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June 26, 2017
How the VP of Sales Can Close Sales Management Execution Gaps
By: Matt Sharrers
There are three questions that a head of sales should ask about your sales management team:
This lack of execution impacts you, Mr or Mrs VP of Sales in 3 ways:
Execution gaps need to be closed. How do you choose which ones to go after? We find prioritization of one single execution gap (people or a single performance condition) and a relentless effort to drive it will produce greater in year revenue quota impact. It’s difficult to grow revenue faster than your industry’s growth rate and faster than your competitors. Leverage the How to Make Your Number in 2018 to access a revenue growth methodology to hit your number quarter after quarter, and year after year.
How to Decide which Execution Gap to Tackle? (People or Performance Condition)
Below is one symptom for each that you may be facing and the potential gap closing idea to consider.
Execution Gap 1 (People)—Sales Manager Tolerating Below Average Quota Attainment
Solution— Replace the bottom 10% Sales Managers in the next 30-days. Complete a stack rank with your sales managers. And then stop coming up with all the reasons why you can’t. They will thank you. Put them back in a sales territory and let them thrive. Our research continues to show the bottom 10% of sales managers are actually great sales reps; they are miscast. I can see you nodding as you read this but worrying what HR will say. This takes some managerial finesse but I am sure you have reams of evidence and if you take a compassionate tone, the under-performer will end up thanking you. Then, keep the job open for 90 days, have the regional sales manager dig into that team; guarantee you performance will increase and some skeletons will come out of the closet. You get an environmental benefit from this move; the balance of the sales management team recognizes that under-performance is not tolerated. They will begin executing better. Sales people are inherently worried their job is on the line which is what keeps them hungry; stay true to this tenet.
Execution Gap 2 (Performance Condition)—Tolerating Below Average Pipeline
Solution—Implement a disciplined Sales Management cadence. The single reason why low pipeline happens is sales managers are not paying attention to it on a regular basis. Things happen slowly, then suddenly. All of a sudden you realize the only discussions your managers have been having with their reps are late stage opportunities. Starting in July, drive a weekly or bi weekly cadence into your sales management team. A critical component of this is the 1 on 1 between the sales manager and rep. 5 items to cover:
Would you like a hand upgrading your sales manager cadence based on emerging best practices? Visit me in Dallas at The Studio, SBI’s multimillion dollar, one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art executive briefing center. A visit to increases the probability of making your number because the sessions are built on the proven strength and stability of SBI, the industry leader in B2B sales and marketing.
Matt Sharrers is the CEO of SBI, a management consulting firm specialized in sales and marketing that is dedicated to helping you Make Your Number. Forbes recognizes SBI as one of The Best Management Consulting Firms in 2017.
Over the course of nearly a decade at SBI, Matt Sharrers was an instrumental early partner guiding SBI as the Senior Partner. Matt’s functional responsibilities included acting as the head of sales where he led SBI’s double-digit revenue growth, and was responsible for the hiring function to build SBI’s team of revenue generation experts.
Prior joining SBI in 2009, Matt spent eleven years leading sales and marketing team teams as a Vice President of Sales. Matt has “lived in the field.” As a result, he is the foremost expert in the art of separating fact from fiction as it relates to revenue growth best practices. CEOs and Private equity investors turn to Matt’s team at SBI when they need to unlock trapped growth inside of their companies.
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