The results of the Sandler Research Center survey The Essential Components for Sustaining Overachieving Sales Performance are out. This survey provides some important takeaways for sales leaders by comparing the bottom 20% of sales performers (also known as the underachievers) with the top 20% (also known as the overachievers). Overachievers reported being at or above quota. Interested in the most important differences between these two groups – beyond the obvious fact that the top 20% makes significantly more money? We thought you might be. Here’s a brief summary of the critical takeaways.
Critical Takeaway for Sales Leaders #1: The Early Days Matter
Overachieving sales performers were roughly 1.5x more likely than underachievers to have a manager who was effective and skilled at three specific activities that connect to a positive experience in the early going for the newly hired salesperson: recruiting team members, onboarding those new members of the sales team, and coaching them one-on-one. This finding suggests that investing the development of these skills in sales management has a dramatic positive impact on team income generation.
Critical Takeaway for Sales Leaders #2: Clarifying the Sales Process Matters
Data from the survey reinforce the need for successful sales teams to have and follow a clear sales process. The highest-performing 20% of sales teams were 1.4x more likely to have a sales process in place, and 2.8x more likely to consistently follow that sales process, than the lowest-performing 20%.
Critical Takeaway for Sales Leaders #3: Leadership Training Matters
Two stark differences relating to sales leadership training emerged when the results of the top-performing 20% of salespeople with that of the lowest-performing 20%.
Top-performing sales teams were 1.2x more likely than underperforming teams to be led by managers who had undertaken effective training at some point prior to assuming their management role. They were also 1.4x more likely to be led by managers who were consuming effective ongoing training.
For over 50 years, Sandler Training has been helping salespeople take control of the sales process, helping leaders identify and remove blind spots and bottlenecks, and helping professionals around the world level up their career.
Read more about Sandler Research Center here.
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