Beating the 80/20 Rule in sales productivity

An optimal ratio of salespeople to sales managers is four or five to one. Since the ratio tends to be considerably higher at most organisations, there is a gap between actual and optimal performance.

Key Points:

1. For most (probably all) sales forces, only 15-25 reasons account for 95 percent of all lost sales opportunities.

2. Fifteen to 20 specific techniques or skills are sufficient to resolve those challenges.

3. Typically, well trained (formally) or experienced/motivated salespeople are effective at only 80 percent of the necessary skills and techniques.

4. Individual observation by a skilled expert is needed to identify the flaws in the 4-6 ineffective techniques each salesperson has acquired. (If the salespeople could recognise it themselves, they would already be superstars.)

5. Salespeople respond poorly to more comprehensive, shotgun, or classroom style retaining that also reviews the 80 percent they do well.

6. To become excellent, salespeople need an expert coach/mentor to observe, analyse, demonstrate and critique their new practices.

Conclusion: Star salespeople need to secure a coach/mentor to help them refine the last 20 percent in order to significantly multiply their results.

Salesperson compensation as a percent of total sales dollars produced	Salesperson to Sales Manager Ratio
0.25%	4.5 - 1
2.7%	7.6 - 1
5.7%	20 - 1

Source: Worldclass Sales Benchmark Research