Beating the 80/20 rule

Salespeople who spend at least half a day in the field with their managers are up to 10 times more productive than those who do not have the benefit of that much personal coaching.

By Peter Gilbert

31 Jan 2007

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

For most (probably all) sales forces, only 15 - 25 reasons account for 95% of all lost sales opportunities.
15 - 20 specific techniques or skills are sufficient to resolve those challenges.
Typically, well trained (formally) or experienced/motivated salespeople are effective at only 80% of the necessary skills and techniques.
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.)
Salespeople respond poorly to more comprehensive, shotgun, or classroom style retaining that also reviews the 80% they do well.
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% in order to significantly multiply their results.