The 80-20 Law - Fact or Fiction

hi everyone my name is Peter I'm a Cell ability i'd like to welcome you to today's webcast video and i'm here in our offices in glendale just remember that I during this whole process you might see me look down here at my notes I hope you can bear with me on that it's a good 15-20 minutes as we delve into this subject and what we're going to talk about today is we're going to talk about an interesting subject at the 80-20 law and whether that's fact or fiction and this 8020 law has been around for a long time in particularly in sales generally what it's referring to is that eighty percent of production eighty percent of productivity comes from a smaller group within the sales force say twenty percent so in a sales force of ten people you might have two possibly three people it's not always an exact number that are doing the vast amount of production and is the law across the board and many other subjects and many other businesses it absolutely is for example you'll find that in a restaurant that generally sixty seventy eighty percent of what comes out of the kitchen comes from a small portion of the menu believe it or not you know that teaches you if you know the business well enough not to go into a restaurant and look and choose a dish that may not have been ordered by very many other people over the last couple of weeks you may not be getting the freshest food in other areas take for example a casino well we all know that if we go to Las Vegas tomorrow we're going to be seeing those huge buildings but those huge buildings are generally the rooms believe me that's not what they're making their profit they're making their profit from twenty percent of the floor space which is the gambling tables and the high rollers and those people that are betting money most of those rooms are sold it at cost or maybe even at a loss to keep people there so is it real it definitely is real but sales people aren't casinos and sales people aren't men use their real living breathing individuals and as I address sales managers in this particular video and and hopefully you as a salesperson is watching two and I want to be able to pick up some some tips from this video I have to believe and I truly believe that the lower mid tier or the lower group of people can achieve what those top producers are able to do those top producers had to start somewhere are their intrinsic things that those top producers bring yes in many cases they have a stronger drive they they and their ambition is is paramount egos are very strong motivations towards being on the stage and accepting the salesperson of the year that's wonderful but raising production from that mid to lower core group is what I want to talk about today so what we'd like to do is I'd like to break it into three parts I'd like to talk about this tiered group of being the top producers here which makes up for twenty thirty percent the the mid core group which may be fifty to sixty percent and that lower tier that tier see for example group that the lowest producing individuals within the sales organization which unfortunately find themselves churned out or turned over by sales management let's be honest sales isn't for everyone it's a productivity game it's what you can produce it's what you can go out there and make and create and if you're not able to do that then maybe sells isn't for you so anyway this is an exercise that I want to address towards sales managers and it's built around trying to and accommodate and and change the fortunes of that mid core group the core group that that we at sell ability believe and are going to be able to move up to those higher tiers so step number one and this exercise would be finding out clearly what that top tier what that top group is doing what are they doing in the field what are they doing in there their personal lines what are they doing what's the common traits that those people bring do they run more appointments are they are they working hard are they coming in earlier maybe they're leaving longer and maybe it's exactly the opposite sometimes the core producers that the top tier don't work as many hours and don't have to work as many hours as the people below them maybe they're better at creating relationships maybe they're better at at closing the deal whatever it is make a list don't just listen to what they tell you really go and look for yourself and find out what that is find out what that success pattern is and compare that success pattern to the group the group the lower tiers the tier be and the TRC people and make the list look at intangibles look at drive and ambition and here's an ironic thing about drive and ambition and I know because I was there generally what you're going to find is that at the end of the week at the end of the month if I have applied myself let's say for example which I did I started off in that mid core group of salespeople I learned how to rise at the top and my career but let's say for example that that individual sitting in the mid core area decides to apply himself as given the correct training is taught all those things that we believe sell ability brings you're going to find that drive and ambition which is intrinsic in the top group is going to be instilled why because he's starting to produce more the more sales he starts to make the more confidence he regains the better he feels about his process the better he feels about his his odds of making the sale so productivity is a fire that generates and pushes them up that ladder so keep that in mind that anybody with the right training can get to that top tier so also when your salespeople fail it's because they're not following or applying the same pattern for success so what you're going to be doing is after you make this list after you break it down and what your core people the top tier are doing you're going to start to realize that many of those fundamentals that they use the top tier group is not being done by the mid core group for example they don't understand that selling as a technology they don't have a sales process that they follow there's certainly not disciplined to the degree that the top producing people are and that sales technology and understand that to some of the analogies I've used in earlier videos were out videos where I talk about dentists and and how a professional how an engineer how an architect knows where to start and where to follow the process it's a step by step discipline process where you are going to find those professionals follow it religiously they don't deviate from it they know that that before they get to see there had to be a and B so they also for example in these are some of the traits of those / sales people they don't understand for example that those barriers to the sale are inevitably going to come to them so they're not as well prepared for example in understanding features they're not at all am aware of benefits and how features relate to benefits and and understanding for example the fundamentals of the product as you start to interview them you're going to find that there are things that they should be doing that they aren't so again you've got this this list of things that the successful people are doing and you're going to compare it to the things that you're mid-core or lower people certainly aren't doing so how do you increase sales dramatically within an organization number one find out what those successful actions are from the elite group and is it just because they're working harder is it because they're working smarter and understand that the top group are following a pattern for success one of the unfortunate aspects of weaker sales people and it's applies to any profession is they certainly don't invest in themselves they don't invest in themselves from the fact that good sales reps are reading books on sales there they're going to workshops they're going to seminars there's a thirst for knowledge and some of those weaker sales people avoid it for some reason and generally they're avoiding it because they've had failures well your job as a sales managers to help them get successes and put them on the right track so employing good sales tools such as as going into the presentation and making sure that there's something to help them for example white papers success stories testimonials from happy customers are they relying on talk they relying on verbal communication alone are they really using collateral of a really using tools that help make the case for their product that may not be there your top people may be using those much more effectively if that's the case put it into the to the mid and lower court people the ability to stay focused and spend time to make sure that each sale actually gets to to a close essentially your ability to work closely with the top people really get those core fundamentals down that they're doing move it into the realm of the mid and lower core and instill it and drill it and make sure that it happens is inevitably going to be able to raise sales so anyway look for a consistent pattern from the top salespeople once you have this pattern well documented get the rest of the team to study understand it and then start drilling in start role-playing most of the companies that I go into most of the companies that I visit out in the field do not spend enough time drilling in role-playing am salesperson prospect going through the motions going through that the barriers being able to in what they call overcome objections well I I tend to think of it as understanding the emotional and resistance is going to happen and being able to guide the prospect through one and get them to be in communication and every cell is different circumstances so it's essential to be able to overcome all of these objections and you do that through drilling drill drill and drill again if you as a sales manager simply put into effect a program within your organization that drilled even on a daily basis particularly their sales people in the office think of this every morning for example before the day starts you were able to take off and partition part of your sales team on a Monday for example in the odd days those sales people within the group are drilling the next day you've got another group drilling so every other day you have drills consistently instilling successful actions in those sales people anyway what will happen is inevitably those weaker sales people through through being able to go over the process over and over and over again become better and better and better at it it becomes instinctive for them they don't have to think about it even if it means putting it in writing if their phone sales reps for example having it written in front of them so they they stick with an understanding of of the process that they have to follow anyway so list out for example with hit with with objections list out a handling for you each of those objections and get those objections for example and the handlings from them from your elite reps ensure that there's the most effective handling for each one of those objections and then also list out a list of all the sales tools that need to be used the the collateral that needs to be used by those sales people in the sales process and in drill drill and drill and finally watch them statistically watch the rise look for and get the sales person to understand that look last week you were here the week before you were there now all of a sudden you're here the cause and effect of that will go a dramatically long way get them to understand that this process this discipline the tools that are used and using them over and over and over again are fundamental to their success continually drill them if you're able to do that as a manager and if you're able to watch this video as a salesperson understand those core guys those top producers lots of times it's not something that cannot be emulated it's not something that cannot be duplicated you can duplicate it but you have to have the attitude and the viewpoint that you are going to do it and the discipline to be willing to to spend part of your day spend part of your week finding the successful action and drilling it until you have it down with the willingness to go out there you will find yourself producing more succeeding more and making more money I hope this video helped we'll look forward to seeing you in the next video thank you for watching you you