Building a successful and effective sales team can be a serious headache, but it is vital for your company’s growth and recognizing superstar salespeople from the reserves is trickier than you might think. So, where do you start?
Enter Cole Gordon, the founder of Closers.io, experts in helping businesses build the best possible internal sales team for their needs.
Gift of the Gab
Now the owner of a multimillion-dollar organization, Gordon has long been a well-known and respected figure throughout the sales industry. Recognized for his charisma and tenacity, as well as his gift for selling, Gordon uses pragmatic and repeatable techniques to build reliable revenue streams for impressive results.
Already a successful salesperson himself, Gordon has also become a thought leader for the industry thanks to a thriving online persona. He has built a following of more than half a million Instagram users, not to mention a YouTube channel with over 14k subscribers.
Gordon’s skill as a natural salesperson are the foundation for Closers.io.
“The easiest way to encapsulate why we started the company is because, as a high-performing sales rep myself, I was always asked where companies can find good sales reps,” Gordon said. “Good salespeople know other good salespeople. That’s a fact. That is also the key to recruiting good salespeople too. You leverage them, their network, and find referrals.”
In his position advising businesses on how to build powerful sales teams, Gordon is often asked what might seem like a simple question, how do you separate A-Player salespeople from the rest of the pack?
Want to find out? Here is some of Gordon’s best advice on how to do just that.
Closing vs. Production
The big difference between your average salespeople and your stars is how they measure their own performance. The average sales exec is all about closing.
Or as Gordon puts it, “Closing is b******t. In a sales team, you typically get the close rate from self-reporting from the closer. Did they close? Did the person show up? Was there a deposit? These criteria can be manipulated.”
“A closer might have someone who is driving, and they reschedule it as a no-show. Or someone may not watch the video before the call, and they reschedule and don’t mark it as a call. They start to get picky and fake their close rate — it’s an easily manipulated metric.”
This means that the ratio of calls to sales is skewed and, essentially, the closing rate is a false record of that person’s success rate.The MVP salesperson measures success in an altogether different manner. They measure production.
Production means Revenue
“Production is literally the only thing that matters. It could be production in units, in cash, and in commissions (the most important thing), but this is the only factor I am interested in. A close rate might look good on paper, but banks only take money.”
The best salespeople are laser-focused on finding new opportunities and closing as many deals as possible. In the short term, these habits might have a negative impact on the close rate. But long term, those with the highest production will make the most money, simple as that.
If you instill in your team the importance of production, where salespeople record every interaction and jump on every call, whether the customer is a difficult prospect or not — you will create a work culture that celebrates top producers (rather than those with the highest closing rate).
“If your team values production over closing, your record of close rates becomes far more accurate, with less manipulation of the metrics, because the team knows you don’t care about that in the first place!”
About Cole Gordon
Cole Gordon is the CEO of Closers.io, the leading sales and marketing education, and training company that fulfills companies’ needs for talented sales teams. Gordon is an 8-figure entrepreneur, investor, and sales trainer who has sold over $10 million worth of online coaching, consulting, and agency services. For more information about Gordon, please visit https://www.instagram.com/colethomasgordon/ and for more about Closers.io, visit https://closers.io/