"Your Sales Team Is Only As Good As Your Numbers."

JH
John Honovich
•Mar 04, 2017
IPVM

An interesting claim from sales consultant Brian Offenberg:

Your sales team is only as good as your numbers. Famous football coach Bill Parcels said, “You are what your record says you are.” You are what your number says you are.

On the one hand, taking that approach is important to avoid making excuses for one's own poor performance or mistakes. It can be easy to blame the product, the pricing, the organization, the market, the economy, etc. Pushing your people to take responsibility and make it happen can make them accomplish more / better results.

On the other hand, taking that approach can lead to creating other problems. For example, with Avigilon, did the Schmode make your numbers or your fired approach and the numbers were great for a while until the internal management issues and sales stress blew it up. Currently, Hikvision has taken a similar numbers focused approach but the increasing ill-will and negativity towards Hikvision is building up a long term problem for the company.

What do you think about the claim? What's the best way to balance the sales numbers and the organization's overall health?

Avatar
Bob Kusche
•Mar 04, 2017

For twenty years I owned my own company when I sold mainframes and services for IBM. Over the last ten years I have been selling IPVS hardware, software, and services.

What sales metrics do those two have in common aside from big one ($):

  • Product awareness
  • Ecosystem growth
  • Customer feedback
  • Competitive displacement
  • Networking
  • Innovation

There is a lot of overlap within the above categories, and there are more that I could add to the list, but what do these five NOT have in common with revenues? They are not as easy to measure as $$$$!

My take is that that (as long as you are selling a decently desired product), working a holistic strategy and intelligently working hard will yield the result$ everyone wants.

Measurement by $ alone, in my opinion, is a lazy way to declare success. Look at all the flash in the pan successes over the years in the IPVS field (Pelco, IQinvision, Arecont, ...). At one point they all were industry darlings that yielded huge $, yet today are a shadow of their "successful" selves. Other industries have similar companies that we are all aware of.

If they had focused on more than just revenues, who knows where they might be today?

(5)
(2)
Avatar
Gust Askounis
•Mar 06, 2017
Security Solutions Inc

Over my  28 years of managing salespeople I have found that 90% of the reason a salesperson fails is they don't understand their sales plan or I haven't provided the tools they need to be successful. Each salesperson is different and, like cars, require at times special tools to get going. 

(1)
(2)
New discussion

Ask questions and get answers to your physical security questions from IPVM team members and fellow subscribers.

Newest discussions