Sales Capability Baselining & Benchmarking
First Who, Then What—getting the right people on the bus—was a concept developed by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. Those who build great organisations make sure they have the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats before they decide where they want to drive the bus. They always think first about who; and only then about what. When facing chaos and uncertainty - when you cannot possibly predict what's coming around the corner (sound familiar??), your best "strategy" is to have a busload of people who can adapt to and perform no matter what comes at them next. Great vision, strategy or just about anything in business without great people - is irrelevant.
Few people could argue a case for any other part of the commercial organisation than sales where Collins' maxim could possibly be more relevant or important. But how can you know you've got the right people? Or whether or not you've got any of them in the right seats? Especially the key ones?
Few people could argue a case for any other part of the commercial organisation than sales where Collins' maxim could possibly be more relevant or important. But how can you know you've got the right people? Or whether or not you've got any of them in the right seats? Especially the key ones? Eighty six percent of CSO's and Sales Directors report being either concerned or highly concerned about the talent and ability (or lack thereof) of their sales forces and the overwhelming majority complain they either have the wrong people, or they have the right people doing the wrong jobs (Farmers trying to be Hunters; Hunters trying to be Farmers; people trying to be both).
Underperforming sales people don’t just put their own jobs at risk. CSO's and Directors of Sales continue to "enjoy" the highest and fastest turnover rate of all senior executive and C-suite positions. The average tenure for CSO / VP Sales / Director of Sales globally is now 18 months. In 2015 that figure was 31 months.
SKILLS ASSESSMENT AND TALENT MANAGEMENT CONTINUES TO CAUSE IMMENSE FRUSTRATION
In the most recent Global Sales Risk & Performance Index, conversations with CSO's routinely focused heavily on three seemingly insurmountable challenges:
1. How to reliably and objectively measure an individual's sales skills and capabilities;
2. Qualifying and quantifying their innate psychological, psychometric and behavioural aptitude for a role in sales; and
3. Ideally being able to do 1 and 2 during recruitment and before appointment.
“We know we don’t have the right people in the right slots – but we don’t really know who the ‘right’ people are”.
Chief Revenue Officer
Pharma - US
“We perpetually struggle to reliably predict whether or not new hires (including promotions) will (or can) succeed in sales, management or executive roles”.
CEO
Insurance - Aust
“In spite of repeated training programs over the years and having replaced almost half of our sales team in the last two years, apart from a few individuals our performance doesn’t improve.”
Director of Sales
Manufacturing - UK
In a world where technology is transforming traditional roles and employability skills, the ISP Capability+ toolset helps sales people take control of their own learning and professional development, while simultaneously providing organisations with insights into where to specifically aim their sales training investments to yield maximum value and revenue return.
In a world where technology is transforming traditional roles and employability skills, the ISP Capability+ toolset helps sales people take control of their own learning and professional development, while simultaneously providing organisations with insights into where to specifically aim their sales training investments to yield maximum value and revenue return.
Capability+ algorithms assess and benchmark individual sales people (and managers) against more than 50 correlated indicators of sales ability and performance, including:
Capability+ algorithms assess and benchmark individual sales people (and managers) against more than 50 critically correlated psychological and psychometric indicators of sales ability and performance, including:
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Extraversion
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Flexibility
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Diligence (Goal & Task orientation)
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Resilience
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Adaptability & Versatility
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Innovativeness
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Creativity
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Temperament
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Relationship building
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Achievement Orientation
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Confidence & Optimism
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Emotional Intelligence
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Conscientiousness
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Persuasiveness
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Problem solving
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Numerical reasoning
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Verbal and written communication
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Dependability
In parallel with the behavioural and psychological aspects, Capability+ also places each individual on a knowledge / experience spectrum that ranges from a first day rookie at one end to 30 year Director of Sales or Chief Sales Officer at the other. The system assesses the person's sales knowledge and their ability to apply it to practical selling scenarios and pinpoints where they are on that continuum - and perhaps more importantly, what they need in terms of professional development to advance to higher levels. ISP members are provided with their Capability+ assessments, and pointed towards the most appropriate knowledge, training and other resources specific to their individual experiences and needs. The power of Capability+ therefore isn't simply the ability to objectively benchmark what individual people or teams of people know or can do. It goes much further to enabling sales people and their leaders, to improve by providing access to specific tools and resources to actively enable that improvement.
