How to identify your strong, consistent and poor sales performers

Understand the characteristics of your sales performers to help get the very best results from your sales team.

Strong performers.

Typical characteristics of a strong performer are usually quite specific. Ambitious, driven, competitive, quick thinking, good with clients – yes. But they are also usually difficult to manage, rarely complete their paperwork and you fight tooth and nail to keep them.

They can sometimes be difficult to fit into a team environment, preferring to work alone.

Consistent performers.

Typical characteristics of a consistent performer are less specific. A mix of good hunters and good farmers. Typically competitive but without that ‘killer instinct’ and natural sales instinct of the strong performers.

Consistent performers tend to stay longer within organisations as they are doing enough to be successful in their job. This brings another great benefit – social capital.

So often in sales teams the top performer is seen as the most important member of the team. But what about Trevor who has been at the company for 15 years? Who does the rest of the team go to when they have a question? Who is the ‘oracle’ of the business? Who solves the disputes and arranges the drinks at the end of the week? Trevor.

So tenure is important but it is more important than sales performance?

Poor performers.

Salespeople are fairly simple to measure as their performance is linked directly to revenue. Poor performers = low revenue generation? Yes, probably. But there are sometimes factors underneath the surface that point to the reason why an individual is not performing. It is important to measure these reasons so you don’t repeat them in the future.

Typical characteristics of a poor performer are that they may be difficult to get on with, lazy, low emotional maturity, don’t have that competitive edge, etc.

The trick is to be able to measure these areas and identify them at interview stage next time. Increase your chances of hiring the right person, not just someone who looks good at interview.

About the Author: Iain Chalmers is the Managing Director of Holst (distributor of the McQuaig Psychometric System). Click here to contact Iain or find him on Linkedin.

To find out more about the McQuaig Psychometric System visit www.mcquaig.co.uk or call 0203 111 9292