SOS – Save Our Sellers
We went to the Titanic VR exhibition over the Xmas break. It’s fabulous and well worth $40. It tells the story of Titanic from conception through construction and launch, the people, the circumstances and the incidents all leading up to the eventual sinking. Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 PM (ship’s time) on April 14, 1912. The ship sent its first SOS distress signal approximately 45 minutes later. The S.O.S. signal in Morse code (... --- ...) was officially adopted by the International Radiotelegraph Conference in 1906, taking effect on July 1, 1908 (in case you wanted to know.)
Sales Jobs! Come on Down!
Skimming through LinkedIn job posts reveals an abundance of postings for sales jobs. HubSpot reports an average sales rep turnover rate of 35%. The old Sirius Decisions data concluded that nearly half of B2B companies suffered at this rate. Then there’s the challenge of getting new sellers up to speed. According to the Brooks Grp, on average, new sales professionals are ready to engage with customers after approximately 9 months of onboarding. They also maintain it takes 12 months for new sales reps to become competent and capable of carrying a full quota.
Where’s all this going?
Good question…rather than continuing this course, can you “save” some of those sellers, and save yourselves a bunch of time, money and new hire heartache at the same time? While this might not be as S.O.S. worthy as the Titanic story (no one’s going to lose their lives) it’s alarming at least.
The A, B & C Players
Sales teams can generally be divided into 3 groups: A, B and C players. Leadership always loves to claim, "We’ve only got A players!" Sure—and everyone’s a rockstar, gets a trophy, and can bench press a bus. The truth is, A players are rare, and if you did manage to hire them all, you’d spend more time managing egos than sales. It’s the “B" and "C" players where the turnover (and the opportunity) lies. These generally ignored individuals represent the most significant opportunity for growth through targeted coaching and support. The problem is that our old ideas of “coaching & support” never worked that well, and it seems easier to ship the blame for missed numbers to them. So, let’s just replace them. This gives leadership an excuse and keeps the recruitment team occupied!
Get on With It – Where’s the A.I?
OK, fair enough. According to Ethan Mollick in his book: “Co-intelligence: Living & Working with AI” - “In study after study, the people who get the biggest boost from AI are those with the lowest initial ability—it turns poor performers into good performers, and good performers into great. In a study of early use of generative AI at a call center, the lowest-performing workers became 35 percent more productive…In our study in BCG, we found similar effects. Those who had the weakest (or weaker) skills benefited the most from AI, but even the highest performers gained.”
This is why we call it the “equalizer” and explains why a good proportion of the millennials & Gen Zer’s are, at best, indifferent to AI as it breeches the walls of their subject matter domains.
Joining the Dots
We often use that phrase when talking about our A.I. Sales Readiness tool – Shadow. Shadow helps you (or your team) “join the dots.” Shadow does most of the research and most (but not all) of the thinking for you.
Having said that I’ll leave you to join your own dots on where this (not so) Titanic of an article is going. It’s simply this – don’t jump into replacing sellers too readily. Maybe it’s time for a different approach – an A.I. Sales Readiness Tool that can Save our Sellers, and help you avoid that sinking feeling!
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