World-Class Sales Organization.

We hear those words a lot.  Some companies aspire to it.  Others claim to be there already.  You are more likely to hear claims like those from a large enterprise, but you have better odds of actually finding it in a small-to-midsize company.

World-Class Sales Organization.

Some would say it's a description of a company's people.  Others would suggest it has more to do with results.  Many would say it's about the size of the sales force.  And a few would point to sales leadership and discipline.

World-Class Sales Organization.

The top team of sales strategists at my sales leadership consulting and training firm, Kurlan & Associates, set out to define what a world-class sales organization is and we developed this model.

There is an important distinction to be made here.  At a large company, there could be one or more individuals responsible for each category in the model.  In a small business, one person (and sometimes fewer than that) may be responsible for all categories.  And in many companies, some of those categories are placed under the direction of people who aren't qualified  to lead them.  In other companies, there are huge gaps where some (or all) of one or more categories are missing.

Let's discuss the challenges of this model in a smaller company where there may be a half dozen salespeople reporting to one sales manager.  How is one person supposed to handle:

• Sales Leadership 
• Sales Architecture
• Sales Infrastructure
• Sales Talent Management
• Sales Enablement
• Sales Human Capital

When a company is ready to hire someone for its first sales role, they often face a big dilemma:

• Should it be a salesperson?
• Should it be a selling sales manager?
• Should it be a selling Sales VP?

A salesperson could hit the phones and/or the pavement and generate some business fairly quickly, but won't be able to provide the strategic thinking that a VP would.  As a result, there won't be much focus on systems, processes or the best approach to the marketplace.

A sales manager, who could begin as a salesperson, should also be able to generate some revenue and transition back into sales management but this presents problems too.  At some point, the sales manager must stop selling to begin building a sales force and by then, the company cannot afford to lose the revenue being generated.  The sales manager, being more tactical than a strategic Sales VP, will also be challenged when it comes to systems, processes, market approach and strategy.

As we have already discussed, a VP provides the strategy and infrastructure the company will require, but typically comes from a corporate environment and won't have much desire to perform actual sales activity and sell.  Often, the revenue generating must wait until the VP hires salespeople and the early hires are almost always the wrong hires.  Why?  The type of salesperson who succeeded at the VP's prior companies may not succeed at this new company where they are likely to encounter significantly more resistance and may not be able to overcome it.

So who should a company choose as its first sales hire?

In my opinion, it doesn't cost that much more to hire a Sales VP AND a couple of salespeople.  In that way, the company gets its much needed infrastructure and strategy AND there are some salespeople attempting to generate revenue.  The company will likely replace all 3 sooner than expected, but they'll be off and running more effectively and efficiently than most companies ever do.