This week’s What Would You do Wednesday, is going to focus on sales management.
Lisa has been your top rep all year. She is going to do about 110% of quota. She’s the hardest worker on the team. Lisa makes more calls, puts in more hours and does more prospecting than anyone else. She’s a monster! It’s because of this effort that Lisa is successful. To her, it is a pure numbers game. Because she get’s more prospects in the door, she closes more business.
As you’ve watched Lisa you realized, although she is makes her numbers, she is highly inefficient. She is just grinding her way to the top spot. You believe if Lisa were more consultative, if she had a better understanding of her prospects business, she would sell more. Although she is your top sales person, she has one of the lowest closing ratio’s.
Lisa understands the companies products and services and is excellent at establishing rapport, however she could be much better at understanding how the products and services fit into her prospects business and the result they create.
Lisa has lost a few deals because she was unable to make the business connection. Even though she lost the deals she had plenty in the pipeline to back them up, so there was little impact to her making quota.
Over time you’ve come to believe Lisa could be far more successful if she would be a bit more efficient in her sales approach and if she were to learn more about the business processes and business challenges her prospects are facing. You’ve coached Lisa. You’ve pointed out where she is inefficient in her approach. In spite of your coaching and conversations Lisa’s behavior has yet to change.
Lisa is still on track to exceed quota. She is still bringing in good deals and she is still the hardest working sales person you have. So should you do anything more?
What would you do?
- Would you continue to coach Lisa?
- Would you accept that her style is her style and as long as she is making quota let her alone?
- Is there even a problem that needs to be addressed?
- Does “how” a sales person sell matter in an organization if they are making their numbers