvements:
-
Shorter sales cycles and higher win rates.
-
Lower cost of sales and less competitive
pressures.
-
Successful new hires that perform like A
players
-
Lower hiring and training costs
The most successful sales organizations today
leverage the best practices of their top performers to improve the entire sales
team’s performance. The ability to sharpen and focus the selling skills of each
sales professional will be one of the critical factors for determining winners
(peak performers) in this highly competitive and difficult economy.
Spring Lake Technologies offers knowledge-based
analytics and tools to measure Success DNA and most importantly help sales
leaders coach and mentor sales professionals for higher levels of performance.
The company's SmartSeries suite of on-demand sales performance applications is
defining success for sales organizations like RightNow Technologies, Siemens and
Advent around the globe across a wide range of industries.
To try SmartProfiling from SLT to measure your
team’s Success DNA, you can click on the “Try it now” link on our web site or
email me at: szahn@springlaketech.com. This limited offer is free for now but,
the results will last a lifetime.
