Evaluating Sales Success - What is the Standard?

 I was recently preparing to deliver a "surgical strike" report to a new client.  A surgical strike is a summary of the sales evaluation  we do for organizations to help them understand why they are getting their current sales results.  This in turn helps the company and us determine the correct path to take to improve sales management, sales behaviors, sales skills, and eventually, sales results.

As I was getting ready, I had the TV on and, during a commercial break, a politician was touting the success he has had during his tenure in office.  One of the statistics stated was that regarding unemployment. His statement went something like:  "Over the last 4 years, our state unemployment has consistently been lower than the national average."

Impressive, don't you think? Not so fast.

Let's suppose for a second that the national unemployment rate over the last 4 years is the worse it's been since 1982, when it reached a high of 9.6.  So, what this politician is really doing is comparing his numbers to numbers that really stink!

What does this have to do with you, the sales manager, or you, the sales person?  Maybe nothing, but:

• Have you attempted to compare your team's success to other teams that are failing?
• Have you attempted to compare your team's success year over year when the all the previous years were failing years?
• Have you attempted to stack rank your sales people and defend your top sales person as your best - but actually that person is the best of an underperforming sales team?
• As a sales person, have you put on your resume that you are top performer but your team was actually a failing team?
• Do you say, "We are making progress."?
• Do you say, "We are getting there."?
• Do you say, "We are trending in the right direction."?

I could go on, but I think you get my point.

Establish a standard of success that is not based on how others perform or previous performances - unless that previous performance was winning.  It's like a coach addressing an alumni group and announcing that this last season they improved their winning by 100% over the previous year.  If the team only won 2 games the previous year, then 100% improvement represents 4 wins.  If the team plays 12 games or 25 games, that 100% improvement is not as impressive.

Yes, you should track year over year growth.  Yes, you should stack rank your team members to identify who is performing at the top.  Yes, you should look at how your team compares to other teams in your company or in your industry.  All of that information is important in your overall evaluation of your results. But, using that data alone to define success will be very misleading to you, your team, and ultimately, to those that invest in you to build a successful sales team.


Posted by Tony Cole
http://blog.anthonycoletraining.com/