Deals moved slowly and the pipeline was not converting, and leadership's read was that the team lacked hustle. A natural conclusion, but one worth testing with data before restructuring compensation or people around it.
The situation
A national healthcare services company delivering home-delivered meal programs to Medicaid and Medicare members engaged Score More Sales for a Custom Analysis across its sales organization.
The salespeople simply were not driven enough.
What the analysis found
Desire was not the problem. Compatibility with the role averaged 82 out of 100, and Desire, how much salespeople want to succeed, averaged 74. On paper that is a team that wants the job and fits it.
Compatibility averaged 82 out of 100 and Desire averaged 74. Whatever was going wrong, it was not that the team did not want the work.
Across the four pipeline-facing competencies, Hunting scored highest at 48% weighted. Not a strength to build a strategy on, just the least broken stage of a pipeline breaking down at every point after it.
Wanting to win was not translating into closed business.
With qualifying and closing this weak, the pipeline forecasts were rated unreliable. The client wants to expand its market and increase trade show participation, but the sales force does not yet have enough hunters, qualifiers and closers to support that strategy, and marketing has not been brought fully into the plan.
The analysis quantified the opportunity at $24,239,058 in achievable organic revenue growth, a 39% increase over the client's current $62,930,313 in annual sales.
Recoverable over an average of about 29 months by closing the gap between desire and execution, and by tightening a selection process that is not yet screening for grit.
Where we recommended starting
Tighten selection criteria to screen for Commitment, not just Desire and Compatibility, first. Then build Consultative Selling and Qualifying discipline. Then Closing. Closing sits downstream of those upstream gaps despite being the most visible symptom at 13% weighted.
The common mistake
Leadership reads a stalled pipeline as a motivation problem and looks at compensation or headcount as the fix. Here the salespeople wanted to succeed, and both Desire and role Compatibility were strong. What was missing was not willingness. It was the combination of selling skill and the grit to see a hard deal through, plus a selection process that was not yet screening for that grit.
Measure before you assume. The data is usually more specific, and more fixable, than the story leadership is telling itself.
A manufacturer blamed motivation and management. 100% of the team was motivated. 0% followed a sales process.
Read the case studyAn enterprise fintech blamed its systems and recruiting. Both scored well. Closing scored 16.
Read the case studyA SaaS team blamed prospecting. Hunting was the one thing working. Reaching decision makers scored 12%.
Read the case studyBook a Call Now
Tell us what is happening and Lori will tell you what the data would likely find. You will hear back from her directly, usually within one business day.
Typically answered within one business day