What are the stages of excellence in sales?

Sales effectiveness develops through five stages. At the bottom, each rep decides whom to call and how to sell, and nobody measures either. At the top, effort follows what each account could buy, and the forecast is close enough to plan stock, hiring and cash on.

The stages are assessed across five dimensions. They cover where the selling effort goes, how the week is spent and how the sales force is managed. They also cover what reps are paid on, and their skills and tools.

The five stages, in sales terms

• Lagging. Reps call on whoever is friendly or nearby. Nobody knows how their week is spent. Every rep sells their own way, and the real pipeline lives in their heads.
• Basic. The big accounts get the attention because they are big. Everyone agrees reps do too much admin, and nobody has measured it. The CRM has stages, but deals move through them on feel.
• Competent. Customers are ranked by what they buy and could buy, with a set number of calls for each rank. Time with customers has been measured in the last year. Every rep uses one sales process.
• Advanced. The call list is re-cut every year from what accounts bought and could buy. Coaching is aimed at the middle of the team. Forecast accuracy is measured every quarter.
• Leading. Accounts move between reps on potential, and reps no longer argue about it. Anything that would take selling time has to earn its place. The business plans on the forecast.

The five dimensions a sales assessment covers

1. Where the selling effort goes: coverage by customer value, sales force size and territories, new and existing customers, and what the sales force costs.
2. How the selling week is spent: time with customers, call planning, account plans and how fast leads are followed up.
3. Managing the sales force: what managers do, coaching on real calls, the weekly rhythm, the sales process and forecast, and how targets are set.
4. Measures, pay and motivation: what reps are measured on, how the incentive plan is built, and whether reps can see what they have earned.
5. People, skills and tools: hiring and onboarding, selling skills, why deals are lost, the CRM in use, and keeping the best reps.

How is sales effectiveness measured?

Sales effectiveness is measured one practice at a time. A Stages of Excellence assessment asks about 22 sales practices across the five dimensions. Up to three more appear where partners sell for the business or reps earn variable pay. For each practice, the respondent picks the one of five sentences that describes the business today. The answers roll up into a stage for each dimension.

The patterns that recur

Score patterns cluster into five types:

• The Full Diary: good people and tools, and a week that disappears into quotes, deliveries and meetings.
• The Order Takers: long-serving reps who look after the customers they have always had.
• Paid for the Wrong Thing: a well-planned deployment that the pay plan quietly undoes.
• Reps on Their Own: trained reps, a CRM and good tools, and no management.
• Selling by Habit: no sales machinery to speak of.

Sentences from the check

Each of these is the lowest of five sentences on its question:

• "Every rep sells their own way."
• "Nobody knows how reps spend their week, and the reps' own guess is that most of it is not with customers."
• "The CRM is where reps type things the night before the sales meeting, and the real pipeline is in their heads."

See where your business stands: the sales check takes about ten minutes.