You need better salespeople...
Ask most sales leaders how to increase sales and you will hear, "Hire more salespeople."
Sometimes the obvious way is not the best nor easiest way.
We recently had an electrician wire our new patio. When he arrived, I proudly showed him the flexible conduit I had buried under the stamped concrete last summer. He politely shook his head and said, "That was a great idea in theory but unfortunately that particular conduit is difficult to work with."
He was correct.
After a couple of minutes of frustrated pushing, the first line was not going to happen. Then the electrician requested a shop vac and a sandwich bag.
He tied a sandwich bag to the end of some string and then sucked the line through in mere seconds. Soon we were pulling the wire through the conduit with little effort.
The obvious strategy of pushing the wire through was not the best strategy. There was a far easier way.
I have come to realize that the obvious strategy is often not the best course of action.
Are you considering additional salespeople to increase your sales revenue? Unless you are rapidly expanding AND fully-optimized, hiring more salespeople is very unlikely to be your best strategy.
"You don't need MORE salespeople. You need the BEST salespeople." [TWEET THIS]
Three critical reasons why you should NOT hire more salespeople.
- Complexity - More salespeople means unnecessary increased complexity.
- Mediocrity - More salespeople means more of the same mediocrity.
- Pareto Principle - 20 percent of your salespeople produce 80 percent of your results.
When you hire more salespeople, you get increased complexity - especially if you hired average or below salespeople.
Unless you are consciously always improving, you likely have mediocrity at the moment. When you hire more salespeople, you get more of what you have already. More of the same caliber of salespeople almost always means more mediocrity.
The Pareto Principle suggests that for many events, roughly 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. The Pareto Principle absolutely applies to sales performance.
To increase sales you must hire the best salespeople possible AND continuously improve.
Hiring the best salespeople possible coupled with continous improvement of sales systems is by far the best strategy. Incremental improvement in your sales hiring and sales systems will help you dominate your competitors and create the most value to your Customers.
As indicated previously, think "Pareto Principle". We find that the best salespeople significantly outperform their peers. In working with Fortune 25 to small companies, it is completely normal to see the top 20 percent of sales performers outsell the average salesperson by 5-10 times or more.
Furthermore, the top 20 percentile profoundly outperform the bottom 20 percentile. We find the top 20 percent of salesperformers typically outsell the bottom 20 percent by 10-20 times or more.
If you are not using a multi-science sales personality and aptitude test with validity backed by brain research, you are missing out on the most powerful way to improve your sales hiring outcomes.
Decide.
It is easy to continue down the current path of the status quo. Perhaps your status quo strategy and mindset have served you well. Perhaps the current pain of maintaining the status quo is not significant. Our forefathers did not make the their sacrifices so that we could live mediocre lives.
Shape your own future and your competitive landscape before others do it for you. Innovation and competition can quickly bring undesired change that a "status quo strategy" will not effectively prepare you for.
