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December 7, 2017
How to Identify the Top 1% of Sales Talent
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As a CEO, being able to hit your quarterly revenue projections predictably is paramount to your success. Knowing that you will make your number quarter-after-quarter, and year-after-year starts with the talent of your team. If you get the talent equation right, your board meetings become much less stressful. However, if you get the talent equation wrong, you are in for some sleepless nights.
In my experience building sales teams, behind your sales leader, the second most important person that can set your company on a trajectory of continued success, is your top-performing sales representative. This valuable addition to your sales team sets the bar for all other salespeople to strive to reach.
So, how do you identify the Top 1% of Sales Talent?
Here are 4 markers that you can use to help identify consistently high achievement standards within your sales team:
Once you have found a top 1%er, and they have consistently outperformed their peers, you should assess them. Talent assessments are a powerful tool you can use to understand what it takes to be successful in sales within your organization. Below you can see an example output of one of these assessments.
As you can see from the above results, this individual got higher marks than both her peers and our SBI sales talent benchmark. With this data in hand, it will make your job of finding additional talent that much easier.
One last tip – talent is something that you need to measure at least yearly. If you are making gains in the area, here is an example of what your progress may look like:
Example: Talent Assessment Progression Chart
To dive deeper into planning your talent strategy and people plan, leverage SBI’s “How to Make Your Number in 2018” or
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