Sales is a very competitive realm, and the difference between a superstar salesperson and an average performer can make all the difference. In this article, we’ll explore how to distinguish between these two groups, focusing on how they measure their performance.
We’ll examine why the commonly used metric of close rate can be deceptive and why production should be considered the most crucial factor in measuring sales success.
You must look at how they measure their performance to delineate a player salesperson from an average salesperson. An average salesperson will measure their performance and their close rate. A superstar will measure the performance in production because production matters the most. It can be produced in units, in cash, or in commissions.
The Futility of Close Rates
Why is the close rate so unimportant, and why is it a complete vanity metric? There are multiple reasons:
If you are on the sales team, you will typically get the close rate through a degree of self-reporting that comes from the closer; they will ask did you make an offer to the person and if it was a deposit, etc.
People may manipulate a lot of that stuff; for example, a closer might have somebody who is driving, and they reschedule them and mark it as a no-show or not a call at all. They might have somebody who did not watch the video before the ring, and then they rescheduled and didn’t mark it as a call, so they start to over-qualify and get picky.
Hence they fake their close rate; that’s why we shouldn’t look at it because it is an easily manipulated metric.
The superstar does not care about the close rate; they go if their calendar is open. Thus, the close rate is a vanity metric, although it is helpful to diagnose sometimes what is happening with your sales team or you as a salesperson. In the same way, CTR can be an excellent way to Diagnose whether your ads are working. But you cannot take CTR to the bank; the production matters.
Importance of Production
You cannot fake production. The best salespeople will solely focus on prospecting their deals, pipelining people, and taking as many calls as possible, stuff that is antagonistic to having a reasonable close rate.
Thus, to check the difference between a superstar salesperson and an average salesperson, you must examine how they measure performance production. If you are running a sales team, the big takeaway is that you want to incentivize them purely on display, purely on the front cash.
You don’t even need to track the close rate because, in most sales meetings, we never discuss relative rates, so if you orient your team in this way and create a culture where you celebrate the person who is the most productive and not the person who has the best clothes.
When you do that, your team will have a better culture, perform better, and you will get less manipulation of the metrics, making your close rates more accurate.
