Trends in Sales: Part 2 of 3 Talent Wars and the Law of Averages.

Trends in Sales: Part 2 of 3 Talent Wars and the Law of Averages.

Last week, I discussed the trend to digital buying, and declared Marketing was king for the buyer’s journey. It makes sense, they show the customer where to start and guide them along.

Your prospects have access to a lot of content, and by the time they engage a sales rep, they are nearly ¾ of the way to the decision.

However, this does NOT diminish the role of the rep, rather it augments its importance. As any decent rep will tell you, the customer’s mind is often like concrete, fixed and all messed up. The role of the sales is often to retrace the journey of the customer to put them on the path to see your offering as the most favorable.

According to the Bureau of Labor, each year there are 2M open sales positions, the average compensation with benefits of a sales rep is $70K, and their average contribution time to your business is 18 months. Couple that with Quota’s claim that 85% reps don’t meet quota, and you’ve got a perfect storm for a slightly less than average performing business.

I don’t have to tell you, talent is hard to find, and expensive! And talent doesn’t always preform the way you had hoped. Taking your high performing sales rep and making them coach or lead, is usually the most foolish decision an organization does. Different skills are required to manage people than sell.

Moreover, you lose the production of the reps as they are busy trying to explain how they do it.

Here are 5 alternatives to consider:

1) Build internal capabilities—there is often latent talent with your organization, tap it.

2) Create sales intelligence with the team you have—everyone should understand the importance of selling, meeting customers’ needs.  Sales reps need to be actively working the marketplace.  

3) Establish strong operations or support functions—sales often complain about how difficult it is to sell and fulfill orders. Make it easy for your customers to buy and sellers to sell.

4) Reinforce a positive sales culture—sales reps are often resented because they ‘don’t do anything’ or are ‘entitled’. Selling is hard, lots of rejection, egos and the like to manage, but they work hard. (Rid yourselves of those that won’t.) Remind the organization, everyone exists to support the customer.

5) Use Fit for Role Assessments—Everyone can sell; however, some are more predisposed to be successful at it. Use data and intuition to identify the best talent for the role.  

The Gig marketplace is expected to grow from 59M today to 86M by 2027. It’s here to stay. Fractional Sales Leadership is an effective strategy to address the talent gap for organizations that don’t have the time, talent, or resources to accelerate sales growth. That’s what we do every day.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on if and how you use the Gig workforce. Will be a part of tomorrow’s economy?   

#strategy #team #leadership #sales #data #digital #salesenablement #ceo #management