Sales leader pros: I'll be a first time sales leader soon. I need help identifying red flags. thanks!ย
Grow
What are the Red flags ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉof an average/poor AE?
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Hereโs a fun practice exam: rank your current peers by performance. Then rank them by behavior. Try to find a correlation between the two. Whatโs going to surprise you is the inverse relationships and the toxic middle.
I must bow to this. Gotta hold true in every sales nest. What's the first play? Boot the middle, train the bottom, ignore the top? Credit where due. You create this?
I did this as an exercise when challenging a VP.
You invest in the top, ignore the middle, and make short term bets on the bottom. The bottom often shows the largest gap between behavior and performance โ and they will often close the performance gap if you spend time with them. However, you have to be willing to cut the asset if they donโt responds positively in 30-60 days.
The middle is impossible, most of the time, to train into optimal behavior. They are hitting 80%+ of goal and are happy there. They have calculated exactly how much they need to do to get there and will most likely not increase input no matter how much you show them the benefit.
The top third is obviously going to show high ROI for the hours of attention paid on development and coaching. Theyโre worth every penny.
You invest in the top, ignore the middle, and make short term bets on the bottom. The bottom often shows the largest gap between behavior and performance โ and they will often close the performance gap if you spend time with them. However, you have to be willing to cut the asset if they donโt responds positively in 30-60 days.
The middle is impossible, most of the time, to train into optimal behavior. They are hitting 80%+ of goal and are happy there. They have calculated exactly how much they need to do to get there and will most likely not increase input no matter how much you show them the benefit.
The top third is obviously going to show high ROI for the hours of attention paid on development and coaching. Theyโre worth every penny.
Totally subscribe to this. Having managed my share, I really donโt think thereโs much variance from team to team either. The only thing Iโd add is that, depending on toxicity level, there might be some quarantine effort necessary if it leaks. Otherwise, this is copyright worthy.
This is amazing. I have always heard that you leave the middle alone and just let them get the core of the work done with little attention. Can you give me an example of how toxic things can get or why they become that way?
Example would be reps who have โfigured out the gameโ and try to convert new reps into their style. Minimum effort required to hit quota or satisfy their metrics. It can prevent new reps from being a top performer let alone a middling rep. They lack the sales skills required to benefit from auto-pilot, causing them to trend down, leading to frustration.
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The type of leak I was referring to.
Excuse me, gotta take a leak.
Excuse me, gotta take a leak.
Thanks for thoroughly explaining the rationale.
This is really interesting stuff. ๐ฅ as usual PBC
I always learn something from his posts.
This one was straight edumacational gold.
This reminds me of the NFL GM that said he wonโt draft a star player. Not because he goes to the club at night but because he will take five middle players with him.
No wonder so many sales teams fail. Cutting people who are consistently hitting 80% to place bets on the lower percentile thatโs not even within an ass sniff of quota ๐ If you canโt incentivize a sales person for 20% more output youโre either a shitty manager or youโre hiring the wrong people. Even if you hire the wrong people, having a stack of killers and the rest that get to 80% is a good place to be in. You can get very creative with ways to make up that 20% instead of spending all your time trying to train the bottom who canโt even book a meeting
Calling BS on this one. Pay the top, train the middle, manage out and replace the bottom. Don't try to put lipstick on a pig, make stars out of people who are pretty good and need a nudge.
Call it all you want baby. I donโt give a shit.
@poweredbycaffeine from the top rope!
Itโs like you donโt understand what I said so youโre lashing out. I didnโt say cut them. I said donโt invest time in their development. Short term vets means better training programs for your bottom performers, but if they canโt improve with training then PIP and cut them.
ignore doesn't mean cut. It means let them cruise and don't invest too much time as the ROI is not very high
๐๐๐๐๐๐ wow this is great ๐ญ
Not sure if youโre being sarcastic, but itโs a great tool for folks trying to understand rep behavior before becoming a manager. Itโs how I coach managers and directors in my org as a VP.
Not being sarcastic- I could use this!
Got it, I misunderstood. You went from talking about needing to cut your investment to talking about how impossible the middle is. I still think if youโve got a middle hitting 80%, thatโs not a group thatโs generally checked out, and itโs probably the best value for training. Remember in SaaS youโre generally not paying your middle much more in salary so they cost you the same as the bottom. I still say, pair the bottom up with the top and see what sinks or swims and spend your time finding ways to get that middle to a 100%. Also have incentives to keep them at 100% like back to back month accelerators. If the bottom canโt learn working alongside killers then itโs just not a good fit. Sales really isnโt rocket science if you can set appointments and ask clarifying questions then itโs either meant to be or not
Considering average attainment is hovering around 40% these days, and as a sales leader to hit your number, you donโt need nearly all of your team to hit theirs, Iโd take a bunch of 80%-ers all day long.
Ok, thatโs awesomeโฆno one insinuated that they werenโt worth having on your team. My point is that they may not be worth enrichment/development time investment beyond standard training. Take an army of 80% players, idgaf.
Damn I might do this just for fun
What an answer. Absolutely agree with this and was about to write something similar
Incredibly accurate
What do you mean by inverse relationships? That the top has bad behavior and the bottom has good behavior?
Hitting goals does not mean you are exhibiting ideal behaviors, and missing means you may be doing everything right through the funnel, but you lack the execution skills to close. The top typically has both right, but the middle is hitting their goal and exhibiting bad habits and often unfixable attitude issues.
Can you elaborate on "toxic middle"?
See above comments in thread.
I think you wonโt find it difficult to catch bad behavior at all. Youโre a seller yourself. You know where the shortcuts are. I would urge you to look inward when you do. How tolerant will you be? How will you lead them to productivity. Big difference between a manager and a leader. Manager manages things. Leader leads people. Who you gonna be?
This is only part of it though. We know how personable some people are, and that gets you 80% of the way there.
The problem with all of these statements is ignoring the people you are there to support and build up.
If you are a true leader, you will make it your mission to uplift everyone around you and make them as successful as they can be.
A person who is not a leader will say, F it towards certain people and not invest.
If you are going to call yourself a leader, then be one. Otherwise, you are just a revenue jockey with a title. And that does not take any real skill.
If you are a true leader, you will make it your mission to uplift everyone around you and make them as successful as they can be.
A person who is not a leader will say, F it towards certain people and not invest.
If you are going to call yourself a leader, then be one. Otherwise, you are just a revenue jockey with a title. And that does not take any real skill.
Lack of details. โItโs a great opportunity.โ Thatโs a feeling, what are the details. People who lead with feelings and not facts show themselves quickly.
Read PBC's comments above. I find it quite interesting!
I didnโt do that, just jumped in with an opinion! Checking now.
For a first time leader watch out that youโll give them some space as well. Most first timers are very eager and end up micromanaging.
hide in phone booths instead of do their job...
If you and I were having this conversation @grow face to face, I would ask you โwhat do you think?โ I think if youโre half way intelligent, you can figure that out on your own.
Blame game.
Lack of information. "This is a great opportunity." Sentiment, what to say. People quickly emerge who lead with unrealistic expectations.
Think if they could hit on someone at bar, if not, donโt hire
doesn't prospect (and relies on SDR), don't listen to their own calls or others call to learn and upskill, leans on sales-engineer for technical discovery or demo etc , can't read the room (both when getting interviewed or in a live call), doesn't turn questions around when questioned (esp during interview),. Few of many.
taking the feedback personal is I think the red flag
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