If You Build It, They Will Come, Right?

Field of Dreams

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Most of you probably remember the 1989 classic, Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner. If you are anything like me, it conjures up warm fuzzies and loads of hope. And I personally believe in a healthy dose of self-manifestation because a little positive thought never hurt anyone. However, I am sure you would agree that the “if you build it, they will come” strategy alone isn’t enough to hang your cap on.

Any business owner or CEO running a sales organization can claim they “built it.” And the majority can claim “they are coming.” The ‘they’ in this case being sales, customers, sales hires, etc. Not baseball legends of the past. The challenge, though, all my clients share is the company isn’t growing fast enough. No matter how you pitch it, that’s frustrating. Even more frustrating is they often don’t really understand why.

Data sited by Objective Management Group (OMG) says there are 21 sales specific competencies that predict success in selling. I won’t list them all out here, but two of my favorites are:

  • Commitment—according to OMG, the average commitment score of all sales people is only 51% where commitment means to do whatever it takes to achieve greater success in sales (assuming proper moral and ethical behaviors, of course!)
  • Hunting—according to OMG, all sales people average a score of 58% when it comes to having all the characteristics of a real hunter. And yes—there is a HUGE difference between those that CAN hunt and those that WILL hunt CONSISTENTLY.

What kind of impact would someone have on your organization if they had a 60 or even 70 percent commitment score AND they were willing to hunt? Do you know where your sales people even fall in these competencies?

If you’d like to see a sample evaluation of these 2 competencies and the other 19, you can request samples here.

Jennifer Mutchler

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Author: Rocky LaGrone

Rocky LaGrone is a seasoned sales development expert with over 25 years in sales development and training working with well over 1,000 companies of all sizes in various industries.

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