FEATURE | GROWING SALES
HOW TO BUILD HIGH GROWTH Kicking off a new series, RICHARD HIGHAM and ALAN TIMOTHY provide data-led insights that will help achieve impressive sales growth
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chieving and sustaining high levels of growth takes effort. It means juggling multiple factors, any one of which can bring everything tumbling down. While it’s fascinating and impressive to see an accomplished juggler at work – it all seems so graceful – it’s easy to forget the hard work and strong grasp of physics that underpins the effortless performance. Here, we introduce five essential elements that together enable sales leaders to make sales-growth performance look and feel graceful. 1. GOALS One of the most striking aspects of recent research into sales performance is how often sales teams are missing their goals. Here are 10 reasons that show how goals can easily be missed because of the way they are set up: l The target has been set from the top down in order to meet corporate strategies and goals. The target is a wish-list that bears little relationship to what has been achieved l The target has been inflated as it goes up and down the line. What may have started out as a valid and validated figure has fudge factors built into it until it becomes unrealistic l This fudge factor is often linked to a low-trust environment where everyone thinks everyone else’s view is at best unrealisable and self-serving l The sales target is built around the compensation plan, rather than the other way round. The targets are designed either to keep motivation high or costs low, with scant regard for the business context 32 WINNING EDGE
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l The sales target is set too late in the financial year.
By the time the targets are in place much of the selling for the period should have already started. The length of the buying cycle and the inevitable time lags make hitting the target in the period much more difficult l The target is based on flawed data. This could be as simple as getting average order values or predicted conversion ratios wrong. The assumptions do not reflect accurate data l Individual targets are set simply by dividing the overall target by the number of sellers. They do not take into account different customer bases, territories etc. Nor do they reflect existing capabilities and individuals’ potential for growth l The sales compensation plan is flawed and contains unintended consequences that do not motivate the sellers to achieve target l The goals have not been compellingly and clearly communicated. Sellers do not believe they will be able to achieve the required result l A culture of fear means that individuals and managers accept sales targets that they don’t believe in, rather than risk appearing uncommitted and preparing to fail. Sometimes, however, the goals set are realistic – but stretching – and the reason they are missed is to do with performance issues. We will explore these reasons in more detail in our next article. 2. RESULTS The second crucial element of sales performance is incorrect analysis and communication of results. If the data available to sales leaders and top ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM
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