What makes great salespeople

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In this Harvard Business Review article, Ryan Fuller, CEO and co-founder of VoloMetrix, discusses the behaviours that drive success in sales.

VoloMetrix’s research identified the behaviours that drive sales: more time spent with customers, larger internal networks and more time spent with managers and senior leadership. While these sales drivers might seem intuitive, according to the data, the details matter. Here is how:

• Customer engagement
  Customer engagement is not about merely spending time with more customers. Time spent with customers is imperative. However, further analysis reveals that degree of focus can matter as much or more than total time. The focus should be on building deeper relationships with fewer customers rather than a wider group yielding suboptimal engagement.
• Internal networks
  Building internal networks and spending more time with leadership are necessary for being successful in sales. However, building relationships is not about attending numerous meetings, especially those with 20-something attendees. Measuring relationships involves both a frequency and an intimacy component. To build a strong relationship, there should be frequent interactions (at least twice a month) with a relatively intimate group (five or fewer people). Thus, to establish a large network, you have to frequently interact with many people on separate threads.
• Energy
  Sales is hard work and top performers put in more time than low-performers. However, simply working harder is not the key. The key is in understanding that every hour is precious.

Understanding these details can help leaders set up their teams for success.