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Over Achieving on the Salesforce - We Have it Wrong

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Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

Believe it or not, our six-year-old son is an over achiever.

He has spelling tests each week and his teacher gives the class bonus words for extra points.  He loves the bonus words and extra points so much that he has duplicated the process on his math tests.

The teacher gives the class 20 math questions each week but (right now they are working on problems like 7 + 4) no bonus questions on the math.  Our son takes it upon himself to add 4 bonus questions (he includes bonus questions like 800 +600) because he feels he can do more.

This begs the question, how do you measure your over achievers?

Does a salesperson over achieve simply because she exceeded her goal?  What if one huge deal, order or account drops in her lap?  Does that make her an over achiever or just lucky?  What if a salesperson misses the goal because a large existing account declares bankruptcy, but brings in much more new business than expected? Does that make him an under achiever?

It's time to identify ways to measure sales performance in a meaningful way, one that places less importance on the gross revenue number, but varying degrees of importance on profit, new business, retention, effort, account growth, fit to the profile, ability to leverage, and client satisfaction.

What can you suggest?

How would you rate these?

(c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan


Posted by Dave Kurlan on Mon, Dec 08, 2008 @ 09:16 PM

COMMENTS

You have hit the nail on the head. 2009 will be a struggle for those salespeople who do not change their perspective and find new ways to message and sell their solutions. Every single variable you listed is important but I think rating them really depends on the business you are in. I am going to discuss these with my clients (of course, will give you credit Dave) because compensation plans for next year can't be just about the gross number. Thank you!

posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 at 7:18 AM by trish bertuzzi


Dave: 
 
You make a great point for looking beyond the pure numbers for evaluating achievement. My strategy has been to create an annual performace plan which includes additional measures including leadership amongst peers, on-going education/training, industry knowledge, internal relationships with other constituencies etc. Achievement of these objectives could be tied to a bonus, and/or used as a performance/career management tool.  
 
 
 
The measures you list above including new accounts, retention/customer satisfaction, activity/effort I have typically tied to a bonus structure within the specific compensation plan.

posted on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 at 8:44 AM by Duncan Law


I couldn't agree more. In a difficult economy not only do we have to have a compensation plan that motivates and drives behavior, but our sales staff must be open to new methodologies for selling. Their ability to be flexible will be key to their success.

posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at 10:04 AM by Silvana Sears


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