Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 61. Managing Sales Success: 10 Critical Performance Factors That Drive Revenue and Sales Team Growth—A System for Improving Both Sales Manager and Sales Team Performance

Warren Kurzrock

Porter Henry & Co

You have probably heard the comment: "Sandy is a great salespersonbecause she or he______." Fill in the blank with:

• Knows how to sell value.

• Is fantastic at prospecting.

• Sells strategically at high account levels.

• Has super selling skills.

• And so forth.

The fact is that few salespeople succeed by performing one skill, activity, or behavior well. While the superstars may have a dominant skill or behavior, they usually exceed expectations because they have mastered a variety of the critical sales skills and tactics. Considering that there are a multitude of skills, behaviors, strategies, and actions that make up the "complete salesperson," how does the sales manager know which buttons to push or what actions to take for development purposes? Our research in studying and observing thousands of salespeople on the job has validated that most salespeople have a need/capability to perform about 50 actions (skills, subskills, behaviors, and decisions) on a typical selling day. The bottom line is that the typical sales manager manages 10 people (on average), but also needs to track and monitor their 500 skills and behaviors being used differently on an ongoing basis.

Most sales managers rely on revenue (increase, decline, or flat) to determine who needs help the most, and if they can find ...