The last thing a sales manager wants to do is to go through a certification course in ‘Sales Prospecting’. They’ve been there and they’ve done that, or they’d not have been promoted to a sales manager level. After all, that’s up to the sales rep. That’s why they are hired on. In fact, I recently asked a Vice President of Sales in a competitive industry if he’d be open to looking at a ‘Sales Prospecting System’ for his sales managers his remark was “That’s what we hire sales reps for. If they don’t do it, we fire them and find some that will.”

Well, by definition, I guess that’s fair. Because if you take a look at any outside sales representative job description, you’ll see experience criteria listed such as: “Excellent cold calling and lead generation experience,” or “Must be able to identify Target Prospects and maintain an appropriate activity funnel,” or “Must meet or exceed activity standards.”

So why should a sales organization consider establishing a prospecting certification course for their Sales Managers? In order to consider this argument, let’s first take a look at standard criteria within a sales manager job description:

“Responsible for managing Sales activity for new and existing Account Executives”

Now let’s break this job criterion into individual elements and look at it as a professional Investor would look at a ‘Business Case’. Here are some synonyms for the word ‘Responsible’:
• Accountable
• In charge
• To blame
• Liable
• Guilty
• Answerable
• Dependable
• Conscientious

I don’t know about you, but if I understand the King’s language here, I am beginning to feel I have some ‘Skin in the game’ as a sales manager already. Let’s investigate a little further by pulling out the phrase ‘managing sales activity’.

There are (2) different ways to manage. You can choose to ‘Supervise’ or you can elect to ‘Organize’. If 100% of your sales team is 100% effective at professional prospecting; meeting or exceeding the necessary activity standard, ‘supervising’ will do the trick.
You’re dismissed.

But to the extent that they are not is the extent you will need to ‘organize’, put in order a best practice prospecting system to support new sales appointment activity. (Or start over like the sales executive fore-mentioned.)

Now let’s peel back the phrase ‘new and existing account reps’.
In a sales manager dictionary, ‘new’ means ‘New-hires’ and ‘New-hires’ reflects ‘Ramp-to-quota’. Simply put, the quicker a new-hire ramps to Quota the better for both parties; the new-hire and the sales manager. Both get more credit, earn more recognition and receive more commission. And what is the most important facilitator in getting a new-hire sales rep to Quota in the least amount of time?

It’s making sure they secure the necessary amount of new appointments. It’s the fuel in the tank. The quicker they do that, the quicker they will ramp to quota with the proper mentor support of course.
And that brings us back to the leadership choice between choosing to ‘Supervise’ versus electing to ‘Organize’.

Here’s a (1) rep ‘Hard-number’ example.

Average New Hires per Year: 1
Monthly Sales Quota: $7,500
Average Term Agreement: 24 months
Current Average Ramp-to-Quota: 5 months
Improve Average Ramp-to-Quota: 4 months
Average 'Sub-Quota' Revenue per Month during Ramp: $2,800
Annual ROI: $112,800

In this example, reducing the time it takes for (1) new-hire sales rep to achieve Quota by only 1 month returns back to the sales manager $112,800 in additional sales revenue.

The other and sometimes forgotten performance silo within the term ‘New-hire’ is sales employee turnover. Most sales employee turnover occurs with the first 8 months of bring a new sales employee onboard. My studies also tell me that 90% or more of that turnover is directly related to low sales activity; not setting enough new appointments to meet the quota ramp criteria.

Using the same model as above, let’s look at what’s in it for the Sales manager to promote a Prospecting system to reduce new-hire employee turnover.

Number of Sales Reps: 10
12 Month Turnover Rate: 40%
Average Salary: $25,000
Recruiting Costs/Rep: $1,000
Training Costs/Rep: $1,800
Monthly Sales Quota: $7,500
Improve Turnover Rate To: 30%
Revenue Ramp-up Costs: $60,000
Total Annual Cost: $178,533
Revenue Production Loss: $63,000
Saved Reps: 1
Annual Savings: $44,633

Reducing annual turnover for just (1) new-hire sales rep returns back to the sales manager $44,633 in additional sales revenue and recovered costs. Multiply that out by your own sales employee turnover number.

Now back to our sales manager job description criteria of “Responsible for managing sales activity for new and existing Account Executives.” Let’s investigate the term ‘existing account managers’ and what managing sales activities by ‘supervising’ or ‘organizing’ means to our career.

First of all, what percentage of your existing sales team is reaching or exceeding quota each month. Of the percentage that is not, what percentage of them are not achieving quota due to sub-par sales activity? When you uncover that sales performance number and understand the ramifications to revenue result, you will move another notch closer to your ultimate answer of ‘supervise’ or ‘organize’.

Secondarily, what percentage of your sales reps time is spent on securing new business appointments? JDH Group clients spend on average 50% of their weekly ‘hourly rate’ on prospecting. For a sales rep working 45 hours per week, that’s over 22 hours dedicated to front end activity. If you decided to ‘organize’ a prospecting system, become certified in it and help others with it, would that drive that number down? Will that allow your sales team more time to pursue higher-value, solutions-based selling opportunities?

One definition of ‘Best practice’ is the sum of everything everybody in your sales organization knows that gives you a competitive edge in the market place. Putting in place a ‘Prospecting system’ with best practice components and elements, becoming independently certified to it as a manager/leader and mentoring it throughout your sales team will ensure that nobody is left behind.

And enabling your sales team to share knowledge and insight stimulates ‘Targeted’ sales activity that will drive new business and help you reach your desired results more often.



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Business Development Officer? Business Procurement Specialist? Did you know these types of titles for salespeople can ultimately rob your organization?

As a Sales Management Training Consultant, I often notice business cards from salespeople with titles that require some effort to decipher. As I inquire further about their role, eventually it pops out – “I’m in sales”. It makes me wonder, when did “Sales” become a five letter word that can no longer show up on one’s business card? It gets deeper…

Building high performance sales organizations is my specialty. Much of my success is a result of a startling discovery made years ago – there is no proven correlation between Personality and Sales Productivity. This discovery enabled me to lead a team that transformed a $40B business unit into a $60B business unit in 18 months for a Fortune Global 500 company. How? We recognized anyone can succeed in sales despite personality. Sales is simple if you learn how to master sales behavior intelligence and develop your salespeople accordingly. Sales is about behavior and our proven sales system is built on the 25 behaviors that is proven to impact sales productivity – Sales Identity is one of the behaviors we measure.

What is Sales Identity?

Sales Identity measures a salesperson’s pride of the sales profession. If a person views selling as noble, they are considered to have a strong Sales Identity. The opposite is true for those who view a sales position as something to be ashamed of, they are considered to have a weak Sales Identity.

Selling is noble, we all sell everyday whether we realize it or not. However, selling is often perceived negatively because of bad experiences. To some degree, society tends to cast a negative light on people in the sales profession. Due to the strength of society’s misguided views, some sales professionals feel shame and are compelled to hide their sales position and adopt deflected titles such as, “Business Development Officers” or “Procurement Specialists”. Such behavior is proven to be costly, read on...

Some people refuse to accept the notion of selling altogether, even though they are in fact trying to close a deal. A classic example…

Recently I was on a flight to a sales conference in Atlanta and I struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to me. Our idle chit chat led into a careers conversation. He shared with me how he worked for a major home improvement company in charge of the distribution centers in 4 states in the South and Southwest. After explaining my role as a Sales Management Training Consultant and how I help sales teams and salespeople. He immediately responded with “I could never be a salesperson!” We continued our conversation and he explained to me that he was preparing for a major presentation with the Executive Team of the company because he felt he needed an additional $3 Million allocated to his budget for the following year. He went on to demonstrate to me how the organization “would ultimately benefit from the additional spend with a better Return on investment (ROI)…”

As he was explaining this to me, I began to smile and chuckle. Initially, he probably thought I was being rude. Then I asked him “So, you are trying to convince the Executive Team to give you an additional $3 million for your budget, correct?” “Yes.” He replied. I then added “And you can support the benefits of doing so, correct?” “Yes” he replied again. “Are you sure you’re not a salesperson?” He sat back in his chair and smiled, I could see the light bulb turn on. My point dawned on him. I eventually gave him some coaching on how to think more like a salesperson and improve his sales presentation.

Why Measure Sales Identity?

Measuring Sales Identity can ultimately save your organization a substantial amount of money long term. How?
Organizations all over the globe are challenged to hire high performance salespeople, not doing so can be costly in terms of sales results, hiring and training costs. Recent studies show, the average cost of hiring a poor performing salesperson has swelled to over $100,000/year. Think about it, how much are hiring mistakes costing you?

Research shows – salespeople with weak Sales Identity will under perform within 6 months of joining an organization and ultimately “self select” out of the sales profession within 18 - 24 months. In fact, we found people with weak Sales Identity prefer to apply for “sales” positions with deflected titles because they insinuate less sales accountability.

Unless detected, salespeople with weak Sales Identity will struggle and steal valuable resources from your organization via increased turnover, higher training costs and poor sales results. Here are 3 simple steps to protect your organization going forward:

Step 1: Remove the Identity Crisis
A surefire way to jeopardize long term sales productivity is to have your organization struggle through a sales identity crisis. If the role is a sales role – title it as such. Top performing salespeople absolutely love sales and prefer to be called – Sales Representatives. Having deflected titles attracts weaker performers who will struggle to get out of the ranks of mediocrity long term.

Step 2: Monitor Your “Motivational” Costs with Sales Reps
If you find your sales organization spending more time on motivating sales reps within the 6 – 24 month window of being hired, you may have a Sales Identity issue. Depending upon the severity, there may be hope.

Step 3: Know What You’re Hiring, Prior to Making the Offer
Hiring mistakes pertaining to sales positions can be costly! Use an assessment tool that measures the Sales Identity of your candidates prior to hire.



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