The statistics are staggering. In some sectors, fewer than 25% of all salespeople will make quota in 2012. Even best-in-class companies are lucky when fewer than 80% of their salespeople make quota. Are you OK with it when your own salespeople don't make quota? There are a number of possible reasons for this widespread mediocrity and failure and, depending on the company, some or all of them may apply.
Sales Management is a common reason and it transcends, industries, and sizes. Jonathan Farrington, CEO of TopSalesWorld.com, completed a terrific interview with me for TopSalesManagementWorld.com and the resulting 10-minute audio clip does a great job explaining sales management's role in quota-failure.
Salespeople just aren't very good! Objective Management Group's statistics show that 74% of all salespeople suck. Whether it's a result of poor selection, lack of training, ineffective coaching, or lack of practice, the causes vary by company and salesperson. This article by Jason Schwartz provides a great example of one of the many things that salespeople do wrong.
The Quotas themselves are often unrealistic and not based on a salesperson's capabilities but rather on how much a territory or vertical should grow in the next 12 months or what a company needs from each salesperson.
Sales Strategies can play a role in salespeople failing to make quota. Positioning a company as a low cost leader doesn't work when they don't have the best prices every single time. And positioning as a value-added company when their salespeople aren't extremely skilled at selling value via a consultative sale can be a disaster!
For most companies, Sales Models, Methodologies and Processes are outdated and ineffective, causing salespeople to be inefficient and waste tremendous amounts of time with prospects who, in the end, don't buy, and with sales cycles that take much longer than they should.
We can add conditions like complacency, turnover, morale, compensation, product quality, support, reputation, and more to the list but we're out of room and out of time. We can even add a reluctance to invest in outside resources like assessments, training, consulting and coaching.
(c) Copyright 2011 Dave Kurlan