How to improve your sales force performance?

A 9 point checklist.

The checklist is based on research projects trying to

identify what causes some sales people to perform

better than others?

The research is based on the following

Sales Force Performance Framework

What causes some sales people to

perform better than others?

The Sales People Characteristics

Sales People Characteristics: Personality

EXTROVERT

OPENESS

CONSCIENCOUSNESS NEUROTIC

AGREABLE

Which personality traits are

significantly different between high and low performers?

Conscientious Sales People are

more likely to become high performers

Let’s get this finished!

Sales People Characteristics: Personality

Extroverted Sales People are more

likely to become high performers.

Sales People Characteristics: Personality

Sales People Characteristics: Motivation

Need to Achieve

Need for POWER

NEED for AFFILIATION

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

EXRINSIC MOTIVATION

What motivational factors significantly

underline the difference between

high and low performers?

Sales People with a high need for achievement are more likely to

become high performers.

Sales People Characteristics: Motivation

Sales People who are

intrinsically motivated to be a sales person are more

likely to become high performers.

Sales People Characteristics: Motivation

Sales People Characteristics: Knowledge

PRODUCT

MARKET

CUSTOMERS COMPETITION

EXRINSIC MOTIVATION

What types of knowledge do high

performers have that is significantly

different from their low performing

colleagues?

Sales People who are very

knowledgeable about their market and their direct competition, are

more likely to become high performers.

Sales People Characteristics: Knowledge

The Sales Activities

On average, high performers work 30% longer than their low performing colleagues.

HIGH PERFORMERS

AVERAGE PERFORMERS

LOW PERFORMERS

38 54 Working hours a week

The Sales Activities

High Performers are more skilled at

identifying, qualifying and developing new business opportunities than their low

performing colleagues.

The Sales Activities

The Sales Management Activities

Sales Management: Activities

DIRECTING

MONITORING

COACHING PERFORMANCE REVIEWING

EVALUATING And

REWARDING

Which sales management

activities are more likely to lead to

better sales performance?

Sales Management: Activities

High Performers have

more frequent and

better performance

review sessions with their

sales managers.

The Sales Force Design

The Sales Force Design: Role Ambiguity

In general, High Performers have

a better understanding of and are more satisfied with,

their roles and functions within the organisation than

their low performing colleagues.

The Sales Force Design: Role Ambiguity

In general, high performing sales

organisations invest more time and effort into defining and

communicating the roles and

responsibilities to their sales

people than those of low performing sales organisations.

The Sales Force Design: Sales Territory

High Performers are generally

more satisfied with the size,

potential and customers

within their territory than

their low performing colleagues.

The Organisation

The Organisation: Sales and Marketing Alignment

Sales and marketing departments in high performing organisations

generally experience less friction and are able to better coordinate

all their activities than, in low

performing organisations.

Sales forces in high performing

organisations are technologically better equipped to manage their

activities and, further to this, they

collect and use more customer information than low performing

organisations.

The Organisation: CRM Technology

The Organisation: Performance Management

The sales force in a high performing

organisation has more formal performance management methods and metrics available to them than

lower performing organisations.

Outcomes: Rewarding

Rewarding

Extrinsic REWARDS

INTRINSIC REWARDS

STRETCH TARGETS

REWARDING RESULTS versus

BEHAVIOUR

REWARDING QUALITY VERSUS

QUANTITY

Which type of rewards are likely to lead sales people to

perform better?

High Performing sales organisations

expect 90% of their

sales force to achieve their

target.

Rewarding: Target Setting

1 10

On or ABOVE TARGET

BELOW TARGET

High Performing sales organisations reward

the quality of the

activities equally to the results

Rewarding: Quality versus Quantity

High Performing sales organisations

reward team based selling and

the exchange of best practices.

Rewarding: Behaviour

This worked for me.

That is a good IDEA!

Outcomes: Satisfaction

Management

REWARD SYSTEM

EVALUATION PROCESS

CUSTOMERS and TERRITORY

ROLEs and RESPONSIBILITIES

What are high performers more

satisfied with than low performers?

Outcomes: Satisfaction

High performing sales people are more satisfied and have better relations

with their

management.

Outcomes: Satisfaction

High performing sales people are more satisfied

with their role and responsibilities.

Outcomes: Satisfaction

High performing sales people are more satisfied

with their rewarding and evaluation

process.

Outcomes: Satisfaction

9 questions to ask yourself

The Conclusions

Checklist: Sales People

1. Personality and Motivation: Do your sales people have right

profile to meet the needs of your client base?

2. Knowledge: Do your sales people have the relevant knowledge about

your markets and your competition?

3. Activities: Are your sales people working at their full potential and,

are they skilled enough at identifying and developing new business opportunities?

Checklist : Management

4. Sales Management: Are you spending enough time monitoring

and discussing performance with your sales people?

5. Roles and Responsibilities: Are all the sales roles clearly defined

and further to this, have you clearly communicated specific roles and responsibilities to all your sales people?

6. Sales Territories: Have you reviewed the potential and workload of

each of your sales people’s territory (or customer portfolio)?

Checklist : Organisation

7. Sales and Marketing: Are all the activities of your sales and

marketing department sufficiently aligned and coordinated?

8. CRM Technology: Do your sales people have the right technology

and customer information available to them to perform to their full capability?

9. Performance Management: Does your organisation have formal

performance management processes and metrics in place to support your sales people?

The Sales Performance Model

Are you interested in learning more about the model, the research behind it and the tools available to assess your sales

force performance?

Visit my blog at: regislemmens.blogspot.com

Or contact me at: regis.lemmens@salescubes.com

graphics are designed by the JAM