How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Performance (Part 1)

Sales managers frequently moan “80/20” performance on their sales teams, where approximately 80 percent of sales are produced by 20 percent of salespeople. Of course, the ratio is not always 80/20. Sometimes it is 70/30, 60/40, or even 90/10. However, the situation the ratio describes is always the same: the vast majority of salespeople produce a FRACTION of what top performers on the same sales teams produce. What are the reasons behind these performance disparities? What is it about top sales performers that enables them to achieve superior results? Can ANYONE achieve top performance in sales? 

Certainly there are some sales skills that ANYONE can learn. For example, it’s easy to teach how to ask reflective questions.

(Reflective questions are questions that begin with “Who”, “What”, “When”, “Where”, “Why” and “How”. If you ask reflective questions instead of questions that can be answered with “Yes” or “No”, prospects usually share more information with you. This increases your chances of uncovering “pain points” that can eventually lead to sales.)

You can learn how to ask reflective questions by participating in a simple role play. In this role play, you’ll play the salesperson and I'll play the prospect. Every time you ask me a “Yes/No” question, I'll answer “No”. Getting stonewalled with a bunch of “No’s” will break you of the Yes/No questioning habit pretty quickly!

Other sales skills are tougher. A good example is teaching salespeople how to ask questions and “follow the thread” in the answers. To explain this concept, let’s use another role play. Ask me reflective questions. I'll respond with answers that contain some “pain points”. If you recognize the pain points and drill down into them deeply enough (by asking additional questions), you'll eventually be able to “sell” me.

Do you know what my experience has been with this role play? Some salespeople learn how to “follow the thread” easily. Others struggle, but they eventually catch on. However, some just never get it, no matter how hard they try!

Why can some people learn this critical skill, but others can’t?

I struggled with this question. I used to believe that anyone could succeed at anything if they wanted it badly enough and were willing to work hard enough. However, my experience with the "follow the thread" role play made me start to question that belief. As I continued researching, I eventually uncovered two pieces of information that really opened my eyes.

DISCOVERY #1

In their book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths", they report that great managers and average managers have different expectations of their people. Average managers assume that "each person can learn to be competent in almost anything", while great managers assume that "each person’s talents are enduring and unique".

Most sales books take the “average manager” point of view. In other words, they assume that ANYONE can learn how to sell. Their unspoken promise is that all you have to do is invest enough time and effort to learn the skills they teach, and if you do this, you will eventually succeed in sales.

Unfortunately, there are countless examples of books and training courses not producing the desired improvement in performance. Think about some salespeople you know personally. How many of them are struggling to make their quotas? Why are they struggling?

* Is it the state of the economy? (If other salespeople are making their numbers, blaming the economy won’t earn them much sympathy.)

* Is it because they don’t work hard enough?

* Is it because of their product knowledge?

* Do they need to work on their selling skills?

* Do they need more coaching?

By Charlie Rudd

M.D. Corporate Developments.