Objective Management Group has tested 1.8M salespeople since 1988. Of this, 6% are elite and 11% are strong. The remaining 33% who assess in the top-half represent the majority of most companies’ salespeople. Not surprisingly, half of the salespeople in the bottom lack good development potential, meaning they are not highly motivated to improve.

 Applying this data to a sales force of ten, two are strong, three are in the middle, two plus are weak, and two plus are very weak. Most CEO and Sales Executives agree with this breakdown.

This means the best salespeople (most return) to develop are the five in the middle. 

On the sales side there are four primary obstacles to accomplishing this:

1. Poor Sales DNA
2. Excuse Making
3. Weak Selling Competencies 
4. Low Figure It Out Factor.

For sales managers, the limitations are:

1. Ineffective coaching,
2. Not enough time spent developing salespeople,
3. Ineffective sales process,
4. Lack of holding salespeople accountable
5. Impatience

                 The table below shows where you should focus the development for people on the bottom.

                 This table compares the remaining three salespeople to the strong group.

Improving people’s adherence to a well-designed milestone-based sales process is strongly correlated with positive development outcomes. Weaker salespeople need both skill development and coaching to overcome their DNA gaps while stronger salespeople benefit most from continuing to overcome their DNA challenges.

Additionally, the development effort required to move someone from the bottom to the middle is different from moving someone from the middle to the strong category. Sales managers need to be flexible and patience enough to accomplish this.

While the notion of coaching salespeople differently is not new, using accurate time-tested data to help achieve this makes a huge difference in the results.

Consider the following reasons why starting with science is crucial.

• Managers usually know what their salespeople’s gaps are but not why they exist
• Mastering a new skill is easier when salespeople also fix their DNA challenges
• Good data focuses development in the right areas
• Makes it easier to improve time allocation for development
• There are more high-return conversations
• Talking about the underlying issues can increase trust and value

Sales Managers can more easily coach their salespeople up with data.  If you want to know more about your salespeople click here.