The Rich are Getting Richer: Does That Apply to Salespeople?

Last week on LinkedIn, I reposted a link to an oldie but goodie – an article from 2017 where I showed that top salespeople were 2800% better at changing the conversation than the weakest salespeople.  In the comments, Ted Gulas asked if, since 2017, the percentage of salespeople who need to be liked has changed.  I did some research and responded with:

“In 2017, 79% of the top salespeople did not need to be liked compared with 84% from the 2025 data. The best salespeople have become stronger! In 2017, 8% of the weakest salespeople did not need to be liked compared with 5% in the 2025 data. The weakest salespeople have become weaker! Did you know that Benjamin Tagoe, John Pattison? It’s just like finance. The rich become richer and the poor become poorer.”

That got me thinking, is this change unique to this one competency, or have there been similar changes to most of the 21 Sales Core Competencies since 2017?  I did the research and the following table shows – for both 2017 and 2025 – the percentage of salespeople in the top 10% and the bottom 10%$ – who have each competency as a strength.

What did you notice?

First, let’s look at 2017 versus 2025 as a whole.  By my calculations, the percentage of top salespeople that were strong in 2017 has dropped by an average of around 2% in 2025.  And the percentage of salespeople that were weak in 2017 has remained about the same.  So there hasn’t been much of a change overall.

Next, let’s look at the competencies where we can observe the biggest changes from 2017 to 2025.  [The 2017 data is based on the data from approximately 1.75 million salespeople who had taken Objective Management Group’s sales assessment up to that point in time. The 2025 data is based on the 32,000 salespeople who have taken OMG’s sales assessment through the first four months of 2025.]

There was a statistically significant increase in the percentage of salespeople who are strong in the following competencies:

• Outlook – how they feel about themselves, their job, who they work with and for, etc.
• Responsibility – taking responsibility for their results instead of rationalizing or making excuses
• Stays in the Moment – being present in their sales conversations and actively listening to their prospects
• Comfortable Discussing Money – their ability to easily have financial conversations with prospects
• Relationship Builder – their ability to build and maintain strong relationships
• Consultative Seller – their ability to ask good, tough, timely questions to uncover compelling reasons to buy

While it’s terrific to see improvements in the competencies where top salespeople are getting even stronger, there were also statistically significant decreases in the percentage of salespeople who are strong in the following competencies:

• Doesn’t Need to be Liked – salespeople who don’t need to be liked are able to ask tough questions, push back and challenge their prospects
• Supportive Beliefs – the collection of beliefs that either support selling and sales outcomes, or sabotage them
• Supportive Buy Cycle – the way the salesperson makes major purchases supports ideal selling outcomes
• Hunting – willingness and effectiveness at prospecting for new business
• Reaches Decision Makers – ability to either start with the actual decision maker or work their way there.
• Qualifier – the ability to thoroughly qualify their opportunities.
• Closer – the ability to get the deal or account closed at closing time.
• Sales Process – the ability to follow and successfully execute the sales process.
• Sales Technology – the degree to which a salesperson has mastered CRM, LinkedIn and Video Conferencing

The top salespeople got worse in more competencies than those in which they improved.  That said, most of these decreases can be explained.

COVID-19 lockdowns causes a sense of isolation and loneliness in many salespeople – even good ones – that has caused them to seek friendship and approval from prospects.  The challenge of selling during and after COVID, and the difficult economy during the last three years of the Biden presidency, continuing through today has caused continued selling challenges that have negatively affected the beliefs of some top salespeople, especially in industries that were more acutely affected.  COVID caused many people, including top salespeople, to change the way they buy; researching and shopping online, and looking for better prices.  At the same time, salespeople – even the good ones, were sucked in to the false sense of security from email marketing (which doesn’t work) and messages over LinkedIn (which don’t work) and having new appointments booked by BDRs.  In fact, in 2021, I wrote an article about why we should blow up the BDR role. It’s no wonder that the percentage of top salespeople that have Hunting as a strength has decreased.  Decision Makers are more difficult to reach and most salespeople take the path of least resistance so it makes sense that top salespeople have regressed in this competency.  Similarly, with more stakeholders involved in buying and decision making, it’s more difficult to qualify opportunities than it used to be and it makes sense that top salespeople have regressed at qualifying.  If top salespeople have gotten worse at reaching decision makers and qualifying opportunities, then it only stands to reason that they have regressed at closing, and by regressing in those two milestones, of course they have regressed in following and executing the sales process.  I blame the smaller percentage of top salespeople having the Sales Technology competency as a strength on sales management’s lack of governance and accountability.

So are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in sales?  It doesn’t appear so. For the most part, things haven’t changed much.  The real story is that the top 10% of all salespeople are 619% stronger than the bottom 10% of all salespeople.  That’s an enormous gap!

Would the gap improve if we compared the top 10% to the bottom 50% instead?

The gap in the five competencies of Will to Sell (Desire, Commitment, Outlook, Motivation, Responsibility) would be 20% smaller.

The gap in the six Competencies of Sales DNA (Doesn’t Need to be Liked, Stays in the Moment, Supportive Beliefs, Supportive Buy Cycle, Comfortable Talking about Money, Rejection Proof) would be 11% smaller.

The gap in the ten Tactical Selling Competencies would be 4% smaller, meaning that the bottom 50% is just as pitiful at selling as the bottom 10%.

And people say they don’t understand why anywhere from 57% to 82% of all salespeople don’t hit quota.

One of the most useful free tools is this page where you can see some of the OMG data on the 21 Sales Core Competencies.  You can sort by industry, see how your company compares, and more.