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Page 1: sales assessment - TorusBWtorusbw.com/files/sales-talent-performance-matrix.pdf · sales process needs to be linked to and supportive of the ... What’s more, unless competency frameworks

whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent

strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

online sales talent assessment

... hire the right person for the right role...

salesassessment

.com

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It explains that, if the three pillars for growth – structure,

process and talent – work together as part of a holistic model,

this combination delivers dramatically improved performance,

ie when the right people in the right roles supported by the

right processes are effectively aligned to the relevant market

segments.

It discusses how sales talent has always been the weak link

in this model and the consequent difficulty in identifying

true sales High-Performers, benchmarked globally and

independently of industry sector: High-Performers having

been identified as delivering 67% more revenue than average

performers by McKinsey and Co, with our own data indicating

that even greater performance improvements are possible.

The paper stresses the importance of routine deployment

of accurate, predictive assessments tools and their role in

identifying sales High-Performers. It sets out the so-called

‘High Five’ factors which enable an organization to assess

individuals and identify High-Performers, as well as those who

have the potential to become top sales talent.

It also sets out a clear, forward-looking sales talent

management model – the Sales Talent Performance Matrix –

which enables organizations to identify, hire, develop and retain

the right talent for their sales organization today while also

continually adapting to the evolving market.

The paper explains how this new model offers a clearly defined

route to transforming an organization’s go-to-market strategy,

and opens the way for impressive performance improvements

that drive increased revenue, a leaner and more profitable sales

organization, and long-term, sustainable growth.

whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy

with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

Executive summary

This paper focuses on an entirely new model for optimizing the sales organization through sales talent management, by aligning talent with process and with the needs and expectations of the market.

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Introduction

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with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

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In terms of individual and company performance there is no

more significant factor than role-fit – an individual’s suitability

for the specific role they are being asked to perform. Indeed, the

importance of role-fit cannot be overstated nor its ramifications

underestimated for both the individual and the employer. It has

far-reaching consequences across a number of areas including:

hiring, retention and replacement costs; development strategy; the

structure, efficiency and profitability of the sales organization; and,

of course, revenue performance, growth and company profitability.

However, role-fit is not the whole picture in terms of organizational

performance: the right mix of roles within the sales organization is

just as critical in terms of a company’s ability to respond to market

expectations and drive revenue performance along with long-term,

sustainable growth.

Optimizing the sales organization through the right mix of people,

doing the most appropriate jobs, in the right combination for the

marketplace, in order to drive revenue and growth within a particular

market is what we refer to as Right Person, Right Role.

This paper emphasizes the importance of an effective sales talent

management strategy – in which both role-fit and the right role are

equally important – and how it combines with a number of other

factors to create a holistic model capable of delivering sustained

performance and success.

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The three pillars for growth

Maximum revenue over the longer term can only be delivered

when the three key pillars for growth combine to form a

coherent and cohesive strategy for engaging the market.

These three pillars are:

• process – the sales process needs to be appropriate and

optimized for each market segment, and supportive of the

way sales talent addresses the market and interacts with

customers;

• talent – employers should seek to hire, develop and retain

high-performing sales talent matched to every specific role

within the sales organization; and

• structure – the structure of the sales organization must

be aligned to the needs of customers and the market

to deliver the right mix of talent to address each market

segment effectively at the appropriate level of relationship.

From the mid-1980s onwards, much attention has been

focused on sales process in order to drive performance; and

yet there are still improvements to be made. In this year’s ‘Key

Trends Analysis’ from CSO Insights1, the authors emphasized

the importance of ‘how a company’s level of sales process

adoption can directly impact how they sell – positively or

negatively’.

But, of course, process is not the whole story. Equally, the

structure of the organization – the way it is set up to interact

with different customer market segments is critical. Thus, the

authors also considered the importance of aligning the sales

process to a structural element, the level of relationship that an

organization enjoys with its various customers.

They divided the sales process into four types, from ‘random’,

through ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ up to ‘dynamic’ at its most

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Figure 1: the three pillars for growth.

Strategic growth objectives can best

be realized by optimizing the structure

and role-mix of the sales organization

for maximum market impact, with each

role filled by high-achiever sales talent

and supported by the appropriate sales

process.

Customer segments

relationshipProcess

StructureTalent

Page 5: sales assessment - TorusBWtorusbw.com/files/sales-talent-performance-matrix.pdf · sales process needs to be linked to and supportive of the ... What’s more, unless competency frameworks

sophisticated. At the same time, they identified five levels of

relationship: ‘approved vendor’ at the lowest level, through

‘preferred supplier’, ‘solutions consultant’ and ‘strategic

contributor’, up to ‘trusted partner, at the pinnacle.

By mapping the process onto the relationship level, they found

that where the process aligns well with the level of customer

relationship, this generally improves performance. For instance,

at the top performance level, organizations had a higher

percentage of sales people making quota, a higher level of

company plan attainment, more wins, fewer losses, as well as

reduced turnover of talent.

Nevertheless, alignment of process and relationship can

only go so far. In fact, the authors identified only a 10%

improvement – from 55% to 65% – in the percentage of sales

people making quota, even at the highest performance level,

where type of process was closely aligned with the level of

customer relationship. The missing element, of course, is talent.

Neither processes nor relationships can operate at their best

without the right sales talent in the right role. For instance,

junior call center operatives may well feel out of their depth

being asked to discuss future strategic change with a Fortune

500 board, while a top-level strategic sales person will soon

become frustrated, disillusioned and leave if the company

process fails to support that particular style of selling.

The important point to take away is that an organization’s

sales process needs to be linked to and supportive of the

talent it employs and aligned with the level and style of

relationship it enjoys with its various customer segments:

this drives performance. It is essential to note that this

strategy – which combines process, talent and structure – is, by

definition, holistic. Thus, while there are benefits of addressing

process, talent or structure individually, the biggest gains are

to be made when organizations implement a strategy that

recognizes the interdependence of the three elements.

Such a strategy is also aligned to individual market segments,

such that the organization addresses the concerns and needs

of those individual market segments in the most relevant

way. Furthermore, the strategy is responsive to the needs of

customers in the marketplace and is, therefore, dynamic –

evolution of the market will dictate changes in the structure of

the organization, the talent it employs and the processes which

support that talent.

Identifying and assessing sales

talent – the limiting factorOrganizations have long recognized the importance of

hiring and retaining high-performing individuals within the

organization. Ever since McKinsey & Co’s seminal 1997 work,

we have talked about the so-called ‘War for Talent’2. In 2001,

McKinsey reprised the research and this has helped shape

corporate thinking – if not action – into the current decade:

organizations need to optimize the way they plan to attract,

motivate, and retain employees.

And yet, the message is not being followed through. Some 15

years on from the original research, the authors of another

McKinsey report3 had this to say: ‘Companies like to promote

the idea that employees are their biggest source of competitive

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advantage. Yet the astonishing reality is that most of them

are as unprepared for the challenge of finding, motivating, and

retaining capable workers as they were a decade ago.’

So what has gone wrong? For the typical organization, the

day-to-day talent management tasks of identifying, hiring,

developing and retaining the right people in order to maximize

performance in each role is a complex, daunting task –

particularly in sales – and, therefore, almost certainly a limiting

factor given the fierce competition for high-performing sales

talent, a finite talent pool, and the typically rapid turnover of

talent within the sales world.

Why might this be? The answer lies in an organization’s ability

to define exactly what good looks like. In sales – traditionally

viewed as part science, part dark-art – our understanding

has been hampered by poor or incomplete assessment

methodologies on the one hand, and cost on the other. Many

assessment tools and methodologies at the cheaper end of

the scale have been found to be limited and unreliable, while

in-depth assessments conducted by the large consultancies

are invariably cumbersome, time-consuming exercises, and

essentially only affordable by those organizations with the

deepest pockets.

Aberdeen Group has recently highlighted the use of

assessments, as organizations seek to improve their talent

management strategies. According to a May 2011 paper4,

‘organizational growth goals requiring better talent’ along with

‘business change demanding new skills’ are the two major

imperatives driving the use of assessments. Companies are

seeking to improve business results through better quality

candidates, deliver leaders to drive innovation and growth, and

improve organizational fit among new hires.

In the paper, author Mollie Lombardi supports the use of

assessments but urges organizations to be selective about

their choice: ‘Assessments are an incredibly valuable tool in

the hiring, development and future planning process in an

organization. These tools can help uncover individuals with the

right skills, behaviors and attitudes to move an organization

forward. The case to use assessments or not has been made.

But uncovering the right types of assessments to be used for

specific decision points, and understanding what to do with the

output of those assessments is the next piece of the puzzle.’

Uncovering the right type of assessment to deploy in the

sales function has indeed been extremely problematic until

now: most approaches lack certain key elements which, if

present, would dramatically improve their functionality and

shelf-life. Aberdeen cites the most prevalent assessment

activity amongst the firms surveyed as building a competency

framework to serve as a basis for assessments. However,

herein lies a problem, in that such projects take time to

complete and may easily become redundant before they are

finished. What’s more, unless competency frameworks are

dynamic and frequently updated to the needs of an evolving

market, they struggle to be forward-looking. Finally, the typical

competency framework tends to be inward-looking or confined

to a specific industry sector rather than globally benchmarked.

How much better then to choose a tool that is built around

a wide range of sales roles with pre-defined but frequently

updated competency frameworks?

An effective assessment tool – one that is accurate and highly

predictive, while also being forward-looking, affordable, globally

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benchmarked and quick to implement – is the key that unlocks

the door to an organization’s understanding of role-fit. It

answers various questions in a consistent and objective way:

• which talent is suitable;

• which talent to hire;

• which needs to be redeployed;

• where you’re headed in terms of development;

• whether there’s room for personal growth;

• which talent you want to retain; and

• what will motivate an individual to perform and feel

comfortable in a role.

Answering these questions goes a long way towards

addressing an organization’s talent management problems.

This is for a number of reasons:

• the right assessment technique which probes an individual’s

skills, behaviors and underlying competencies enables

an organization to recruit from beyond its traditional

talent pool;

• assessing an employee for role-fit to a specific sales

role (rather than a more generic one) means that, once

appointed, that individual is likely to perform better and

remain longer in a position to which they are well-suited

compared with the average;

• a company’s sales organization can typically run leaner with

fewer, high-performing individuals once they are matched

to roles and the roles aligned to customer and market

expectations; and

• it helps identify and position talent with the potential to

develop and grow in step with their employer and evolving

customer requirements.

What then is the right assessment approach for organizations

wishing to identify the most suitable talent for any specific

sales role?

It will inevitably involve a forward-looking tool that can

accurately assess an individual’s fit with a specific sales role

(not just a generalized sales role) and compare them with

the best-in-class – what we term a global High-Performer.

It should look in detail at the underlying competencies

(behavioral, motivational, intellectual and skills-based) that

drive performance in that specific role. Finally, the tool must

accurately highlight any gaps that will limit performance while

also assessing growth potential for the current and

future roles.

online sales talent assessment

whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy

with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

7 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

... hire the right person for the right role...

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The High Five – the five key factors that determine high-performance in a sales role

With that in mind, there are essentially five key factors that

determine an individual’s suitability for and performance in

any specific sales role. Some of these factors are intrinsic

to the individual – ie they are part of the ‘make-up’ of that

person, in contrast to extrinsic factors – such as cash

incentives or recognition awards – which are often applied by

an organization to boost the performance of the individuals it

employs.

These five factors are:

1. Behavior – an individual’s behavioral preference determines

their comfort in performing a specific sales role.

2. Skills – functional skills determine how well an individual

can perform a role.

3. Critical reasoning – an individual’s intelligence and ability

to analyze data, evaluate evidence, question methods and

reach meaningful conclusions.

4. Motivators – motivation drives an individual’s desire to

perform in a role; in turn, desire drives results.

5. Cultural fit – the extent to which an individual identifies

with the style, values and culture of the employing

organization and its customers. Cultural fit – Of these five

factors which determine an individual’s suitability for a

specific sales role, four can be assessed using a variety of

techniques including questionnaires and tests. Elements of

the fifth factor – cultural fit between an individual and the

hiring organization – can be assessed through the use of

‘personality tests’ but this is best done in conjunction with

an effective interview process.

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Motivators – Identifying a person’s motivators enables an

organization to motivate them to perform to the best of their

ability. However, motivators are not only pertinent to their

performance level but are also highly specific to the individual:

applying the right sort of motivation can raise performance;

conversely, the wrong sort of motivation tends to be extremely

counter-productive. It is up to the employing organization to

assess which motivators are relevant to any particular individual

and then apply appropriate interventions.

Identifying High-Performers – Measuring a combination of

the remaining three factors – critical reasoning, behavior

and skills – attuned to a specific sales role, allows us to assess

how an individual is likely to perform in that role. How then do

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Figure 2: The High Five Of the five, behavior and skills are the

intrinsic factors which are independent of product, organization

and market while being responsive to coaching

and development.

The High Five: the five key factors which determine high-performance in a sales role

Cultural fit

Behavior

Motivators

Criticalreasoning

Skills

these three factors map onto a typical organization’s talent

management program?

Critical reasoning – There’s no doubt that critical reasoning

is fundamental to an individual’s ability to perform successfully

in any number of sales roles in today’s complex business

environment. However, this intrinsic performance factor is

‘not trainable’ in the real world – individuals either have the

necessary critical reasoning ability for a specific role... or they

don’t. Candidates who are assessed not to have the level of

critical reasoning ability required for a specific role are best not

employed for that particular job, as they are unlikely to be a

High-Performer in that role.

The ‘trainable’ intrinsic factors – So, this leaves us with

the two factors over which an employing organization can

exert some influence: behavior and skills. Both are eminently

assessable and both respond to development, albeit in slightly

different ways; certainly both are key to the way a person will

perform in any particular role. By identifying, hiring, developing

and retaining High-Performers, an organization has most

opportunity to maximize the performance of its employees and

its own returns.

About ‘High-Performers’As part of McKinsey’s 2001 research into the influence of talent

on performance, the team conducted a survey of 410 corporate

officers at 35 large US companies. They asked the question:

‘How much more does a High-Performer generate annually than

an average performer?’

The answer varied according to the particular discipline involved,

but was always substantial: operations High-Performers

delivered 40% more, management 49% more, while sales High-

Performers generated an impressive 67% increased revenue

compared with the average. (Our own research amongst clients

indicates that even greater sales performance differentials

between average and High-Performers may be possible.)

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Given the massive differential between a High-Performer and

the average, this is where the organization’s performance

improvements are likely to come from.

For the purposes of the exercise, McKinsey defined High-

Performers as being amongst the top 20% of performers in the

organization.

That said, looking at the High-Performers within an

organization is only part of the picture, because such an

exercise is, by definition, introspective: you may be looking at

the best you’ve got but are they the best there is?

An effective assessment tool not only compares sales talent

with their peers in an organization or even across an industry,

but against an objective global benchmark. What is the best

there could be? This is the path to identifying the true High-

Performers.

Essentially, a global High-Performer will be placed around the

80th percentile on a scale which measures the three factors

highlighted previously – critical reasoning, behavior and skills

– at a level optimized for a specific sales role. For instance,

the critical reasoning ability required for a retail role is entirely

different from that needed by someone engaging in high-level

solution selling. What’s more, this methodology means the

assessment becomes entirely independent of geography and

industry sector.

The importance of role

definitionWe have already alluded to the importance of assessments

being role-specific. This is because it is important to

understand the complexity and breadth of this word ‘sales’,

and to recognize that not all sales roles are the same: a High-

Performer in one role is by no means certain to be as successful

in another.

For instance, it has long been acknowledged that top-

performing sales people do not necessarily make the best sales

managers – the roles are quite different. As discussed earlier,

it is hard to envisage a call center operative at the start of

their sales career having the necessary skills, experience and

gravitas to discuss strategic business issues in any meaningful

way with the C-suite of a major corporate entity.

Therefore, it is essential to define the exact mix of skills,

behaviors and competencies appropriate to any specific sales

role for an assessment tool to operate at anything more than a

broad-brush level: top performance depends on role fit, ie right

person, right role. The better the role definitions and the more

selective and highly tuned the assessment criteria, the more

accurate any tool will be.

What’s more, it’s vital that these role definitions are regularly

and frequently updated to keep them in tune with the

evolving requirements of customers and the market. Ideally,

each definition will sit slightly ahead of the market curve

to enable it to be forward-looking, and it will be validated

in a number of ways – by customers, practitioners

and analysts.

Once you have the ability to identify a truly global High-

Performer for any defined sales role, the route opens up to a

comprehensive, objective and genuinely performance-oriented

sales talent management strategy. It’s a tremendously

powerful tool.

How then can we best use effective assessment tools to

drive our hiring, development and sales talent management

strategies to maximize the performance and efficiency of the

sales organization?

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online sales talent assessment

whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy

with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

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Assuming a level playing field in terms of motivators (the

organization is applying the appropriate ones), critical reasoning

(the individual has the requisite ability) and cultural fit (the

organization and employee have similar values and have shared

industry knowledge), behavior and skills are the two variable

which affect an individual’s performance in a role and over

which an organization can exert most influence.

This interaction between behavior and skills is what we refer

to as the Sales Talent Performance Matrix (see Figure 3)

for that specific role: where an individual falls within the chart

is highly predictive of their performance. High-Performers

(the upper right quadrant) are the ideal for that specific role,

while those in the bottom left quadrant are the individuals an

organization should avoid hiring or redeploy (where possible) if

already in post.

Introducing the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

High skills, behavior doesn’t fit role

Skills

High

High

Low

Beh

avio

r Fit

Figure 3: Sales Talent Performance Matrix – the importance of assessing sales people for the correct role-fit in terms of the trainable intrinsic factors. When hiring or positioning an individual for a specific sales role, high role-fit indicates potential for High-Performance in the role. Subject to appropriate motivation and critical reasoning ability, individuals with high role-fit plus high skills are the High-Performers. Conversely, an individual with low role fit and low skills should not be hired for that specific role. Individuals already in the role should ideally be redeployed.

High skills, behavior fits role = High-Performer

Low skills, behavior fits role

Low skills, behavior doesn’t fit role

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High behavior-fit and skills are broadly equivalent to the 80th

percentile across their respective ranges (and so in line with

the McKinsey definition of a High-Performer), although this

varies slightly from role to role: conversely, low behavior-fit and

skills are broadly equivalent to the 20th percentile. In terms of

normal distribution, the mode falls at approximately the 50th

percentile but does vary from role to role.

Figure 3 underlines the fundamental importance

of matching the right person to the right role and implementing

appropriate career development and talent management

strategies within an organization. It clarifies and defines

strategy with regard to hiring, development, promotion

and internal appointments, succession planning and even

company structure.

It is essential to understand that performance in one sales

role is not necessarily a good indicator of performance in

another; indeed, this is something we keep coming back to. This

highlights the significance of regular assessments, particularly

in advance of a proposed role change for any individual: regular

assessment is also vital to ensure continued fit to any specific

role, because every role adapts to evolving market conditions.

Figure 4 sets out the coaching and development options

for individuals who have been assessed for their suitability

for a specific role and fall into the top-left or bottom-right

quadrants. The assessment might have taken place prior to

hiring, as a guide to development or as part of a restructuring

initiative for the sales organization.

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Focus on coaching

Skills

1 month

1 month(with no

development)

1 year

High

Low

BehaviorFit

Focus on retention High-Performer

Focus on development

Focus on redeployment

Above the line = hire

Figure 4: Development issues following assessment. Where an individual is positioned on the Talent Performance Matrix has important implications for their development and management, and for their potential performance in this role. Typically, an organization would choose to appoint a candidate in either of the top quadrants of the matrix for this role.

Talent management using the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

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with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

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Figure 5: Right person, right role – consequences of role fit for talent management. Our research shows that a significant number of people assessed fall into the bottom two quadrants, and are poorly positioned for their current role. Often the result of poor hiring practice or unsuitable promotion from a previous role in which they were performing well, this can lead to individuals becoming disillusioned with their new role and leaving, adversely affecting talent retention for both the current and previous roles.

Reducing risk with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

Promotion to the wrong role can turn

a High-Performer into a poor-performer

High-PerformersThose in the top right quadrant are the High-Performers with

good role fit and a high level of skills. This is the ideal employers

are aiming for.

SkillsThose in the top left quadrant have good role fit but are

lacking in skills. Appropriate learning and development can begin

to move them into a position to be a potential High-Performer

within a short a timescale as 1 month. NB One-size-fits-all,

so called ‘sheep-dip’ training is not usually effective in this

situation as specific skills need to be addressed.

Conversely, an individual in the top left quadrant can easily

slip down into the bottom left quadrant in an equally short

timescale. Left without appropriate skills development, such

individuals repeatedly fail to perform with a consequent effect

on their motivation and confidence. Evidence of this is seen

throughout the sales world with many salespeople ‘hopping’

from job to job on a six-month cycle, with the last three months

in each job spent looking for the next one.

BehaviorsIndividuals in the bottom right quadrant have good skills but

their behaviors are not suited to this role. This situation can be

addressed by intensive coaching: typically this takes at least a

year to bear fruit. Because of this lengthy timescale, employers

tend to look long and hard at the cost versus the benefit of this

approach as well as the risks involved.

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In terms of cost/benefit, many organizations would re-deploy

or not hire individuals assessed to be in the red or orange

(bottom half) of the Skills/Role-fit matrix.Role-fit has profound

implications for an organization in terms of improving talent

management, not least in terms of reducing risk. Accurate

assessment significantly mitigates the risk of making the

wrong appointment, whether this be in terms of hiring new

talent or appointing an existing employee to a new role within

the organization.

We have all come across instances of people being appointed

to the wrong role based on their performance in a previous role:

for example, sales High-Performers are routinely promoted into

sales management, although this involves a broadly different

set of competencies. This can have disastrous consequences

across a whole sales organization and not simply for the

employee concerned. And for that individual, such failures are

very difficult to come back from.

In contrast, effective assessment tools used routinely to

inform hiring and development decisions all but eliminate this

risk. Assessment is beneficial to both the individual and the

organization because it informs both the decision to offer

and to accept a new role. Assessment empowers talent by

encouraging both employer and employee to participate in a

shared development journey as part of the organization.

Beyond this, assessment also has far-reaching implications

for company structure in that it highlights the need for an

organization to acknowledge the aspirations and ambitions

of its High-Performers... but not in a hierarchical way. Instead,

effective assessment points the way towards a meritocratic

approach which can drive organizational performance

and growth.

...drive strategic sales change...

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online sales talent assessment

whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy

with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

15 | whitepaper: Driving a high-performance sales talent strategy with the Sales Talent Performance Matrix

ConclusionWhile the past search for sales performance improvement has

been centered around sales process and, latterly, structure

and style of customer relationships, these areas deliver limited

(albeit valuable) incremental performance improvements of a

few percentage points.

Numerous commentators have emphasized that the really big

wins come when an organization is able to focus on talent and

align it with structure and process.

Unfortunately, until now, there has been no effective method

of assessing sales talent that is at the same time:

• forward-looking;

• globally rather than internally benchmarked;

• accurately focused on specific (rather than generic) sales

roles; and

• affordable.

Our new assessment methodology transforms sales talent

management and provides a clear model for organizations to

identify, hire, develop and retain High-Performers.

Being able to identify High-Performers and understanding

how to manage them is, in turn, the key to transforming

an organization’s go-to-market strategies. It enables an

organization to optimize its customer relationships by having

the right talent in the right roles, aligned to the right sales

processes for those roles.

References1 Sales Performance Optimization: 2011 Key Trends Analysis

by Jim Dickie and Barry Trailer, CSO Insights.

2 ‘The War for Talent’, by Elizabeth G Chambers, Mark Foulon,

Helen Handfield-Jones, Steven M Hankin and Edward G

Michaels III, McKinsey Quarterly August 1998 and ‘War for

Talent: part two’ by Elizabeth L Axelrod, Helen Handfield-

Jones and Timothy A Welsh, McKinsey Quarterly May 2001.

3 ‘Making talent a strategic priority’ by Matt Guthridge,

Emily Lawson and Asmus Komm. McKinsey Quarterly,

January 2008.

4 Assessments 2011 – Selecting and Developing for the

Future by Mollie Lombardi, Aberdeen Group, May 2011.

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Whitepaper V11.1

online sales talent assessment

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