The Secret to Making B-Players Into A-Players on Your Sales Team

Every sales team inevitably has some B-players. These are the sales people who aren’t exceeding sales goals but often have the potential to do so. However, some key factors are usually holding them back. We of course don’t seek to hire B-players, but every team inevitably has a few. Given this fact, how do we turn those could-be-A-Players into proper A-players?

Create a Clear Prospecting Playbook: This means that every single sales person on your team should have a crystal clear idea as to what he must do on a daily basis in order to hit sales goals. They must know exactly how many prospecting calls to make, introductions to ask for, networking events to attend, and meetings to conduct in order to ensure they hit their goals. Often, the difference between an A-player and a B-player is clarity of plan.

Invest in Training: Many times, your best sales people are also your most veteran. They likely joined your company with previous sales training. This is not to be taken for granted. The people who are on the cusp of A-playerhood are simply in need of a clear sales process to help them get to that next level. Simply shadowing the A-players is not training. In fact, it can be destructive. In order to properly groom the next class of A-players, you must invest in their sales skills to provide them the repeatable sales system.

Focus on the Behaviors: What do you measure at your weekly sales meeting? Are you focused on week-to-week sales? If that is the primary metric you measure on a weekly basis, you are doing a disservice to those B-players looking to get to the next level. Rather, focus on the prospecting behaviors that your sales people are doing on a daily basis. Pipeline isn’t big enough? The next logical question should be, how many of each prospecting activity has the sales person done in the past month? Focusing exclusively on sales numbers is like a doctor treating a rash caused by stress with ointment—the real problem is the stress, not the rash. The real problem is prospecting activity, not the sales number.

How do you build up your B-players? Please share below.

Marc Wayshak is author of the book Game Plan Selling and a sales management speaker.