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Beating The 80/20 Rule

Written by: Peter Gilbert

Article Overview: The span of control of sales managers has a major bearing on saleperson effectiveness. In B-2-B sales the optimum ratio of sales manager to salesperson is around 4-5 to 1

Beating The 80/20 Rule

Salesperson’s Productivity Increases as Span of Sales Manager’s Decreases

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

• Fifteen to twenty 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 generic, shotgun, or classroom style retaining that tends to review 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 weak 20% of skills in order to significantly enhance 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

* Worldclass Sales Benchmark Research

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Article Tags: 25 reasons, benchmark research, classroom style, coach mentor, critique, gap, half a day, necessary skills, observation, optimal performance, optimal ratio, personal coaching, productivity increases, sales dollars, sales managers, sales opportunities, salespeople, salesperson, shotgun, superstars



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