80/20 Rule You’ve no doubt heard this expression hundreds of times as it can apply to so many areas of our lives and business. When it comes to, “Sales”, its meaning is poignant and in fact critical for any business to understand. For customers as the saying goes, only 20% provide 80% of your revenue. For Sales or Account Managers, again – only 20% provide 80% of your revenue and or growth. It’s the sales or Account Managers that I wish to speak to in this blog. While, “Jim Pattison”, may have been seen as harsh with his system of firing the bottom performers of his sales staff every month-end, hard to argue the success. In fact, a process of weeding your sales garden on a regular basis will have a dramatic impact on your sales results as an organization. Furthermore, for those for whom “Sales” is not a good fit, you will be doing the right thing for them as well. The fact is that Sales is not for everyone and a lot of folks fall into it rather accidentally. There are a few ways to achieve this weeding process: A) Have a well structured CRM that monitors and shows progress against targets and objectives. The use of this CRM needs to be a mandatory requirement for all Sales or related staff. B) Always have a commission or bonus worked into the compensation package so as to motivate your team appropriately C) Ensure that your team members continue to develop their skills and be supportive of this process. This while being aware of those doing so as opposed to those “floating”. D) Review performance quarterly at a minimum, preferably monthly. As long as your CRM is providing good information – managing a sales team is made much more effective and simplified. The key is to set up standards and systems that allow the individuals to see for themselves where their results and performance are relative to where they need to be. From this perspective, managing becomes much easier as expectations are clearly defined. Of course there are many other factors that go into creating a successful sales program, but if those weeds are allowed to go to seed, than your program will quickly be overrun with mediocrity. We welcome your experiences and questions about managing and building your sales team. So feel free to comment on this as to your experiences or questions. Read More »
80/20 Rule
You’ve no doubt heard this expression hundreds of times as it can apply to so many areas of our lives and business.
When it comes to, “Sales”, its meaning is poignant and in fact critical for any business to understand.
For customers as the saying goes, only 20% provide 80% of your revenue.
For Sales or Account Managers, again – only 20% provide 80% of your revenue and or growth.
It’s the sales or Account Managers that I wish to speak to in this blog. While, “Jim Pattison”, may have been seen as harsh with his system of firing the bottom performers of his sales staff every month-end, hard to argue the success.
In fact, a process of weeding your sales garden on a regular basis will have a dramatic impact on your sales results as an organization. Furthermore, for those for whom “Sales” is not a good fit, you will be doing the right thing for them as well. The fact is that Sales is not for everyone and a lot of folks fall into it rather accidentally.
There are a few ways to achieve this weeding process:
A) Have a well structured CRM that monitors and shows progress against targets and objectives. The use of this CRM needs to be a mandatory requirement for all Sales or related staff.
B) Always have a commission or bonus worked into the compensation package so as to motivate your team appropriately
C) Ensure that your team members continue to develop their skills and be supportive of this process. This while being aware of those doing so as opposed to those “floating”.
D) Review performance quarterly at a minimum, preferably monthly. As long as your CRM is providing good information – managing a sales team is made much more effective and simplified.
The key is to set up standards and systems that allow the individuals to see for themselves where their results and performance are relative to where they need to be. From this perspective, managing becomes much easier as expectations are clearly defined.
Of course there are many other factors that go into creating a successful sales program, but if those weeds are allowed to go to seed, than your program will quickly be overrun with mediocrity.
We welcome your experiences and questions about managing and building your sales team. So feel free to comment on this as to your experiences or questions.
Read More »
Exponential Sales provides business development, sales development and marketing development to deliver result driven sales. Our hands-on approach and process to executive sales management, sales team creation, market intelligence, marketing implementation, strategic planning and business intelligence gathering, keeps our clients business growing.