Yesterday, I spoke to an energetic group of sales leaders attending the EcSELL Institute Sales Coaching Summit in Austin, Texas.  EcSELL is different in that they won't place speakers on their event faculties unless their work can be substantiated by research and science.  As a result, their audience is a sponge for any and all best practices that are time-tested, proven and have confirming empirical data.

I shared just a few of the charts, graphs and tables, which we include in a sales force evaluation when we are answering common, but difficult, business questions such as:

• Are the salespeople, whom you have today, the right people and are they in the right roles to help you reach your stretch goal?  If not, why and what must be done?
• Which of your non-performers and underachievers can be saved (developed into strong B's and A's) and, if so, what will it take, how long will it take and what is the expected improvement?
• Can the existing sales force execute your changing strategies?
• What impact is sales management having on the sales team in the areas of coaching, motivating, recruiting, accountability and developing them for growth?
• Which of your existing salespeople can make the important transition from transactional selling (hunt, present, propose or quote and close) to the more effective, but more difficult, consultative selling (asking many good, tough, timely questions to uncover compelling reasons to buy, and identifying an appropriate solution.)

In this graph, you can see that the three teams, making up this sales force, have some ability to hunt down new opportunities and they are most capable at presenting.  Unfortunately, like most sales forces, they have very little capability in the areas of selling consultatively, qualifying and closing.

I will be working with sales leaders in Boston on May 10th and 11th to help them develop the mastery to overcome problems like this.  Please join us for the premier sales leadership event of the year.  If you are interested in attending, notify me by email and I'll get you a preferred rate!