Have you ever heard that 80% of sales revenue in the average company is made by 20% of the sales personnel?
This 80/20 split isn’t always exact. However, every sales force seems to have their group of “seasoned” sales reps (about 20%) consistently bringing in 80% of revenue. All the while management is still funding the rest of the sales force and and their support staff, hoping the other 80% will step up to the plate and hit some home runs of their own.
Imagine being able to get just 25% of the balance of 80% selling as much as the seasoned reps. If this goal was accomplished a company would immediately be well on the way to doubling sales revenues! Want to know how? Read this article.
80/20 rule, sales fact or fiction?
Most sales executives are aware of this rule and some consider it to be a fact of their industry. The truth is that if you believe it to be true and that there is nothing you can do about it, then it certainly will be true for you.
Let us take a look at both sides of this rule in detail. We can start with the 20% making the sales.
Why are they able to sell, when others are not?
Is it because they wear the right suit or tie? Were they just “born to sell” where others are not? Maybe they get better leads? If you really study those who are able to sell, what you find is that they know and apply sales technology. They use good communication skills and really know their business.
Now let us look at the 80% that are not able to sell well and in abundance. They do wear a similar suit and tie, get similar leads, and have close to the same opportunity to sell as anyone else. Research has shown that the biggest difference is they simply do not know or apply sales technology or know and apply it as well as the elite sales reps do and are not well equipped to handle objections and barriers like those elite reps are.
If you are the Sales Manager or Executive over sales, do your homework and really find out what causes your sales people to do well and what causes them to fail. Do not only listen to what they tell you, actually look for yourself and really find out. Compare the success pattern you have now found your elite sales reps have with what the rest of the sales people are doing. You will find that when your sales people fail, it is because they are not following or applying the pattern for success. They do not know and apply sales technology and the handlings for overcoming the barriers to the sale.
Want to double your sales revenues over night? Here’s how:
- MOTIVATE YOUR REPS: Ensure all your sales staff are motivated to achieve a very high level of sales. If you have sales staff that are “comfortable” and don’t have much motivation to sell, there is little hope that they will become one of your top elite sales reps. Working with each one to ensure they get motivated is a key first step.
- SUCCESSFUL ACTIONS:Find out what are the “successful actions” of your elite reps that are bringing in 80% of your revenues. It is certain that your elite reps:
- Know and apply basic sales technology cold.
- Have workable solutions to overcome the objections and barriers from their target public. This would include good sales tools such as whitepapers, technical solutions, testimonials from happy customers and many more.
- Ability to stay focused and spends the time it takes to bring each sale to a full close.
Look for a consistent, successful pattern within those elite sales reps and document this pattern in detail for use with all your sales personnel.
- SHARING THE KNOWLEDGE: Once you have this pattern documented well, get the rest of your team to study and apply it. Present the pattern to the team yourself or better yet, use your top sales people to teach it to the others. Having to teach their successful actions and patterns will heighten their responsibility as well as utilize their success to effectively double your revenues. Be sure to not cut across valuable sales time when doing this though as you don’t want to cut across your existing revenue numbers.
- EXERCISES/DRILLS: Because every sale has different people and circumstances, it is essential to be able to overcome any and all objections, barriers or stops that could possibly come up. The only way to do that is to do exercises/drill, drill, and do more drilling and have your sales staff do drills on a regular basis. Ideally you would:
- List out the top 10-15 objections the public give your sales staff. You can do this quickly by just sitting down with your elite sales reps and have them list them off. Most of them will know them off the top of their heads.
- List out the handlings for each of those 10-15 objections. You can get these from your elite sales reps as well. Ensure you get the most effective handling for each one.
- List out any sales tools that should be used to handle each one of the 10-15 objections.
- Create a checklist that states the objection, the handling and the sales tools to fully overcome each objection. List the biggest objection first along with its handling and necessary sales tools, and then list the next biggest one and so on.
- Have each of your elite sales reps team up (one on one) with the sales reps that are not so elite and actually walk the not yet elite sale rep through the objection, the handling and the sales tools to fully overcome the objections. Then have them actually drill each objection, handling and sales tools until the not yet elite reps are easily able to fully handle each objection with ease and there is no question on this. Don’t let them move on to the next sales objection until the earlier one is fully passed.
- STATISTICS: Manage by statistics. Track the progress of each of your sales people and reward them when they do well. Correct them when they are stuck and continuously drill them as professionals.
In summary; if you are living with anything close to an 80/20 rule in your sales department, I encourage you to apply these simple steps to literally double your sales revenues over night. Start to think differently.
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