Fixing the 80/20 Rule on Your Sales Team

The 80/20 sales rule states that 20% of sales representatives make 80% of sales. Also known as the?Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule is very common in business. The number is an approximation, and of course, the ratio does not always have to be 80/20; sometimes, it varies. Nonetheless, the ratio describes the same situation: a majority of sales are produced by a tiny percentage of high performers.

Sales leaders are usually focused on moving this ratio by training, but if done incorrectly, employees can quickly forget most of what they learned. Other sales leaders also try coaching, but typically don’t invest the necessary amount of time and energy to produce results. Some sales leaders try hiring additional sales representatives to attain greater productivity. But once again, if not done effectively, this approach can be expensive and time-consuming, thus eating into profits. So, what do you do as a sales leader to fix the 80/20 rule?

Training

Begin by teaching your sales team how to ask the right questions. These questions start with who, what, where, when, why and how. If your sales team only asks questions that require a “yes” or “no” answer, you will not fix the 80/20 rule. In addition to asking the right questions, you can also teach your sales representatives the art of following an answer thread. When clients feel that they can open up, they will share a lot of information with your reps. This move will help uncover your clients’ pain points. Once the salesperson recognizes these pain points, they can ask more profound questions that will help sell to the client and ultimately boost sales.

Training can be used to help 20% of top performers perform even better. However, this method likely isn’t your best option. You can significantly increase your revenue if you focus on training and improving the average sales representatives rather than only focusing on the top performers. Concentrating all your resources on that 20% will not be productive for the business. Put more effort into improving the 80% and you will notice a big difference.

Hiring

As a sales leader, how can you identify which candidates are talented enough to succeed in your organization? Most organizations over-rely on personal information as they hire, train and manage sales representatives. Once they check a potential hire’s résumé, they are convinced the salesperson has the necessary skills, but often don’t factor in that when people are looking for work, they often only provide information that portrays them in the best light.

Even though interviewers shouldn’t rely solely on personal information, it does not mean that this information cannot be utilized. However, sales leaders should consider that they need to change some things if the subjective information only produces the same results. Since subjective details typically don’t work well, sales leaders should start gathering and using objective information during the hiring and coaching process. This can be done by using specialized sales assessments that help recognize the speed at which a person can learn and their ability to reason.

Salespeople who have verbal reasoning understand how to ask questions and follow a thread in the client’s answers. Sales representatives should have important attributes, including sales drive, assertiveness, emotional stability, positive attitude, good communication skills, energy, independence, fast learning, attention to detail and others. These skills are essential for a salesperson as they help them become better performers if used well.

Hiring better salespeople can be a contributing factor to increasing your sales revenue while reducing the turnover rate. In this case, there won’t be any need for repeatedly replacing workers who are not performing well. You can assess the skills and qualities possessed by your top 20% of the sales representatives and see what they all have in common. This will help you understand why they are top performers compared to the other 80%, and you will get a better idea of the skills to look out for when hiring new sales representatives. In the long run, that move will help reduce the cost of replacing old sales representatives with new ones and training them.

Don’t settle for less — try to break that 20% limit. To do this, you must know how you hire the right representatives and ensure to use tough standards for recruits. You should also take time to determine if the candidates for sales positions possess the skills needed for excelling in the business.

Conclusion

Most organizations suffer from the 80/20 differences in the performance of their sales teams. The differences are usually a result of too much dependence on subjective information instead of focusing on objective information. Therefore, sales leaders should put more effort into the hiring and training processes to ensure that they bring the best sales skills to the company.

When gathering information using sales assessment tests, a sales leader should gather objective information to help them in the decision-making process. This will help get the average performers to become top performers and improve the sales team’s overall performance, thus boosting the company’s revenue.

Wesleyne Greer is?Sales Coach for Sales Managers?| Behavioral-based approach to hitting quota every month | Certified Gap Selling Trainer.

This article originally appeared in the Houston Business Journal