Why does variability exist? Let’s check in with an article by the American Psychological Association written in 1982: *Locke, Shaw, Saari, and Latham (1981) concluded that the relationship between goal setting and performance is reliable, persistent and strong.  Specific, difficult goals led to higher performance than did nonspecific, “do your best” goals in 90% of the studies they reviewed in which the goals could be assumed to have been accepted by the subjects.  However, the strength of the relationship varies considerably from study to study.  In addition to goal conditions, three potentially important contributors to performance variability are:

• Situational Factors
• Task Characteristics
• Individual Differences

In the world of selling, certainly there are situational factors that change from prospect to prospect, client to client.  But, generally speaking, if you have a tight niche/market that you are attempting to capture, you can identify, plan and train for the variability in situations.

Task characteristics should only be variable if you have failed to implement a mapped, objective, centric-measured sales process.  This is the “engineering” aspect of developing a sales managed organization. This helps minimize variability in task characteristics.

The biggest and probably most difficult variable is the difference in individuals. The uniqueness of each fingerprint is expressive of the uniqueness of each individual you hire when recruiting for a sales team built for growth. However, there is science available to help you identify the variables that are consistent among your top performers as well as your bottom performers.  By using that science and implementing a consistent system of attracting, qualifying, interviewing and onboarding, you can improve the probability of success and minimize bad hires.

But, none of this matters unless you have an answer to the question: “Why eliminate variability of performance?”  I cannot possibly answer that question for you. However, along with acknowledging the real costs of recruiting, training and paying those that fail to perform, I can list some additional possible reasons why you might want to eliminate variability of performance:

• The HR cost of managing PIP
• Additional oversight required by management to manage underperformers
• Use of training time and money with zero impact on results
• Perception in the marketplace about your company – churn and burn
• Strain on other members of the team
• Impact of poor work ethic on those that perform as expected
• Interpretation by others on the team that “it is okay to not hit the goal”
• Unknown cost of lost opportunities
• The real economic difference between expected sales and realized sales
• Drain on the executive committee members discussion about the continuation of employment by those not performing

If your company is experiencing any of these items, then eliminating or minimizing the variability of performance must become a front burner issue.

I am certain that, when building a sales team for success, there has never been a discussion between a hiring manager and an executive that signs off on the approval of a hire where the hiring manager and the executive have a discussion like this:

Manager – “I think we should hire Joe Smith.”
Executive – “I agree because I believe Joe is going to be the most unbelievable average producer we’ve ever hired.”

I don’t believe that conversation ever takes place, but somehow there are people in the sales team who are occupying the middle standard deviations space defined as “the average producer”.  But, you didn't hire them with that intent, so how did they get there?

Is it time to measure and address the cost of variability of performance in your company?

18 years ago this morning... I didn't wake up. 

I didn't wake up... because I never went to sleep. 

I didn't go to sleep... because my wife and I were up all night with our son, Anthony, at Cincinnati's Children's Hospital. Our son had suffered a cardiac arrest and subsequent traumatic anoxic brain injury.

This morning, I woke up... thinking about how, 18 years after the event, Anthony celebrated the event by singing with Toby Keith at Riverbend.

Toby was so gracious and engaging and Anthony loved every minute singing every word to Toby's song, "I Love This Bar." They brought the house down!

How did we do it? How does Anthony do it?

One day at a time.

My wife and I just came back from Minong, Wisconsin where we visited with our friends, Barb and Gerald O’Dell.  Gerald, Barb and I go back a long way, over 30 years. We all met and worked together at Iowa State University.  We parted ways for awhile until Gerald became the athletic director at the University of Cincinnati.  Later, Gerald, a man of great integrity, decided it was time to leave UC and leave athletics for good. That was over 20 years ago.

After a day of catching up and retelling old stories (Linda, of course, heard many of the stories for the first time), we settled into a routine talking about our current lives.  In one of those conversations Gerald shared with me a practice management approach to his “to do” list.  Gerald told me that, a while ago, he consciously changed his thinking from, “Things I have to do” to “Things I get to do”.

Wow.

If you think about it, there is a huge difference between what I have to do and what I get to do.

• I have to pay taxes.
  I get to go on vacation.

• I have to take out the trash.
  I get to eat great meals and live in a cool home.

• I have to go to work.
  I get to help people fulfill their potential.

The other night, I set the alarm on my iPhone.  If you’ve done this, you know that you have a chance to set the time, a chance to select a sound (the song I wake up to is “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” sung by the Irish Tenors – a must hear) and, if you can, an opportunity to title the alarm.  Until then, I had simply titled that alarm, “Wake up.”  It now reads, “What I get to do tomorrow.”

What’s interesting to me, though it might be boring as heck to you, is that when I see the title in the evening, it sets the tone for my night’s rest as well as the entire next day.  Instead of thinking and stressing over what I have to do, I have a smile on my face thinking about the things I get to do.

• I get to talk to people and find out about their business.
• I get to work with people in my company that are dedicated to our mission.
• I get to coach sales managers and observe them improve as their skills change and confidence grows.
• I get to talk to executives about business solutions for finding sales talent and growing sales.
• I get to convert really cool ideas into client-focused solutions.

I’m not generally one to put forth challenges in these articles, but today I’m making an exception.  I challenge you to think differently about what you do and what your role is.  I challenge you to take some time to write down the things you have been thinking of as “have” to do.  Then, take the time to translate the “I have to” list to an “I get to” list.

But, don’t just do this as an exercise.  Invest in the process and let yourself get excited about all the things you get to do both professionally and personally.

When evaluating sales performance - past, present and future - it’s difficult to figure out what information or data to trust when making decisions.  Just like investments where past performance is not a guarantee of future results, past sales performance does not guarantee anything for the future.  It gives you some, not all, insight into sales results, but it doesn’t tell you how the result was created.

Pipeline analysis (a great performance management tool) is a lagging indicator that can be used to uncover previous sales activity and give you some indication of future sales, but there are problems with that data point:

• The sales person might be putting in data just to keep you off their back
• Unless your pipeline is mapped properly with check points,
  then the probability of opportunities is subjective, not certain.
• If the CRM being used does not provide reporting on conversion ratios from one sales step to the next, you certainly don’t have information needed for intentional coaching.

Linda and I went to a “box store” to find appliances for a townhouse we had purchased.  We needed to replace all four major kitchen pieces: dishwasher, refrigerator, range/oven and microwave. We were working with a salesman and we were getting close to making a selection between models.  As Linda and the salesman were talking, Linda asked me to search for the ratings on the appliances.  This is what I found:

• Refrigerator/freezer – 4.3 – 1,200 ratings
• Range/oven – 4.2 – 2,000 ratings
• Dishwasher – 3.2 – 1,600 ratings

I hadn’t looked up the rating yet when Linda asked me what I found out.  I reported the 4.3 and the 4.2; however, as I reported the 3.2 on the dishwasher, the salesman stepped back into the conversation and asked what the 3.2 was.  I told him it was the rating on the dishwasher based on 1,600 customer ratings.  His response was “You cannot rely on those ratings.  Those ratings are based on this model two years ago when it first came out – this is a newer version of the model.”

It was so hard for me to not reply with, “So I should trust the 4.3 and the 4.2, but not the 3.2?”  I didn’t want to go there because I know how I get when I challenge someone trying to sell me something. I'm a pain in the *ss.  I cannot help it when a salesman screws up the opportunity to handle something the right way and fails.  But, that’s not my point here.  My point here in this story for this article is this:

Your salesperson, and any sales candidate you are interviewing, will also refute anything negative you ask about, but will never debate the positives.

And that is a problem if you are not aware of that and deal with it when it happens.  Case in point.  We use Objective Management Group for evaluating both sales teams that exists today and future talent to hire.  The tool has been “tested” hundreds of thousands of times and is the most consistent and reliable sales talent evaluation on the planet.  (check it out)

With this business tool, we find a mix of things that are supportive of successful selling:  Strong desire, commitment, responsibility, and sales DNA.  And there are findings that indicate hindrances to successful selling:  lack of skills in consultative selling, asking questions, hunting, closing, and qualifying skills.

Time and time again, when we review the results with the sales manager or the sales person and we ask, “What did you think?”, most of the time we can count on the following:

• I thought it was interesting.
• I’ve taken lots of these in the past and you just have to take the results with a grain of salt.
• I thought it was dead on.
• I thought the findings really depend on different situations; some of the questions didn’t fit the way I sell.
• There were a lot of things I agree with and a couple of things I didn’t understand or agree with.

We ask the sales person to then discuss the finding they want to talk about first.  Almost 100% of the time, they will want to talk about the things they disagree with. Obviously, those are the things that are viewed as “negative”.  Never, not once ever in over 20 years, has someone gone to desire, commitment, responsibility, hunting or closing findings that are positive and said,  “I don’t agree with this.  I’m really not committed, I don't have desire for success in sales, I make excuses when I fail, I suck at prospecting and I can’t even close a door.”

NOT EVER!

What they all want to focus on is the 3.2 rating to try and convince me that the negative findings cannot be true, BUT all those positive things, “Yep, that’s me.”

So, there you go.  Your salespeople, as well as the candidates, will do their best to convince you that all the positive data and outputs are accurate and true, but anything negative can be explained away.

Buyer beware!

Additional Resources:

• Sample evaluation results of recommended for hire
• Sample evaluation results of not recommended for hire
• One time use of pre-hire assessment for current sales candidate
• Lesson on how to use a success formula to evaluate sales performance
• FREE WEBINAR - Do you need stronger salespeople to meet current selling challenges? If you answered yes, then this webinar is for you. Register NOW for our September 28, 2016 webinar, "The Magic of the OMG Sales Candidate Assessment." 

A year ago this past August, I was released from University Hospital here in Cincinnati.  Doctors Augsburger and Correa had performed radioactive plaque surgery on my right eye.  The plaque stayed attached to my right eye for 5 days with a lead eye patch covering it.  I was confined to a lead-lined room.  On the 25^th, they removed the plaque (disc), sutured the eye and then sent me home for recovery. I was back to work the following Monday.

I share this story in an attempt to relate “life happens” to sales management.

Life happens in sales and sales management.  When attempting to manage a sales team, “life happens.”

• The economy tanks
• A top producer leaves
• A new producer that you thought would set the world on fire is going on a PIP
• The company has changed its product mix, offerings or pricing
• A new competitor has come to town
• A new compensation plan is being implemented
• A new CRM tool is being implemented
• The Department of Labor passes new regulations, changing the sales landscape for an entire industry 

Despite all the changes and all the “life happens” events that come your way as a sales manager, you are left with one ultimate objective – meet/exceed the sales targets established by the company.  Despite all the obstacles and challenges, at the end of the day, someone in the company is going to look to you and want to know if your team is going to hit the sales goal.

A month after my departure from University Hospital, I met with an oncologist.  Prior to the meeting, I had a blood test completed and a CT scan.  Both tests are designed to look for cancer cells possibly lurking somewhere in my body.  I am to continue this testing every 6 months for the next three years.  I will see my ophthalmologist once every 6 months.  At the end of each time period, all that matters is this: Did I go another six months and stay cancer free?

So, what do you do to get from diagnosis – life event, business event, etc. – to whatever happens next?  Answer: You do everything possible to improve the odds for success. That is what you do.

I have another doctor.  Dr. Peter Shang practices eastern medicine and is a former practicing oncologist.  When I visited with him the first time, he told me one really important thing:  Cancer hates a healthy body.  He told me that we needed to find out how healthy my blood was and make it healthier so that it could effectively fight any cancer cells.  He also told me that cancer loves sugar.  And he told me that regardless of how healthy I thought I was, I needed to get healthier.  This meant exercising 5 days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes a day.

Here are steps that are similar in personal health related problems and business problems:

• Pay attention to the symptoms
• Get a diagnosis to identify the root cause
• Analyze the root cause and identify solutions
• Determine if the outcome for doing nothing is acceptable
• If doing nothing is unacceptable, take action
• Check your commitment to stick to the plan – you must have a non-negotiable reason to stick to it

I just had the second of my six-month checkups for eye, blood and body scan.  All are good.  Also, I’ve continued to work, play tennis and golf.  I monitor my steps, my workouts, and my food intake.  I’d like to report that I’m completely off of all sugar, but I have my lapses.  I was in a great habit of not eating sugar and then, when I hit a body weight target, I allowed myself to celebrate with my greatest food weakness – ice cream.  (If you see me and we are dining, don’t let me eat dessert!)

I work out consistently, and I am healthier now than I’ve been in at least 30 years.  Every time I work out, I talk to cancer.  I tell it that it had better be ready for a fight because that’s what it’s in for.  I work out and think about others who are fighting the fight.  Doug, Ray, Cherie, Brooke and Jerry all are fighting the fight for health.  But… the major motivation is my wife, Linda. She is my non-negotiable reason to stay the course and fight the fight.

In business, you have to have that non-negotiable reason to fight the fight, to overcome the obstacles, challenges, and setbacks.  You are not always going to win the battle every second, every minute or every hour.  But, win the battle every day. Then your days become weeks and the weeks become months and the months become the first year.

In the words of the flight director of Apollo 13, “Failure is not an option!”

Additional Resources:

10 Uncomfortable Deeds that Will Make You More Successful

Download our free eBook, The Extraordinary Sales Manager

Sign up for a free demo of Hire Better Salespeople