Your average percent over target is 50%. You are 10% above the next best average. You seem to be ‘closing’ everything and everyone. You’re on fire. You’re magnificent!

Are you REALLY though?

I used to work within a small sales team, pro actively selling software to prospective clients, worldwide. I worked there for 3 years and I had perfected the art of either coercing our clients into purchasing or simply verbally bullying them into purchasing. I even started to train other colleagues in the fantastic art of sales I had perfected over the last 36 months, providing tips/tricks on closing and obtaining that sought after signature. I had arrived and I was brilliant.

Unfortunately my colleague won the award for ‘Best Sales Person’ that year. His award was based on the comparison metric noted above.

Each and every day your sales managers are stuck in the statistical trenches searching through mangled data, just looking for that one pulse that will prove they were correct. Unfortunately they use this approach when attempting to stamp a skill level on the sales people too.

In order to obtain a fair reading of skill from a sales person, you need to obtain the correct statics and introduce the human factor. By listening to the sales calls in question you can easily generate a more detailed reading of the sales person’s ability.

Never rely on metrics alone when judging your sales team as you’ll dramatically increase the chances of rewarding the wrong person.

- Sales Informant