Upload
tachyons
View
725
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Citation preview
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent
strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
online sales talent assessment
... hire the right person for the right role...
salesassessment
.com
It explains that, if the three pillars for growth – structure,
process and talent – work together as part of a holistic model,
this combination delivers dramatically improved performance,
ie when the right people in the right roles supported by the
right processes are effectively aligned to the relevant market
segments.
It discusses how sales talent has always been the weak link
in this model and the consequent difficulty in identifying
true sales High-Performers, benchmarked globally and
independently of industry sector: High-Performers having
been identified as delivering 67% more revenue than average
performers by McKinsey and Co, with our own data indicating
that even greater performance improvements are possible.
The paper stresses the importance of routine deployment
of accurate, predictive assessments tools and their role in
identifying sales High-Performers. It sets out the so-called
‘High Five’ factors which enable an organization to assess
individuals and identify High-Performers, as well as those who
have the potential to become top sales talent.
It also sets out a clear, forward-looking sales talent
management model – the Sales Talent Performance Matrix –
which enables organizations to identify, hire, develop and retain
the right talent for their sales organization today while also
continually adapting to the evolving market.
The paper explains how this new model offers a clearly defined
route to transforming an organization’s go-to-market strategy,
and opens the way for impressive performance improvements
that drive increased revenue, a leaner and more profitable sales
organization, and long-term, sustainable growth.
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy
with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Executive summary
This paper focuses on an entirely new model for optimizing the sales organization through sales talent management, by aligning talent with process and with the needs and expectations of the market.
salesassessment
.com
2 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Introduction
online sales talent assessment
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy
with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
3 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
In terms of individual and company performance there is no
more significant factor than role-fit – an individual’s suitability
for the specific role they are being asked to perform. Indeed, the
importance of role-fit cannot be overstated nor its ramifications
underestimated for both the individual and the employer. It has
far-reaching consequences across a number of areas including:
hiring, retention and replacement costs; development strategy; the
structure, efficiency and profitability of the sales organization; and,
of course, revenue performance, growth and company profitability.
However, role-fit is not the whole picture in terms of organizational
performance: the right mix of roles within the sales organization is
just as critical in terms of a company’s ability to respond to market
expectations and drive revenue performance along with long-term,
sustainable growth.
Optimizing the sales organization through the right mix of people,
doing the most appropriate jobs, in the right combination for the
marketplace, in order to drive revenue and growth within a particular
market is what we refer to as Right Person, Right Role.
This paper emphasizes the importance of an effective sales talent
management strategy – in which both role-fit and the right role are
equally important – and how it combines with a number of other
factors to create a holistic model capable of delivering sustained
performance and success.
The three pillars for growth
Maximum revenue over the longer term can only be delivered
when the three key pillars for growth combine to form a
coherent and cohesive strategy for engaging the market.
These three pillars are:
• process – the sales process needs to be appropriate and
optimized for each market segment, and supportive of the
way sales talent addresses the market and interacts with
customers;
• talent – employers should seek to hire, develop and retain
high-performing sales talent matched to every specific role
within the sales organization; and
• structure – the structure of the sales organization must
be aligned to the needs of customers and the market
to deliver the right mix of talent to address each market
segment effectively at the appropriate level of relationship.
From the mid-1980s onwards, much attention has been
focused on sales process in order to drive performance; and
yet there are still improvements to be made. In this year’s ‘Key
Trends Analysis’ from CSO Insights1, the authors emphasized
the importance of ‘how a company’s level of sales process
adoption can directly impact how they sell – positively or
negatively’.
But, of course, process is not the whole story. Equally, the
structure of the organization – the way it is set up to interact
with different customer market segments is critical. Thus, the
authors also considered the importance of aligning the sales
process to a structural element, the level of relationship that an
organization enjoys with its various customers.
They divided the sales process into four types, from ‘random’,
through ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ up to ‘dynamic’ at its most
salesassessment
.comwhitepaper:
Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
4 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Figure 1: the three pillars for growth.
Strategic growth objectives can best
be realized by optimizing the structure
and role-mix of the sales organization
for maximum market impact, with each
role filled by high-achiever sales talent
and supported by the appropriate sales
process.
Customer segments
relationshipProcess
StructureTalent
sophisticated. At the same time, they identified five levels of
relationship: ‘approved vendor’ at the lowest level, through
‘preferred supplier’, ‘solutions consultant’ and ‘strategic
contributor’, up to ‘trusted partner, at the pinnacle.
By mapping the process onto the relationship level, they found
that where the process aligns well with the level of customer
relationship, this generally improves performance. For instance,
at the top performance level, organizations had a higher
percentage of sales people making quota, a higher level of
company plan attainment, more wins, fewer losses, as well as
reduced turnover of talent.
Nevertheless, alignment of process and relationship can
only go so far. In fact, the authors identified only a 10%
improvement – from 55% to 65% – in the percentage of sales
people making quota, even at the highest performance level,
where type of process was closely aligned with the level of
customer relationship. The missing element, of course, is talent.
Neither processes nor relationships can operate at their best
without the right sales talent in the right role. For instance,
junior call center operatives may well feel out of their depth
being asked to discuss future strategic change with a Fortune
500 board, while a top-level strategic sales person will soon
become frustrated, disillusioned and leave if the company
process fails to support that particular style of selling.
The important point to take away is that an organization’s
sales process needs to be linked to and supportive of the
talent it employs and aligned with the level and style of
relationship it enjoys with its various customer segments:
this drives performance. It is essential to note that this
strategy – which combines process, talent and structure – is, by
definition, holistic. Thus, while there are benefits of addressing
process, talent or structure individually, the biggest gains are
to be made when organizations implement a strategy that
recognizes the interdependence of the three elements.
Such a strategy is also aligned to individual market segments,
such that the organization addresses the concerns and needs
of those individual market segments in the most relevant
way. Furthermore, the strategy is responsive to the needs of
customers in the marketplace and is, therefore, dynamic –
evolution of the market will dictate changes in the structure of
the organization, the talent it employs and the processes which
support that talent.
Identifying and assessing sales
talent – the limiting factorOrganizations have long recognized the importance of
hiring and retaining high-performing individuals within the
organization. Ever since McKinsey & Co’s seminal 1997 work,
we have talked about the so-called ‘War for Talent’2. In 2001,
McKinsey reprised the research and this has helped shape
corporate thinking – if not action – into the current decade:
organizations need to optimize the way they plan to attract,
motivate, and retain employees.
And yet, the message is not being followed through. Some 15
years on from the original research, the authors of another
McKinsey report3 had this to say: ‘Companies like to promote
the idea that employees are their biggest source of competitive
online sales talent assessment
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy
with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
5 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
...maximize sales ROI
advantage. Yet the astonishing reality is that most of them
are as unprepared for the challenge of finding, motivating, and
retaining capable workers as they were a decade ago.’
So what has gone wrong? For the typical organization, the
day-to-day talent management tasks of identifying, hiring,
developing and retaining the right people in order to maximize
performance in each role is a complex, daunting task –
particularly in sales – and, therefore, almost certainly a limiting
factor given the fierce competition for high-performing sales
talent, a finite talent pool, and the typically rapid turnover of
talent within the sales world.
Why might this be? The answer lies in an organization’s ability
to define exactly what good looks like. In sales – traditionally
viewed as part science, part dark-art – our understanding
has been hampered by poor or incomplete assessment
methodologies on the one hand, and cost on the other. Many
assessment tools and methodologies at the cheaper end of
the scale have been found to be limited and unreliable, while
in-depth assessments conducted by the large consultancies
are invariably cumbersome, time-consuming exercises, and
essentially only affordable by those organizations with the
deepest pockets.
Aberdeen Group has recently highlighted the use of
assessments, as organizations seek to improve their talent
management strategies. According to a May 2011 paper4,
‘organizational growth goals requiring better talent’ along with
‘business change demanding new skills’ are the two major
imperatives driving the use of assessments. Companies are
seeking to improve business results through better quality
candidates, deliver leaders to drive innovation and growth, and
improve organizational fit among new hires.
In the paper, author Mollie Lombardi supports the use of
assessments but urges organizations to be selective about
their choice: ‘Assessments are an incredibly valuable tool in
the hiring, development and future planning process in an
organization. These tools can help uncover individuals with the
right skills, behaviors and attitudes to move an organization
forward. The case to use assessments or not has been made.
But uncovering the right types of assessments to be used for
specific decision points, and understanding what to do with the
output of those assessments is the next piece of the puzzle.’
Uncovering the right type of assessment to deploy in the
sales function has indeed been extremely problematic until
now: most approaches lack certain key elements which, if
present, would dramatically improve their functionality and
shelf-life. Aberdeen cites the most prevalent assessment
activity amongst the firms surveyed as building a competency
framework to serve as a basis for assessments. However,
herein lies a problem, in that such projects take time to
complete and may easily become redundant before they are
finished. What’s more, unless competency frameworks are
dynamic and frequently updated to the needs of an evolving
market, they struggle to be forward-looking. Finally, the typical
competency framework tends to be inward-looking or confined
to a specific industry sector rather than globally benchmarked.
How much better then to choose a tool that is built around
a wide range of sales roles with pre-defined but frequently
updated competency frameworks?
An effective assessment tool – one that is accurate and highly
predictive, while also being forward-looking, affordable, globally
salesassessment
.comwhitepaper:
Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
6 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
...maximize sales revenue...
benchmarked and quick to implement – is the key that unlocks
the door to an organization’s understanding of role-fit. It
answers various questions in a consistent and objective way:
• which talent is suitable;
• which talent to hire;
• which needs to be redeployed;
• where you’re headed in terms of development;
• whether there’s room for personal growth;
• which talent you want to retain; and
• what will motivate an individual to perform and feel
comfortable in a role.
Answering these questions goes a long way towards
addressing an organization’s talent management problems.
This is for a number of reasons:
• the right assessment technique which probes an individual’s
skills, behaviors and underlying competencies enables
an organization to recruit from beyond its traditional
talent pool;
• assessing an employee for role-fit to a specific sales
role (rather than a more generic one) means that, once
appointed, that individual is likely to perform better and
remain longer in a position to which they are well-suited
compared with the average;
• a company’s sales organization can typically run leaner with
fewer, high-performing individuals once they are matched
to roles and the roles aligned to customer and market
expectations; and
• it helps identify and position talent with the potential to
develop and grow in step with their employer and evolving
customer requirements.
What then is the right assessment approach for organizations
wishing to identify the most suitable talent for any specific
sales role?
It will inevitably involve a forward-looking tool that can
accurately assess an individual’s fit with a specific sales role
(not just a generalized sales role) and compare them with
the best-in-class – what we term a global High-Performer.
It should look in detail at the underlying competencies
(behavioral, motivational, intellectual and skills-based) that
drive performance in that specific role. Finally, the tool must
accurately highlight any gaps that will limit performance while
also assessing growth potential for the current and
future roles.
online sales talent assessment
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy
with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
7 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
... hire the right person for the right role...
salesassessment
.comwhitepaper:
Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
8 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
The High Five – the five key factors that determine high-performance in a sales role
With that in mind, there are essentially five key factors that
determine an individual’s suitability for and performance in
any specific sales role. Some of these factors are intrinsic
to the individual – ie they are part of the ‘make-up’ of that
person, in contrast to extrinsic factors – such as cash
incentives or recognition awards – which are often applied by
an organization to boost the performance of the individuals it
employs.
These five factors are:
1. Behavior – an individual’s behavioral preference determines
their comfort in performing a specific sales role.
2. Skills – functional skills determine how well an individual
can perform a role.
3. Critical reasoning – an individual’s intelligence and ability
to analyze data, evaluate evidence, question methods and
reach meaningful conclusions.
4. Motivators – motivation drives an individual’s desire to
perform in a role; in turn, desire drives results.
5. Cultural fit – the extent to which an individual identifies
with the style, values and culture of the employing
organization and its customers. Cultural fit – Of these five
factors which determine an individual’s suitability for a
specific sales role, four can be assessed using a variety of
techniques including questionnaires and tests. Elements of
the fifth factor – cultural fit between an individual and the
hiring organization – can be assessed through the use of
‘personality tests’ but this is best done in conjunction with
an effective interview process.
Motivators – Identifying a person’s motivators enables an
organization to motivate them to perform to the best of their
ability. However, motivators are not only pertinent to their
performance level but are also highly specific to the individual:
applying the right sort of motivation can raise performance;
conversely, the wrong sort of motivation tends to be extremely
counter-productive. It is up to the employing organization to
assess which motivators are relevant to any particular individual
and then apply appropriate interventions.
Identifying High-Performers – Measuring a combination of
the remaining three factors – critical reasoning, behavior
and skills – attuned to a specific sales role, allows us to assess
how an individual is likely to perform in that role. How then do
online sales talent assessment
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy
with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
9 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Figure 2: The High Five Of the five, behavior and skills are the
intrinsic factors which are independent of product, organization
and market while being responsive to coaching
and development.
The High Five: the five key factors which determine high-performance in a sales role
Cultural fit
Behavior
Motivators
Criticalreasoning
Skills
these three factors map onto a typical organization’s talent
management program?
Critical reasoning – There’s no doubt that critical reasoning
is fundamental to an individual’s ability to perform successfully
in any number of sales roles in today’s complex business
environment. However, this intrinsic performance factor is
‘not trainable’ in the real world – individuals either have the
necessary critical reasoning ability for a specific role... or they
don’t. Candidates who are assessed not to have the level of
critical reasoning ability required for a specific role are best not
employed for that particular job, as they are unlikely to be a
High-Performer in that role.
The ‘trainable’ intrinsic factors – So, this leaves us with
the two factors over which an employing organization can
exert some influence: behavior and skills. Both are eminently
assessable and both respond to development, albeit in slightly
different ways; certainly both are key to the way a person will
perform in any particular role. By identifying, hiring, developing
and retaining High-Performers, an organization has most
opportunity to maximize the performance of its employees and
its own returns.
About ‘High-Performers’As part of McKinsey’s 2001 research into the influence of talent
on performance, the team conducted a survey of 410 corporate
officers at 35 large US companies. They asked the question:
‘How much more does a High-Performer generate annually than
an average performer?’
The answer varied according to the particular discipline involved,
but was always substantial: operations High-Performers
delivered 40% more, management 49% more, while sales High-
Performers generated an impressive 67% increased revenue
compared with the average. (Our own research amongst clients
indicates that even greater sales performance differentials
between average and High-Performers may be possible.)
Given the massive differential between a High-Performer and
the average, this is where the organization’s performance
improvements are likely to come from.
For the purposes of the exercise, McKinsey defined High-
Performers as being amongst the top 20% of performers in the
organization.
That said, looking at the High-Performers within an
organization is only part of the picture, because such an
exercise is, by definition, introspective: you may be looking at
the best you’ve got but are they the best there is?
An effective assessment tool not only compares sales talent
with their peers in an organization or even across an industry,
but against an objective global benchmark. What is the best
there could be? This is the path to identifying the true High-
Performers.
Essentially, a global High-Performer will be placed around the
80th percentile on a scale which measures the three factors
highlighted previously – critical reasoning, behavior and skills
– at a level optimized for a specific sales role. For instance,
the critical reasoning ability required for a retail role is entirely
different from that needed by someone engaging in high-level
solution selling. What’s more, this methodology means the
assessment becomes entirely independent of geography and
industry sector.
The importance of role
definitionWe have already alluded to the importance of assessments
being role-specific. This is because it is important to
understand the complexity and breadth of this word ‘sales’,
and to recognize that not all sales roles are the same: a High-
Performer in one role is by no means certain to be as successful
in another.
For instance, it has long been acknowledged that top-
performing sales people do not necessarily make the best sales
managers – the roles are quite different. As discussed earlier,
it is hard to envisage a call center operative at the start of
their sales career having the necessary skills, experience and
gravitas to discuss strategic business issues in any meaningful
way with the C-suite of a major corporate entity.
Therefore, it is essential to define the exact mix of skills,
behaviors and competencies appropriate to any specific sales
role for an assessment tool to operate at anything more than a
broad-brush level: top performance depends on role fit, ie right
person, right role. The better the role definitions and the more
selective and highly tuned the assessment criteria, the more
accurate any tool will be.
What’s more, it’s vital that these role definitions are regularly
and frequently updated to keep them in tune with the
evolving requirements of customers and the market. Ideally,
each definition will sit slightly ahead of the market curve
to enable it to be forward-looking, and it will be validated
in a number of ways – by customers, practitioners
and analysts.
Once you have the ability to identify a truly global High-
Performer for any defined sales role, the route opens up to a
comprehensive, objective and genuinely performance-oriented
sales talent management strategy. It’s a tremendously
powerful tool.
How then can we best use effective assessment tools to
drive our hiring, development and sales talent management
strategies to maximize the performance and efficiency of the
sales organization?
salesassessment
.comwhitepaper:
Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
10 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
online sales talent assessment
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy
with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
11 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Assuming a level playing field in terms of motivators (the
organization is applying the appropriate ones), critical reasoning
(the individual has the requisite ability) and cultural fit (the
organization and employee have similar values and have shared
industry knowledge), behavior and skills are the two variable
which affect an individual’s performance in a role and over
which an organization can exert most influence.
This interaction between behavior and skills is what we refer
to as the Sales Talent Performance Matrix (see Figure 3)
for that specific role: where an individual falls within the chart
is highly predictive of their performance. High-Performers
(the upper right quadrant) are the ideal for that specific role,
while those in the bottom left quadrant are the individuals an
organization should avoid hiring or redeploy (where possible) if
already in post.
Introducing the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
High skills, behavior doesn’t fit role
Skills
High
High
Low
Beh
avio
r Fit
Figure 3: Sales Talent Performance Matrix – the importance of assessing sales people for the correct role-fit in terms of the trainable intrinsic factors. When hiring or positioning an individual for a specific sales role, high role-fit indicates potential for High-Performance in the role. Subject to appropriate motivation and critical reasoning ability, individuals with high role-fit plus high skills are the High-Performers. Conversely, an individual with low role fit and low skills should not be hired for that specific role. Individuals already in the role should ideally be redeployed.
High skills, behavior fits role = High-Performer
Low skills, behavior fits role
Low skills, behavior doesn’t fit role
High behavior-fit and skills are broadly equivalent to the 80th
percentile across their respective ranges (and so in line with
the McKinsey definition of a High-Performer), although this
varies slightly from role to role: conversely, low behavior-fit and
skills are broadly equivalent to the 20th percentile. In terms of
normal distribution, the mode falls at approximately the 50th
percentile but does vary from role to role.
Figure 3 underlines the fundamental importance
of matching the right person to the right role and implementing
appropriate career development and talent management
strategies within an organization. It clarifies and defines
strategy with regard to hiring, development, promotion
and internal appointments, succession planning and even
company structure.
It is essential to understand that performance in one sales
role is not necessarily a good indicator of performance in
another; indeed, this is something we keep coming back to. This
highlights the significance of regular assessments, particularly
in advance of a proposed role change for any individual: regular
assessment is also vital to ensure continued fit to any specific
role, because every role adapts to evolving market conditions.
Figure 4 sets out the coaching and development options
for individuals who have been assessed for their suitability
for a specific role and fall into the top-left or bottom-right
quadrants. The assessment might have taken place prior to
hiring, as a guide to development or as part of a restructuring
initiative for the sales organization.
salesassessment
.comwhitepaper:
Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
12 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Focus on coaching
Skills
1 month
1 month(with no
development)
1 year
High
Low
BehaviorFit
Focus on retention High-Performer
Focus on development
Focus on redeployment
Above the line = hire
Figure 4: Development issues following assessment. Where an individual is positioned on the Talent Performance Matrix has important implications for their development and management, and for their potential performance in this role. Typically, an organization would choose to appoint a candidate in either of the top quadrants of the matrix for this role.
Talent management using the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
online sales talent assessment
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy
with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
13 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Figure 5: Right person, right role – consequences of role fit for talent management. Our research shows that a significant number of people assessed fall into the bottom two quadrants, and are poorly positioned for their current role. Often the result of poor hiring practice or unsuitable promotion from a previous role in which they were performing well, this can lead to individuals becoming disillusioned with their new role and leaving, adversely affecting talent retention for both the current and previous roles.
Reducing risk with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
Promotion to the wrong role can turn
a High-Performer into a poor-performer
High-PerformersThose in the top right quadrant are the High-Performers with
good role fit and a high level of skills. This is the ideal employers
are aiming for.
SkillsThose in the top left quadrant have good role fit but are
lacking in skills. Appropriate learning and development can begin
to move them into a position to be a potential High-Performer
within a short a timescale as 1 month. NB One-size-fits-all,
so called ‘sheep-dip’ training is not usually effective in this
situation as specific skills need to be addressed.
Conversely, an individual in the top left quadrant can easily
slip down into the bottom left quadrant in an equally short
timescale. Left without appropriate skills development, such
individuals repeatedly fail to perform with a consequent effect
on their motivation and confidence. Evidence of this is seen
throughout the sales world with many salespeople ‘hopping’
from job to job on a six-month cycle, with the last three months
in each job spent looking for the next one.
BehaviorsIndividuals in the bottom right quadrant have good skills but
their behaviors are not suited to this role. This situation can be
addressed by intensive coaching: typically this takes at least a
year to bear fruit. Because of this lengthy timescale, employers
tend to look long and hard at the cost versus the benefit of this
approach as well as the risks involved.
salesassessment
.comwhitepaper:
Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
14 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
In terms of cost/benefit, many organizations would re-deploy
or not hire individuals assessed to be in the red or orange
(bottom half) of the Skills/Role-fit matrix.Role-fit has profound
implications for an organization in terms of improving talent
management, not least in terms of reducing risk. Accurate
assessment significantly mitigates the risk of making the
wrong appointment, whether this be in terms of hiring new
talent or appointing an existing employee to a new role within
the organization.
We have all come across instances of people being appointed
to the wrong role based on their performance in a previous role:
for example, sales High-Performers are routinely promoted into
sales management, although this involves a broadly different
set of competencies. This can have disastrous consequences
across a whole sales organization and not simply for the
employee concerned. And for that individual, such failures are
very difficult to come back from.
In contrast, effective assessment tools used routinely to
inform hiring and development decisions all but eliminate this
risk. Assessment is beneficial to both the individual and the
organization because it informs both the decision to offer
and to accept a new role. Assessment empowers talent by
encouraging both employer and employee to participate in a
shared development journey as part of the organization.
Beyond this, assessment also has far-reaching implications
for company structure in that it highlights the need for an
organization to acknowledge the aspirations and ambitions
of its High-Performers... but not in a hierarchical way. Instead,
effective assessment points the way towards a meritocratic
approach which can drive organizational performance
and growth.
...drive strategic sales change...
online sales talent assessment
whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy
with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
15 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix
ConclusionWhile the past search for sales performance improvement has
been centered around sales process and, latterly, structure
and style of customer relationships, these areas deliver limited
(albeit valuable) incremental performance improvements of a
few percentage points.
Numerous commentators have emphasized that the really big
wins come when an organization is able to focus on talent and
align it with structure and process.
Unfortunately, until now, there has been no effective method
of assessing sales talent that is at the same time:
• forward-looking;
• globally rather than internally benchmarked;
• accurately focused on specific (rather than generic) sales
roles; and
• affordable.
Our new assessment methodology transforms sales talent
management and provides a clear model for organizations to
identify, hire, develop and retain High-Performers.
Being able to identify High-Performers and understanding
how to manage them is, in turn, the key to transforming
an organization’s go-to-market strategies. It enables an
organization to optimize its customer relationships by having
the right talent in the right roles, aligned to the right sales
processes for those roles.
References1 Sales Performance Optimization: 2011 Key Trends Analysis
by Jim Dickie and Barry Trailer, CSO Insights.
2 ‘The War for Talent’, by Elizabeth G Chambers, Mark Foulon,
Helen Handfield-Jones, Steven M Hankin and Edward G
Michaels III, McKinsey Quarterly August 1998 and ‘War for
Talent: part two’ by Elizabeth L Axelrod, Helen Handfield-
Jones and Timothy A Welsh, McKinsey Quarterly May 2001.
3 ‘Making talent a strategic priority’ by Matt Guthridge,
Emily Lawson and Asmus Komm. McKinsey Quarterly,
January 2008.
4 Assessments 2011 – Selecting and Developing for the
Future by Mollie Lombardi, Aberdeen Group, May 2011.
Whitepaper V11.1
online sales talent assessment
SaleSaSSeSSment.com limited
americaSSalesAssessment.com Limited, 1800 JFK Boulevard,
Suite 300,Philadelphia, PA, 19103, USA
t: (888) 991–9891e: [email protected]
www.salesassessment.com
emeaSalesAssessment.com Limited, Longcroft,
Church Lane, Arborfield, RG2 9JA, UK
t: +44 (0)207 078 8818e: [email protected]
www.salesassessment.com
ruSSiaSalesAssessment.com, Office 4, 7 MaliyKharitonievskiy pereulok Mocow Russia
Zip Code 107078
t: + 7 495 6430911e: [email protected]
salesassessment
.com
Brochure design by
Breathe Marketing Limited
www.breathe4u.com