- October 10, 2007
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Kevin Harris came in yesterday and during his visit I learned that he was once an 8 handicap prior to giving up golf to build his business.
Bob Sinton emailed yesterday and told me that he lowered his handicap from 28 to 16 this year.
Both Kevin and Bob are hard working salespeople who have risen to the tops of their industries. Kevin and Bob are also unusual in that while golfers who catch the bug will do anything to improve their game, most salespeople are not committed to doing whatever it takes to improve their game.
Committed golfers get all kinds of training aids, swing trainers, alignment tools, swing analyzers, custom fitted clubs, instructors and spend hours on the practice range.
Based on my research data of more than 300,000 salespeople, it’s evident that no more than 6% of the sales population is so motivated as to get coached, attend seminars, watch videos, read books and practice every day.
Is it because of the handicap? Competition?
Objective Management Group has a Sales Percentile, the top possible score being a 100. What if all of your salespeople were motivated to raise their Sales Percentile?
You can hold competitions that don’t reward your top salespeople but reward those who improve, for instance, most new appointments, most new accounts, biggest new account, most referrals, highest margin, most improved closing percentage, etc.
