Are You Paying Sales Superstars Twice?
Howard Stevens, Chairman and CEO of Advantage Thought Leader Chally Group Worldwide, says that sales superstars -– those reps who’ve figured out how to take really good care of customers -– are often “paid” once with access to greater company resources, and again with much greater compensation when they meet goals. The fix? Better sales and customer support processes, learning, and access to internal resources so that even average performers can score more points on the 80/20 playing field.
Everybody has heard of the 80/20 rule. This concept is based on the research of Wilfried Fritz Pareto, an Italian engineer, sociologist, and economist, who discovered that 80% of the land in 19th century Italy was owned by only 20% of the population … and it tended to stay that way over time.
The concept is often applied to sales. It assumes that 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your best salespeople. Based on their anecdotal experience, most sales execs would agree with you. The actual ratio (based on Chally’s analysis of 900+ B2B sales forces across different industries) reveals that 52% of sales come from the top performers. Still an impressive effort and they are compensated handsomely for it.
Most sales execs would love to get more of these superstars … but they don’t exist.
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