Why would you settle for 13%?
“Message to Management: Your job is to get the rocks out of the road for your salespeople so they can do what they were hired to do—sell!”
I wrote that 18 years ago, but I don’t think any sales manager listened, because the vast majority of reps are still missing quota. In 2024, nearly 70 percent won’t hit their mark, according to the 2024 B2B Sales Benchmark Report from ebsta and Pavilion. Meanwhile, Salesforce has found that, in recent years, only about 24 percent exceed their annual quotas.
Why are we settling for this huge discrepancy? You wouldn’t want a surgeon with a 30-percent success rate, a mechanic that only puts air in one of your tires, or a service provider whose solution only works a third of the time. Why is it acceptable for most of your team to miss quota?
More importantly, what can sales leaders do to improve these numbers? Coaching can make a huge difference, but as George Bronten reports in his blog:
“Eighty percent of sales managers say they coach their teams. Yet only 48% of salespeople say that they receive coaching, and only 13% find it helpful.”
Only 13%? That’s embarrassing.
I don’t blame salespeople for underperforming. I blame their sales managers for having the wrong priorities, using the wrong success metrics, and not setting salespeople up for success. All of us perform our best when we are held accountable and have the tools to succeed. We respond to being shown, recognized, and rewarded for successful behaviors.
(Image attribution: dotshock)
Sales teams have a chaotic and disconnected view of what coaching is and what it is not. Bronten lays the plan out in his blog post: How Often Should You Coach Your Salespeople?
Modern sales managers have their heads stuck in spreadsheets with priorities changing daily. They’re bogged down with technology. But technology doesn’t win deals; people do. Isn’t it time to focus on what really matters—coaching, guiding, and nurturing your sales team? And of course, providing them with a referral program that fills their pipeline with hot sales leads.
Check out the Integrity Solutions Mental Selling Podcast with Will Milani, CMO to hear us discuss How to Build a Referral Selling Culture.
(Featured image attribution: stockobust626118)
