Forget the Sales Gene

Sales leaders struggle to evaluate and recruit talented sales people. But evaluating talent is only the start of the struggle; inadequate productivity measures often contribute to the confusion. Arcane measures cannot judge selling skill nor can they evaluate meaningful effort. These failings leave sales leaders at a complete loss about how to improve sales results.

The factors being unknown, sales people are left to wonder where to focus their attention. Should energy be given to skill development - the words and language of sales or should the effort be placed on motivation, work ethic and new compensation plans; or would restructuring management and reporting serve the cause of increased sales?  The questions are difficult for both sales professionals and sales leaders. What is the right way to lead?  How should I motivate? What can I do to improve selling performance? The state of today's selling technology leaves everyone guessing at the factors that influence sales results.  When the factors that influence results are poorly understood, sales people and sales leaders will make mistakes that erode sales performance.

One of the reasons problems persist is because of a widespread belief that sales is an art and that sales artists are naturally born.  It is true that some people have more natural aptitude than others, but as long as sales is seen as an art, reserved for natural heirs, measurement will continue to be woefully inadequate.  Mistakes, low productivity and management problems flourish in the absence of an effective and duplicable system for sales success, a condition that will persist as long as organizational leaders believe in the natural born sales person.

Because of these mistaken ideas about the nature of sales, it has been difficult if not impossible to manage sales people. In their attempts to manage sales people, leaders have been alternately too lenient and too harsh - never really sure on which side they have erred at any time.  Through my years of experience, I do not believe that successful sales people are natural born artists whose skill is mysterious, indefinable, and immeasurable. For sales teams to be successful, sales leaders need to be accepting of the idea that selling skills can be measured, and that the key to ongoing improvement in sales is a system that will predictably and reliably improve sales performance in real world situations.

This is why I warn sales leaders that they cannot rely on the "sales gene." Gifted and talented sales people still need training. Just as an Olympic Champion continues to train even after winning gold, so too must a successful sales person. Gifted and talented sales people still need training, coaching, practice, and accountability for the performance measures that are predictive of success.

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