How To Use Fully Qualified Leads To Recruit/Retain Top Sales Talent.
Posted by
Chris Lang on Thu, Oct 07, 2023 @ 04:35 PM
Sales executives are driven by money. We often spin it so that it doesn’t sound like our main focus is money, but it is. We’re judged by how much revenue we bring in. We base our worth to our company by our commission checks, our prospects judge us on payment vs. value, and most of us view last year’s W-2 as a jumping board for next years. Monetary numbers rule our professional lives because they have to if we want to do well. A sales rep that doesn’t focus on a number will quickly become an out of work sales rep. That being said, sales reps look for and stay at jobs that put them in the best possible position to make money.
Most of my friends are in sales. There are a couple of cops in there, some engineers and we have that one guy that travels the world, but no one really knows what he does or how he makes his money (I’m talking about you Pete. What the hell do you do?). I was hanging out with my buddies that are in sales roles the other day. We had the standard sales exec’s conversation where we all talk about how we put up big numbers last quarter and we’re going to do even better next quarter. (…well my dad can beat up your Dad!) All 6 of us have good track records at their respective companies, yet 4 of the 6 guys in the conversation are looking for new jobs. Seeing as though my boss reads this blog I feel the need to tell him that I am not one of them. When I asked the guys why they want to move, the answer was simple, they want the opportunity to do what they do best, close more business, and of course make more money.
Some of the most successful sales teams I talk to use fully qualified, sales ready leads to recruit and retain top talent. To retain talent, provide your top performing reps with a certain amount of leads depending on how well they close deals. It will benefit you to keep that rep working on fully qualified sales ready opportunities even if it means having to bring on an inside team or hire a teleprospecting firm to help. In our organization, the higher your close rate, the more fully qualified sales ready leads you will get. If you are at the top of your game, you rarely make any cold calls. The company turns a healthy profit off of the closed business from the rep and the rep is happy to work for a company that essentially sets the table for them to do the part of the job they like the most, close business and make money.
When I asked my buddies if they would stay with their current jobs if they got 5 great fully qualified sales leads per month, they all gave a resounding “yes”. As one guy put it, “the bottom line is that I don’t have enough time to close deals because I am always busy with a lot of pipeline building. I know that’s part of the gig, but I feel like I could deliver so much more to the company if I didn’t have to constantly build and then rebuild the top of my funnel all the time.”
Fully qualified sales ready leads can also be used to recruit. Even in a down economy there are a lot of sales jobs out there. How can you set yourself apart from all the other companies that are trying to woo the top talent? Show the recruit that working with you puts them in the best possible position to make money. You put a sales rep in a great position to close business by providing them with fully qualified sales ready opportunities. Imagine two companies competing for one very qualified candidate: Each company has an outside role where at plan the rep will make $200k, but in one company the sales execs receive 5 opportunities per month to help them get to their number. Which company will the recruit choose? Yes it will cost you some money to produce those opportunities, but if you’re rep is hitting or exceeding his/her quota, the amount you spent to find them leads is going to be negligible. No one will criticize the $60k extra you spent on a rep when it results in millions more in closed deals. There are people out there that are very good at closing. They aren’t necessarily the best people at uncovering leads. There is a separate group of people that are very good at that. Sales reps will come to work with you and continue working for you if give them the chance to do what they love, put up big numbers.