It’s a long way to the top in any competitive field, and the sales profession is no exception. Salespeople and organizations are tested every day, challenged to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage in front of customers. A relentless quest to improve and constantly get to the next level is the first behavior that drives WC performance.

The widespread sales myths of the 20^th century have faded—“Salespeople are born, not made,” “A good salesperson can sell anything to anyone,” etc.—but even in the data-obsessed present, many sales organizations lack a clear understanding of exactly what it is that makes their best sellers outperform all others.

Who are the top performers? That is never in doubt—revenue is a yardstick you can’t argue with. What makes these individuals high achievers? That’s a question that world-class sales organizations know they need to answer.

The first step is to identify the activities, attributes and behaviors that correlate with success. “Best practices” must be derived from the specific actions that get the best results. Establishing best practices must always be a pragmatic exercise—never an academic one. 

When our team conducts our annual Sales Best Practices Study, we find that year after year, World-Class Organizations report that, “We leverage the best practices of our top performers to improve everyone else.” This is reflected in how they prioritize training investments to maximize performance improvement.

In addition to leveraging best practices, World-Class Sales Organizations are actively seeking to provide their sales professionals with a “knowledge advantage.” It is customary these days to talk as if the customer has a knowledge advantage, because search engines and social media have made so much information available.

However, many customers are finding the sheer volume of information to be more of a challenge than a help. Unlimited access to unfiltered information is no substitute for knowledge. Experienced salespeople have always relied on their industry insights and business acumen to create value for the customer. Today, sales organizations can help their sellers become top performers by providing them with knowledge resources, filtered information and business intelligence.

It’s a long way to the top, and every sales organization needs more of their salespeople to get to the next level. Give them authentic best practices, give them a knowledge advantage, and watch them raise their level of performance.

Joe Galvin leads the MHI Research Institute, formerly known as Miller Heiman Research Institute, as Chief Research Officer. (Miller Heiman has joined with four other companies to form MHI Global.) His mission is to continuously research, measure, and analyze the best practices, innovations, and emerging trends for complex B2B sales organizations to provide clients with the insights required to make strategic decisions.

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