The top 3 signs that a sales force is using a suboptimal Sales Analysis strategy are:
- Growth rates slower than the competition
- Poor sales rep quota attainment
- High sales rep turnover in given territories
Growth rates slower than the competition
Sale forces must optimize the deployment of their resources to consistently beat the competition. If some reps are sitting on too much opportunity to work, while others are having to look hard for their few sales opportunities, a suboptimal Sales Analysis is working against the success of the sales force. The reps with too much opportunity are leaving easy share for the competition to capture. The reps with too little opportunity are wasted investments for the organization. A balanced approach would maximize the return on sales while ensuring all sales reps have the same opportunity for success and have to work equally hard to capture market share.
Poor sales rep quota attainment
When some sales reps are far exceeding quota while others are struggling to have success, the assigned quotas may not be tied to the market opportunity. Regardless how quotas are set, Sales Analysis can show that the underlying potential of each territory is not sufficient to support the quota. For example a sales rep that has had significant success and may have a higher quota than others may now be in a position where he/she has achieved saturation of penetration. Or if the same quota is assigned to all sales reps, some may have significantly more opportunity within their territory than others.
Consistently high sales rep turnover in given territories
Sales reps will not remain in a role where they cannot be successful. When it is clear that the opportunity within an assigned territory is not sufficient to achieve their objectives and get paid, sales reps will leave. In addition, when sales reps do not achieve their objectives, they will be let go. If this continues to occur in a territory, the cause is likely to be the territory and the Sales Analysis approach to define it.
Before making the mistake of looking to fix the talent, the compensation plans, the sales process or the quantity/quality of leads when growth rates, quota attainment and turnover are issues for the sales force, take a hard look at Sales Analysis. A new Sales Analysis approach may be the critical fix.
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