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The authors realized that despite billions of dollars being spent annually on sales training, only the top 20% of sales teams around the world, were closing most of the revenue (80% or more) causing stress on management and owners. This is called the 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 rule has persisted and, until now, has never been solved. How do we get the rest of the sales team closing like the top salespeople?
One of the discoveries they made was that most of the sales training focuses almost exclusively on closing. Of course, closing is important— that’s where the money is made. But there’s a great deal more to a sales process than closing.
A simple, observable fact emerged: If so much money and time was being spent on improving sales, but the 80/20 rule was still a problem and the focus of that money and time was on closing, then closing must not be the problem!
Through years of research, they found the focus on closing in sales training programs was in part causing the problem!
Trying to close as the focus of sales training, along with the overall generational decline in communication skills has created a recipe for sales program failure. It has also made the 80/20 rule an even more solid reality.
This book presents their research and combined 50+ years’ experience resulting in a new approach to selling, sales management and training. They have re-engineered the selling and sales process to solve the 80/20 problem!
From the Publisher
A NEW TECHNOLOGY
Understanding the magnitude of our discovery, we realized that we had to share it with the world. We also knew that the technology would only be valuable if we provided it in such a way that others could understand it and use it to create their own success. What emerged was not only brand new technology, but brand new ways to help others learn the technology and to apply it to make their own sales teams successful.
It’s worthwhile to note that when it came right down to it, all of the companies involved in our research had the same problem. Through the application of that research, we were able to solve it. Every time.
The 80/20 Rule
There’s a rule or law, also known as the Pareto Principle, that states that 80 percent of effects come from 20 percent of the causes. In sales, this rule is modified to state that 80 percent of sales are made by 20 percent of salespeople, which has been observed and written about over the last century.
We encountered this problem again, and again, and again. We were very effective in creating sales teams and increasing revenue and could walk into just about any company and make the sales go up. But, not every company could continue the growth and maintain it.
We knew that if we could improve the top 20 percent of salespeople, we could improve sales in a company. What if someone wasn’t in that top 20 percent? If they were inconsistent, they were just labeled as such. There was no solution. Nobody was asking “Wait a minute. How do you fix them?”
We realized that in order to address this, we needed to find out what was missing. Thus began our research and discovery project.
Our discoveries originally came about when we were doing a project with Microsoft, which was having trouble with its partner network. Both of us were experienced Microsoft Partners. Each Microsoft partner was an independently owned business, so Microsoft didn’t have a direct management channel into partners—yet they needed those partners to sell their products. The 80/20 rule was very apparent in this situation. Even within the Microsoft partner network, 80 percent of the sales were being made by 20 percent of their partners.
When we went in and spoke to the partner companies, we found it there also: 80 percent of the sales were being made by 20 percent of the sales reps.
In researching this further, we were able to isolate a pattern of “20 – 60 – 20.” The top 20 percent were making most of the sales. The middle 60 percent wanted to sell but lacked Confidence, Competence, and Certainty and were inconsistent. The bottom 20 percent did not have the desire or ability to sell, and really should not have had a career in sales.
The most immediate and obvious target was the middle 60 percent of the sales team. We found that if we focused on this group of salespeople, they could change an entire company.
THE IDEAL SITUATIONS
Getting the middle 60 percent to become consistent puts pressure on the top 20 percent to produce more to stay on top. So overall, the company’s sales growth was transformed and maintained. Naturally, the bottom 20 percent were replaced or were just no longer needed.
Over-focus on closing
When we began digging in to resolve these problems, we realized that despite billions of dollars being spent yearly on sales training, the 80/20 rule persisted—going all the way back to the 1940s when it was observed. It had never been resolved.
One of the major discoveries we made was that most sales training focuses almost exclusively on closing. Of course, closing is important as that’s where the money is made. But, there’s a great deal more to a sales process than closing.
You see this all around. Just go into a mall; start walking into stores and meeting salespeople. You’ll find that every conversation begins with a push toward the close. Even “Can I help you?” is an assumption that you need help, rather than a simple welcome to the store.
What emerged was a simple, observable fact: If all of that money and time was being spent on improving sales, but 80/20 was still a problem, and the focus of that money and time was on closing, then closing must not be the problem!
Publisher : Terrenzi (January 1, 2022)
Language : English
Paperback : 248 pages
ISBN-10 : 1736480502
ISBN-13 : 978-1736480502
Item Weight : 12 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.56 x 9 inches
