Suppose you have two sales people, Jack and Jill. Jack is incredibly polished and professional. He makes fabulous presentations, works like dog, follows up diligently, and is virtually self-managing. Jill, on the other hand, is rough around the edges. She’s unprepared, disorganized, and high maintenance.
Jack is consistently 85-90% of quota.
Jill is consistently 110-125% of quota.
Which is the better rep?
You might prefer Jack, because he’s easy. But Jill is the real winner.
Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by peripheral issues – keep your eye on the ball. What is the ball?
Sales and profits.
Seems simple and obvious, yet time and time again, sales managers miss it. They spend time with reps they like because they like them. They reward sales reps with leads because they are well organized. They transfer accounts to sales reps because they know how to follow orders.
It’s easy and altogether natural to fall into such practices. Unfortunately, it’s a recipe for mediocrity.
In sales, there are no style points (unless style is what’s bringing in the orders). Some of the best sales people I ever had were, to put it diplomatically, organizationally challenged. But as long as they were able to produce, I gave them all the support I could. Result – dramatic sales growth.
Leads are great. Building relationships is great. Enthusiasm, professionalism, and hard work are all great. But none of it matters without – orders.
Do your sales people know for certain that you are order-oriented?
In many organizations, different types of sales reps are required, depending on what type of customer you are targeting. Being one of the “Organized” reps, I was great at selling to business owners, engineers, and executives. I was much less successful selling to contractors because I was considered too “polished.” Because sales managers are often promoted from the “polished” side of the business, they sometimes fail to understand and appreciate the huge value in less organized sales reps that are often the backbone of the sales department.
Arne, that’s why it helps when a sales force has different types of people on the staff. If every rep is cut from the same mold, it’s tough to appeal to every type of customer.