You run a sales team...

- You have one or two top performers.

- Four or five in the middle.

- And one or two at the bottom.

Something I have witnessed time and time again throughout my 20+ years in sales is that the top and lowest performers will tend to get the most time & attention from their managers - either to ensure deals move over the line or to help those who are struggling the most.

But those salespeople in the middle are most often left to their own devices.

Perhaps one or two had a bit of a surge after that 3-day sales training program, but they reverted back to type.

Yet this middle part of the sales team is where the most gains lie dormant, ready to be fulfilled.

This is backed up by research outlined in The Jolt Effect, as a result of millions of data points and sales calls.

Those reps in the middle just don't get the time or attention necessary to ensure significant gains.

If new skills aren't formed into habits they are a complete waste of time.

And for that to happen it requires the salesperson to change.

This requires nurturing, coaching, practical application, mistakes, constructive feedback and repetition.

This is how you move a sales team from average or above average to excellent.

And in the long run it means less reliance on one or two reps.

It can be extremely risky when the majority of revenue comes from just a couple of reps.

What if they leave?

Or they drop the ball and have a bad month or quarter?

What happens to that forecast revenue and the bottom line?

Predictability becomes volatility.

One of the most strategic ways of spreading any potential risk is by ensuring there are more names at the top of the leaderboard board month after month.

But what are the specific behaviours and skills and how do you actually embed them to form new habits?

Is it even possible to increase the number of top performers in your team in a sustained way?

During times like these, one thing is for certain - more of the same just won't cut it.

If you want to explore further DM me.

#sales #team #coaching