Sales Leaders - Are you Investing enough time in the "Movable Middle"?

Unfortunately, most leaders are not. And its costing them revenue. Big Time

Start here: Assign your sales people a letter grade (A,B,C,D,F).

Here's the plan of action.

Ds & F's - fire immediately. That sounds harsh but its the truth. Especially if your company is under $20M in annual revenue. Always have a pipeline of new salespeople you can hire to replace your bottom performers. Don't hope that someday they will figure things out.

C's -- this is a little trickier. If your salesperson is a "C", its for one of two reasons:

#1. They are not putting in the necessary effort to be successful. If this is the case, you need to use the "stick" (too many sales leaders rely on the "carrot" when managing their team, there's a time and place for the carrot, we'll get to it, but not here). When it comes to lack of effort - get firm. Give them no more than one quarter to show they can put in the effort necessary to be successful, otherwise they are out.

#2. They lack some basic skill. Here's where you use the corrot to motivate them to get better at one or two specific skills. Maybe its getting better on the phone. Maybe its how to give a better demo. Give them no more than two quarters (or one sales cycle) to a) learn the new skill, b) implement it in their sales activities and c) measure the results.

If C's do not get better - move them out. Do not build a culture where its okay to be mediocre.

A's - thats obvious. Do what you need to do to empower them. Find ways to get them more leads. Make sure the comp plan rewards their efforts. Figure out what you did to recruit them and double down and find more A players.

Alright, the "B's". Strategically, this is your most important group.

This is your "Movable Middle."

They have foundational skills. And they put in the required effort (otherwise they would be Cs)

Your goal should be, through coaching, training, and management, to move them up a "half grade."

In other words, if they are a B-, move them to a B. If they are a B, move them to a B+. If they are a B+ move them to an A-. You get the picture.

Here's how you do it.

#1. Do a complete diagnostic on what deeper level skills they are lacking.

This takes work and effort. And its why most sales leaders ARE NOT investing the necessary time with their B players. But trust me, it will pay off.

Maybe your salesperson struggles getting in front of Economic Buyers. Maybe they accept too many "think it overs" from prospects, and sales stall. Maybe they're great at presenting, but their questioning strategies are weak. It could be a combination. But make sure you diagnose the problems correctly.

#2. Build a training plan around one skill at a time. Don't give them 10 things to work on. Give them one thing. Make sure they got, and then build the next skill. Make it bite sized.

#3. Coach the hell out of them. This is the area in which most sales leaders fall short. Remember a sales leader needs to manage, coach, mentor, and train (yes, on top of recruit, forecast, plan, etc.) Thats a lot to do. With the movable middle, you need to put on your coaching hat. Make AE's practice the skill over and over. Give them lots of feedback. Role play scenarios (ChatGPT is great for this). Keep a close on eye on call recordings.

#4. Find a way to rewards them when they are successful. It could be a personalized SPIFF, a bump in a title, or just recognization.

This playback assumes that you have a good compensation model, you're making good hiring decisions, and you have a sound onboarding program. They don't need to be perfect - they just need to be good. Too often, I see sales leaders prioritize these three components, while completely ignoring their "movable middle."

Thats a mistake.

Here's a simple model to illustrate this:

Lets say you have 20 sales people with a $1M annual quota

• 3 of them are obvious Ds and F's. Replace them
• 6 are Cs. Implement the steps above and monitor. Lets not count them for this excercise
• 4 are A's. They bring in an average of $1.3M a year. Awesome - make sure you empower them to keep it going
• 7 of your AE's are B's. This is where you should be focusing your time.

Breaking it down further:

• 1 is a B+ and brings in $1M
• 4 are Bs and brings in $800k
• 2 are B-'s and bring in $700k.

Add up the A's and B's and you can expect $10.8M in revenue annually.

Remember the goal: Invest and train them to move them up a "half letter grade."

The results:

The B+ is now an A- and does $1.150M

The B's are now B+'s and bring in $1M

The B-'s are now B's and bring in $800k

Now you can expect $12M in revenue annual from the same group. Thats $1.2M in revenue that would have been left on the table.

So Sales Leaders - if you're not spending a significant portion of your time on your Moveable Middle - you are leaving money on the table. Prioritize accordingly.