Most companies deploy a sales “force”. Too often, their combined efforts are not meeting company growth expectations. Most CEOs would like a better growth engine, a larger sales pipeline, and more sales, but they struggle with exactly how to help their sales teams. Busy CEOs combined with people and process related complexities of Sales, often results in companies not being clear on the root cause of their growth engine problems.

A Different Approach to Growth

At Chief Outsiders, we believe a growth engine mechanic’s approach can help. Inspired by the idea that even the best and most powerful automobile engines require work, a company’s growth engine is no different. A company growth engine must be built, needs to be well-maintained and sometimes, requires repair. Common growth engine problems include too few salespeople achieving quota, overall revenue shortfall, unhealthy or declining sales pipeline, high voluntary turnover of salespeople, and more.

But where should a CEO focus? If a CEO is not satisfied with the kind of growth “engine” their salesforce drives, what should a CEO do? 

Understanding Sales Force Physics

No other business function has the term “Force” in its name. A Salesforce should be a genuine force for growth. In physics, Force (F) = mass (m) x acceleration (a). While increasing mass and acceleration can improve sales performance results, the F = ma formula lacks the quality of “direction”. By way of example, a spinning top can increase Force by spinning faster (a). Or, in problematic sales situations, throwing more people, money, and time (m) at sales underperformance symptoms might increase Force. But nobody wants their sales team to simply chase its tail faster and nobody wants to unwisely invest time and money on symptoms!

The Sales Velocity Model

Clearly understanding the root cause of sales underperformance is critical! A great way to start is with the Sales Velocity Model. The Sales Velocity Model helps to increase the Force and impact of a company’s sales process and resources. At its core, the Sales Velocity Model analyses a salesperson’s source of sale, sales opportunity conversion rates, and the average dollar value of a sale. In other words, it considers both the quality of a Rep’s sales skills and the quantity of a Rep’s sales activity. The model then produces the required daily sales activity and skill level each salesperson requires to achieve their quota.

Importantly, the Model allows the sales manager and Rep to “what if” the Rep improves their conversion skills, increases their average value of sale, or increases their volume of activity. Armed with this “what if” capability, every sales Rep can model a focused Plan to improve their sales results. The Model not only helps underperforming Reps, it helps top performers visualize and quantify what they can do to accelerate and overachieve. Too often, when sales teams are underperforming as a group, top performers are expected to just keep performing. Instead, top performers can and should do more when clear, data-driven opportunity is uncovered.

Practical Application

In the example below, an underperforming sales Rep and their sales coach can “what if” change needed to improve quota attainment performance. The Rep’s current monthly average sale value is too low, and they are overly dependent on customer referrals that are not within the Reps control and likely unsustainable. Coaching for this particular Rep could be to target larger customers and to cross-sell more products into each proposal. In addition, more cold calling is required to increase those leads and that source of sale. From an activity perspective, the sales Rep needs to generate 3 more proposals per month, without a decrease in their closing ratio. While just an example, the Sales Velocity Model is a flexible, “what if” customized sales success plan for individual sales Reps. It qualifies skills and encourages improvement in those skills. And it quantifies specific activity that sales managers can use to coach and manage to success.

Conclusion

The "Sales Velocity Model" is a tool that calculates at the individual sales Rep level, the skill and activity levers within a Reps’ control to improve their sales performance. Rather than simply pushing for more team headcount or activity, sales leadership can coach and manage with a data-driven, analytical approach, using the Sales Velocity Model to diagnose and fix individual sales performance issues. By understanding the root causes of under-performance and opportunities for over-performance, companies can use the science of “force” to help their sales teams generate predictable and sustainable growth. 

Key Offerings and Deliverables:

• Leadership vs. Management Best Practices: Helping organizations differentiate between leadership and management roles.
• Goal Conquest Action Plan: A detailed plan based on the findings of the Sales Velocity Model, designed to guide sales efforts toward specific goals.
• Customized Sales Velocity Model: A framework adapted to the unique context of each company.