- October 12, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We start the article with a quick baseball lesson/analogy. If that’s not what you feel like reading right off the bat, skip the first paragraph and read from the second paragraph.
I’m still learning about some of the newest baseball stats that have confused me. If you know baseball, then you know the traditional stats like AVG, RBI, HR, and ERA. Over the past couple of decades, Slugging, OPS (on base plus slugging), WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), and WAR (wins above replacement) have become important metrics. Some of the newest stats are FIP, which removes fielding and focuses only on variables that pitchers control; and SIERA which isolates a pitcher’s skill from luck; and a new series of stats about expected results, versus what actually happened, like XBA (expected batting average), which is what we would expect a hitter’s batting average to be based on launch angles, batted ball velocities, etc.
I’m also continuing to learn new and better ways to frame sales and sales leadership. I recently wrote about the Power Alley that I heard from a sales candidate and I was able to reframe it, further develop the concept, and innovate it for improved pipeline forecasting.
This week I heard a couple of interesting comments – one from the CEO of a prospective client, and one from the Sr Sales VP at a client. Let’s dig in!
The CEO said, “One way or another, I’m going to get an order from everyone I talk to; it’s either going to be a purchase order or a restraining order.”
The Sr. Sales VP said, “If they can’t get in the front door, then I want salespeople who will get in through the window and I’ll provide the crowbar.”
Although the VP was talking about getting in, and the CEO was talking about closing, they were both talking about the exact same thing.
These two pros nailed it with their no-BS attitudes, but boil it down, and it’s all about:
- Commitment
- Discipline
- Perseverance
- Rejection-Proof
- Consistency
- Fearless
- Relentless
- Motivated
You might have come up with a few words of your own, and might not agree that all ten of these words should be included in my list, but nit-picking aside, and this is the big question:
How many salespeople do you ever worked with that exhibit the spirit of ANY of these 10 words, never mind all of them?
Think about it!
Most readers don’t know a whole heck of a lot of salespeople who meet the descriptions. Based on data from Objective Management Group’s (OMG) assessments of more than 2.5 million salespeople, the reality is that only 5% of all salespeople are elite, and just another 15% are strong. After that? They are the definition of mediocrity, inconsistency, and under-performance.
But that list of 10 words is equally applicable to salespeople and their need to improve, in the 21 Sales Core Competencies, in their selling skills, in their Sales DNA, in their selling capabilities, the quality of their preparation, account planning, quality of their conversations, execution of sales process and methodology, and adherence to the sales plan.
Again, once we get past that top 20%, we just don’t see the effort, or even the caring. But why not? Here are several possibilities:
- Salespeople don’t care
- They are content to repeat what they learned to do in their first year of selling
- Salespeople aren’t being asked or required to improve
- They don’t feel an internal need to be more competitive
- Salespeople are complacent and don’t believe they need to be more successful
Given that most sales teams see the majority of their business coming from 20% of their salespeople, my stats and observations shouldn’t surprise anyone. We help companies who want the rest of their salespeople to make a much more significant contribution to overall revenue. Can we help you?