Developing a High Performing Sales Force

Author: Charlie Johnson, Consultant-Leadership Practice

A high performing sales team is the life blood of a successful company.  The development of a high performing sales force is through a process of sales training and development.

This includes coaching during field rides, providing a focus on the company’s product priorities and formal training to help people become competent and committed to perform key sales activities.

Most sales force development is based on the theory that experienced sales people only need product training to be successful. This concept is severely challenged by my sales training experience.

In providing sales force training and developing sales force curricula for the past 13 years, I have experienced a very challenging fact.  During sales training when I ask how many people have had formal sales training the response is only between 20% to 30%.  How significant is this fact?  Managers assume that all sales people have been trained in sales and that that skill is transferrable to their products. Close to 70% of the candidates have never experienced a formal sales training program.

In order to build an outstanding sales force your managers must have the tools and training to make the best choices. Close to 70% of field sales managers have never been formally trained in interviewing strategies, behavioral interviewing skills, or focused on finding “A” players, regardless of the time it takes.  Managers often wait until they need a body to fill a sales territory and choose the best candidate they interview in a short period of time.

A question to consider is, “Are your managers putting in the time, effort and strong processes to find “A” players or are they hiring “B” and “C” candidates based on common industry experience?”  In the 50 companies I have consulted with, 90% don’t train managers how to interview, and without training the manager will generally choose the person who most resembles themselves in background and interests.

To build an outstanding sales organization it is critical to have formal processes and training to assure you are hiring the best sales people available.  Experience alone is not training.  Pet questions and resume reviews are not qualified interviewing skills.  Often the manager doesn’t hear the answer from the candidate, because they are thinking about the next question.

Changes in the provider market is another critical concern today for medical device sales in that it has diminished the strength of physician relationships and has led to the consolidation of hospitals into IDN’s.

Turnover is a company killer.  When you lose an “A” player your potential loss of business can run in the millions, not to mention the time and expense it takes to get a replacement sales person to productivity.

Field Management selection is another area of concern.  Are you promoting your best sales people to be managers?  The jobs are so different that moving from high performing sales to high performing management has no correlation.

Are you training your management team in field development of your sales people or focusing on the manager hitting their quota as a measure of success?  A better measurement of a sales manager is how well and how quickly they develop their people and how many of their sales team are promotable.

Let’s use a modified situational leadership model to identify what training is necessary to develop a high performing sales organization.  In each of these areas we will focus on the key competencies that will help develop a training curriculum for sales people, managers, and training for succession planning and reducing potential turnover.

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