using top-producer analysis to improve sales results

Using Top-Producer Analysis to

Improve Sales Results

Mike Kunkle

Session TU218.

Tue, May 24 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM | 702/704

The Premier Conference for TD Professionals

Come see us at Booth #858

Some Housekeeping

• Join the social circus!

– @Mike_Kunkle

– @Brainshark

– Hashtags: #TopProdAnalysis #atd2016

• SlideShare: http://bit.ly/mkatd2016

• Breaking rules: Deck is a resource

• Feel free to ask questions

• Award-winning Brainshark solutions

for improving sales readiness at

booth #858.

Using Top-Producer Analysis to Improve Sales Results – Mike Kunkle 2016 2

http://bit.ly/mkatd2016

Agenda

• What is Top-Producer Analysis?

• Why do it?

• How to do it?

• What to do with it?



“Advice about how to figure out what’s

right for you, is better than advice

about what to do.”

~ Mike Kunkle

Hey, that’s me!

Final thought before we get started…

5

Top-Producer Analysis

What Is It?

What is Top-Producer Analysis (TPA)?

• Defining “top sales producer”

• Defining “Top-Producer Analysis”

• How bad practice has undermined “best practices”

• The 5 Mistakes to avoid during TPA

• Some context – where TPA fits.


Defining “Top Sales Producer”

My definition:

• A sales rep who has an acceptable blend of

the results, mindset, traits, knowledge, skills,

and behaviors that you want to replicate in

your sales force.

Consider:

• How the top 4% & 16% are different

• What criteria/KPIs/results matter most for the

future?

• Is the rep truly responsible for their results?

• Is what the rep does, replicable, repeatable

and trainable?

• Ask sales leadership to identify study

participants but validate with data.

Top 4%

Bottom 20%

Top 4%

Rest of Top 20% (16%)

Middle 60%

Above Average

Below Average

Average

Bottom 20%

7Using Top-Producer Analysis to Improve Sales Results – Mike Kunkle 2016

Defining “Top-Producer Analysis”

My definition:

• A study to determine the (mindset, traits,)

knowledge, skills, and behaviors that top-

producers possess, that differentiate them

from other sales reps.

Consider:

• Are you doing this for selection, training, or

both?

• Do you have enough participants for study

reliability and validity?

• Should you focus on the top 4% or the rest of

the top 20%? Or both?

• Do you have the ability to analyze/crunch

data or a resource who can?

Top 4%

Bottom 20%

Top 4%

Rest of Top 20% (16%)

Middle 60%

Above Average

Below Average

Average

Bottom 20%


Best Practices vs. Top-Producer Practices

Some common concerns on “best”…

• “Best practices aren’t really ‘best’… they’re just good practices.”

• “Who determines whether something is best or not? Isn’t that

immediately invalid?”

• “I’ve never seen a best practices study amount to anything.”

• “I tried that at a previous company and it was a waste of time.” *

* Grrr…


Best Practices vs. Top-Producer Practices

Why TPS is better than “best”

• Sales Utility Belt concept

• Sales Nuance is the new black

• Judgment is the superpower of selling skills.

Sales Judgment: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140816235048-834966-judgment-the-superpower-of-selling-skills

Sales Nuance: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-sales-nuances-why-you-should-care-mike-kunkle


https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140816235048-834966-judgment-the-superpower-of-selling-skills

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-sales-nuances-why-you-should-care-mike-kunkle

The 5 Mistakes of TPA

• Mistake 1: Studying the wrong “top reps” and therefore,

cloning the wrong behaviors

• Mistake 2: Ignoring differentiators, compared to average

producers (continue | stop | start)

• Mistake 3: Leaving out the Voice of the Customer

• Mistake 4: Forgetting “what to STOP doing”

• Mistake 5: Implementing the resulting training ineffectively.


Sales Performer Analysis

Sales & Sales Manager Selection

Performance Lever

Identification

Top-ProducerPractice

Capture & Analysis

Sales & Sales Manager Training

Performance Lever

Alignment


http://www.slideshare.net/MikeKunkle/aligning-performance-levers-for-breakthrough-sales-results-082011

How TPA Fits

Sales Performance Levers

• 6-Project Series

Performance Levers:• Critical competencies,

knowledge, skills, behaviorsand conditions which must be present for ethical, sustained, high-performance to occur.




Performance Lever

Identification


Capture & Analysis


Performance Lever

Alignment




How TPA Fits

Sales Performance Levers

• 6-Project Series

Performance Levers:• Critical competencies,

knowledge, skills, behaviorsand conditions which must be present for ethical, sustained, high-performance to occur.


14


Why Do It?

Why Bother with TPA?

Primary Reasons

• More effective sales onboarding

• Better business outcomes

• The mythical and elusive Sales Training ROI.


Sales onboarding: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141006015758-834966-sales-onboarding-twice-as-good-half-the-time

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141006015758-834966-sales-onboarding-twice-as-good-half-the-time

Why Bother? The Outcomes | Bottom-line Results

Yup, Real Examples:

• A $398MM revenue increase, $9.96MM net profit increase and a 400% ROI

• Increased sales/rep by 47% through changes in territory management &

sales coaching

• Improved average profitability/rep by 11% in 4 months

• Improved processing efficiency (order pull-through) by 16% in 6 months.

• Newly-hired 4-month employees outperformed a control group of 5-year

employees

• Increased sales/rep in the 3-months after training by 2.3 per month (average

revenue increase of $183K per class or $36.6MM in 12 months).


Why Bother with TPA?

Value-Added Reasons:

• Improved relationship/credibility with Sales

• Land and expand strategy

• Buy-in for initiatives

• Helps at budget time

• Career impacts.



How To Do It?

19



Performance Lever

Identification


Capture & Analysis


Performance Lever

Alignment


Who to Study

• What is my performance criteria?

• What are my performer categories?

• Who is in which buckets?


• WHAT: ‒ Identify top, average & low

producing sales reps.

‒ Identify top, average & low

producing sales managers.

• HOW:‒ Analyze a year of sales data &

create a weighted scoring system

across multiple metrics/products.

‒ Some discussion & surveys with

managers.

• WHY:‒ Provides a mix of performers to

study in various ways, to determine

true differentiating factors.

Example of Sales Metrics / Performance Criteria


Metrics Quarterly Weighting *

Create a weighted scoring system…

# of Sales Med-High (2-3)

$ Volume Low (1)

Velocity Med (1-2)

Avg # Sales/Rep High (3-4)

Avg $ Vol/Rep Med-High (2-3)

Cross-Sell Percent Med (1-2)

* Review the last 12 months & the last quarter. Consider weighting the quarter more heavily. Blend the scores.

Example of Performer Categories


Top New RepsNew = >30 days, <271 days

39Top = In the Top Quintile of all metrics

Top Seasoned RepsSeasoned = >365 days (many 5+ years)

307Top = In the Top Quintile of all metrics

Average Reps Selected randomly, between mean and median production 298

Low Producer Reps Selected randomly from the bottom 20% 348

Top SM Producers Top = In the Top Quintile of all metrics, personal production 15

Top SM TeamManagers

Top = Top Quintile all metrics, w/o SM results + survey of their Mgr 52

Top SM BothTop = In Top Producer group personally + Top Quintile all metrics w/o SM results + survey of their Mgr

5

Average SM (Team) Selected randomly, between mean and median production 79

Low Performing SM (Team)

Selected randomly from the bottom 20% 32

Often “top” includes tiers:4% | 10% | 15% | 20%

n =

Example of Analysis – Sales Reps


LowHigh4th QuartileMean Avg.Median

Sort DescendingHighlight 4th QuartileApply WeightingRepeat & Total

Highlight 4th Quartile

Consider things like:• Avg Productivity

‒ Avg # and $/rep/time period

• Engagement: % of team

producing and/or goal %/rep

• Total Team Sales: $ and #

• Avg Time to 1st Sale (new reps)

• Avg Time to productivity (new)

• Pipeline Stats:

‒ Conversion %

‒ Velocity

• Cross-sell Ratios or Penetration

• Trend Indicators (actual # last

month, avg/month over 13

weeks, avg/month past year)

• Survey Their Managers‒ Remove the “luck” factor

‒ Remove “inherited territory”

‒ Remove “one great rep.”

Example of Analysis – Sales Managers


Data Crunch


Partner with smart people with stats software to crunch data

26



Performance Lever

Identification


Capture & Analysis


Performance Lever

Alignment


• WHAT: ‒ Identify the competencies, knowledge, skills,

behaviors and conditions that must exist for

ethical, sustained, high performance to occur.

‒ Formulate hypotheses about what the levers

are for frontline sales and sales management

roles.

‒ Confirm and validate the levers through

research.

• HOW:Through discussion, surveys, interviews,

focus groups, and observation of frontline

sales reps and their managers.

• WHY:This will confirm where to focus your efforts

capturing Top-Producer Practices, which

provides training/coaching content.

Performance Lever ID

What to Study

• What are the Performance Levers?

• What’s working?

• Why?

• How will you figure it out?

REMINDER: Performance Levers…• Critical competencies, knowledge, skills, behaviors and conditions which must be present

for ethical, sustained, high-performance to occur. http://www.slideshare.net/MikeKunkle/aligning-performance-levers-for-breakthrough-sales-results-082011


Formulating the Hypotheses

• Start with known practices

• Talk with:

– Executives

– Other leaders

– Frontline sales reps

– Frontline sales managers

– Sales operations, enablement, and other sales

support staff

– And, hopefully, customers

• Label the big buckets and detail the tasks

• Don’t get married – you’re just dating

• Build surveys to confirm the hypotheses.



Identify the high-level Performance Levers (hypotheses)

Document the potential tasks for the Performance Lever

Ask what you’ve missed

Survey Design


Survey Design

Clearly define Performance Lever

Define the role

Add instructions for completing the survey


Survey Design• Rate the statement provided.

• How much do you agree it’s a Performance Lever?

• If rated 1-2, next question.

• If rated 3-5:

• Importance & Difficulty

• And in some cases:

• Frequency: Actual & Should

• In addition, you should ask what you missed, by Lever, and a handful of other questions – such as normal demographics & Continue | Start | Stop.

Using empathy statements to acknowledge a prospect’s situation/feelings

Survey Design

Look familiar?


Partner with smart people with stats software to crunch data

33



Performance Lever

Identification


Capture & Analysis


Performance Lever

Alignment


TPA: Capture & Analysis

How to Study Them

• What separates the top from

others?

• What is replicable/trainable?

• How will I determine both?

• WHAT: Document the practices and

differentiating behaviors of top

performers, which can be replicated and

trained.

• HOW:Through discussion, interviews, focus

groups and observation of the frontline

sales reps and managers identified

during Sales Performer Analysis.

• WHY:To share practices broadly and

(re)design training around them.

Data Collection Methods


• Interviews

– In-person, phone, web conference

• Focus Groups

– In-person, webinar

• Field Observation

– top performers (A)

– average (B+, B, B-)

– ninth decile (C/D, not new)

– top new reps (great ramp-up)

Getting the Straight Scoop• What really happens “out there”

• Account for the Hawthorne effect

• Trust, truth and strict confidentiality

• Autonomy, mastery and purpose *

* Thank you, Daniel Pink (author of Drive)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

http://www.danpink.com/drive

36


What To Do With It?

Now what?

How TPA feeds your…

• Effective Selling Systems

• Effective Learning Systems


Effective Selling System• Ensure market and buyer persona

knowledge

• Align sales process to buying

process with decision/exit criteria

• Create buyer engagement content

that aligns with decision/exit criteria

• Use sales enablement tools to

manage, share, and track content

and improve sales efficiency and

effectiveness

• Use a buyer-oriented, consultative,

solution-focused, outcome-driven

sales methodology

• Train reps to engage buyers in

valuable business conversations and

to create real value and

differentiation, through their

customer, business, financial, and

solution acumen

• Use analytics to track training,

content, sales behavior, and

outcomes

Effective Learning System

Analytics

Buyer Personas

Buying Process &

Exit Criteria

Buyer Engagement

Content Creation

Sales Process &

Methodology

Sales Enablement

Technology

Market &

Business Acumen


Effective Selling System• Ensure market and buyer persona

knowledge

• Align sales process to buying

process with decision/exit criteria

• Create buyer engagement content

that aligns with decision/exit criteria

• Use sales enablement tools to

manage, share, and track content

and improve sales efficiency and

effectiveness

• Use a buyer-oriented, consultative,

solution-focused, outcome-driven

sales methodology

• Train reps to engage buyers in

valuable business conversations and

to create real value and

differentiation, through their

customer, business, financial, and

solution acumen

• Use analytics to track training,

content, sales behavior, and

outcomes


Analytics

Buyer Personas

Buying Process &

Exit Criteria

Buyer Engagement

Content Creation

Sales Process &

Methodology

Sales Enablement

Technology

Market &

Business Acumen




• Ensure training content matters

• Design great learning (active,

blended/flipped learning)

• Engage sales managers

• Sustain knowledge/transfer skills

• Coach to mastery

• Measure learning and

performance

• Manage performance

• Lead and manage change

Training Content

Design

Managers

Transfer

Coaching

Measures

Perf. Mgt.

Integration Alignment

Change

http://www.mikekunkle.com/2014/07/30/stop-wasting-money-on-sales-training/




• Ensure training content matters

• Design great learning (active,

blended/flipped learning)

• Engage sales managers

• Sustain knowledge/transfer skills

• Coach to mastery

• Measure learning and

performance

• Manage performance

• Lead and manage change

Training Content

Design

Managers

Transfer

Coaching

Measures

Perf. Mgt.

Integration Alignment

Change



42

Appendix

Using Top-Producer Analysis to Improve Sales Results – Mike Kunkle 2016

Mike is a training and organization effectiveness

leader with special expertise in sales force

transformation

• After his initial years on the frontline in sales and sales

management, he spent the next 21 years as a corporate

manager or consultant, leading departments and projects

with one purpose – improve sales results.

• Today, in his role at Brainshark, Mike uses his in expertise

in best-in-class learning strategies, methods, processes,

and change leadership to develop the capabilities of sales

representatives and sales managers to drive business

results.

• Mike freely shares his own sales transformation

methodology, speaking at conferences and writing online

(see examples) and can be reached on various social

media sites.

• LinkedIn

• Twitter

• Google+

• SlideShare

Let’s Connect!

About Mike Kunkle

43

http://bit.ly/EffectiveSalesLearningSystems

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekunkle

https://twitter.com/Mike_Kunkle

http://gplus.to/mikekunkle

http://www.slideshare.net/MikeKunkle

About

Brainshark is a leading sales enablement company that helps businesses harness the power of

content to drive sales productivity.

With Brainshark, companies can:

• TRAIN: Prepare sales teams with on-demand training that accelerates onboarding and keeps

existing reps up-to-speed and in-the-know

• COACH: Hone performance with sales coaching that ensures reps make the most of every

buyer interaction

• ENGAGE: Empower salespeople with dynamic content that can be created quickly, imported

easily and accessed anywhere

• arm reps with the right content and resources for any selling situation to better engage buyers

and close more deals.

• ANALYZE: Brainshark analytics enable organizations to track sales content effectiveness and

make smarter decisions that drive results.

Thousands of companies – including more than half of the Fortune 100 – rely on Brainshark to

improve sales productivity and increase the impact of their sales, marketing, and training. Learn

more at www.brainshark.com


http://www.brainshark.com/


Links

Throughout this deck:• This deck on SlideShare: http://bit.ly/mkatd2016

• Sales Nuances: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-sales-nuances-why-you-should-care-mike-kunkle

• Sales Judgment: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140816235048-834966-judgment-the-superpower-of-selling-skills

• Aligning Performance Levers: http://www.slideshare.net/MikeKunkle/aligning-performance-levers-for-breakthrough-sales-

results-082011

• Sales Onboarding: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141006015758-834966-sales-onboarding-twice-as-good-half-the-time

• Hawthorne Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

• Drive (Dan Pink’s book): http://www.danpink.com/drive

• Effective Learning Systems: http://www.mikekunkle.com/2014/07/30/stop-wasting-money-on-sales-training/

About Top-Producer Analysis:• http://www.mikekunkle.com/2013/03/17/how-to-increase-sales-with-top-producer-practices-part1/

• http://www.mikekunkle.com/2013/03/20/how-to-increase-sales-with-top-producer-research-part-2/

• http://blogs.richardson.com/2013/08/05/which-top-producers-should-you-study-to-develop-sales-training-programs/

• http://www.insightsquared.com/2015/08/performance-lever-sales-ops/

• http://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-methodology-magic-or-madness

• https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/Sales-Enablement-Blog/2014/04/Improve-Sales-Performance-with-22Nd-Century-Selling-

Skills

http://bit.ly/mkatd2016

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-sales-nuances-why-you-should-care-mike-kunkle

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140816235048-834966-judgment-the-superpower-of-selling-skills


https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141006015758-834966-sales-onboarding-twice-as-good-half-the-time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

http://www.danpink.com/drive


http://www.mikekunkle.com/2013/03/17/how-to-increase-sales-with-top-producer-practices-part1/

http://www.mikekunkle.com/2013/03/20/how-to-increase-sales-with-top-producer-research-part-2/

http://blogs.richardson.com/2013/08/05/which-top-producers-should-you-study-to-develop-sales-training-programs/

http://www.insightsquared.com/2015/08/performance-lever-sales-ops/

http://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-methodology-magic-or-madness

https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/Sales-Enablement-Blog/2014/04/Improve-Sales-Performance-with-22Nd-Century-Selling-Skills