Tag Archives for " Sales Managers "

Effective Salespeople: Why Only 23%?

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

I’ve never known a company to accept 60% production efficiency, or 75% data accuracy. In the realm of BIG numbers (think Amazon or UPS), a company can’t afford to accept even 99% as a benchmark for success! Amazon, for example, ships approximately 1.6 million packages per day, which would mean – at 99% accuracy – 16,000 mistakes PER DAY. So, here’s what I want to know: Why do companies routinely accept 1-out-of-4 as the standard for the percentage of effective salespeople?

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The Sad State of Sales Training

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

The vast majority of sales training is incredibly ineffective. Not because much of what is claimed to be “sales” training is actually just “product” training. Not at all. Instead, just looking at actual sales training – that is, training designed to improve selling skills – the evidence is clear. It is enormously ineffective. That’s not only my opinion based on 25 years of observation, it is consistent with extensive research on the effectiveness of salespeople.

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Another Loss, Another Pity Party

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

When salespeople win a sale – when they close a deal – it’s because they are good at what they do. Just ask them! They will tell you how hard they worked; how smooth they were. The will give you every detail of how they set the hook and reeled in the Big One. But if you listen to salespeople talk about a loss, you will hear something else entirely. Instead of talking about their mistakes or missteps, you’ll hear a litany of reasons that explain why they lost the sale.

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The Arrogance of Experience

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

All things being equal, when faced with a “very important” task, most companies will choose a person with successful experience to take it on. Whatever that task looks like – a big project, an important new customer, a critical product launch – most leaders will choose experience to get the job done. No question about it, experience counts. Until it gets arrogant. The arrogance of experience can be quite costly.

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