Where does a great salesperson go next?
Last time, we looked at why diagnoses has to come first. One of the things it often exposes is what happens to you best people next.
We think the answer should be wherever their ambition points, as long as you’ve shown them the route.
Most sales organisations haven’t, it’s assumed it is one ladder, and it leads to management!
Why do career paths matter so much in sales? Think about it. Ambition fuels activity, in sales that is business development. Without a route to feed this ambition, your best people leave, plateau, or get promoted into management because they are the only way up.
The last one is the most expensive!!! You lose a top seller and gain an undeveloped leader.
What does a good sales career path look like?
Clear levels, two tracks. A leadership track for those who want to build and run teams.
A specialist track for those who want bigger accounts and more complex deals.
Remember neither is a consolation prize.
Ambition is deeply personal and today it moves fast!
People early in their careers want to see progress quickly, and if they can’t see it where they are, they find it somewhere else. Small visible set-ups give them that progress without leaving. A distant promotion with an unknown timescale becomes a goal they can work towards today.
This is where it becomes so powerful, a daily motivator carried in their own head. This is more than a temporary incentive scheme!
What changes as you move up?
More than the title. Think about how you can create the paths so that each level unlocks more trust: a seat in forecast and strategy meetings, higher deal approval limits, first call on accounts, a voice on decisions that matters.
Privileges should expand autonomy, after all we are trying to develop these people. They should never ration support though… Reps need support and customer support when needed.
Recognise talent early too. A future leaders programme, open regardless of seniority or tenure. Give a select few a real business project to lead.
What is the non-negotiable?
Forecast integrity. No promotion without hitting your number and calling it accurately.
For me, this is always at least three out of the last four quarters, but the nuances in your business may lean for a different blend. (And deals slips do happen for reasons nobody can control!)
Calling a number well takes evidence-based inspections, more honest qualification and discipline (see previous article here). The very behaviours a senior seller and leader must embody.
When promotion requires this, the standards rise across the whole team.
Does it work?
I’ve implemented and also been part of models like this a number of times. At Teradata, we put clear levels and a forecast gate in place, backed them with a real focus on discovery: asking better questions, practicing the techniques and role playing the conversations that mattered. Deal sizes more than doubled. When people get to know what the next level demands, they raise their game to get there. At IRIS, our future leaders track gave an elect few each year real business projects to run. In my participation year, the group task what to bring seven intranets into one, over the course of a year. Many of that years participants are now leaders in successful businesses. That’s the real measure of a career path:
This article's question, worth asking Ask a person at each level in your team: what’s your next step and do you know what it takes to get there? The first part may surprise you or show you an issue. If they can’t answer the second part then the gap isn’t their ambition. It is your system.
Next in Building the Commercial Engine: How do you scale a sales engine across regions and cultures?
Building the Commercial Engine is a series on the parts of a commercial organisation that make sales performance sustainable, scalable, and forecastable.
Kaizen-One is a commercial transformation consultancy for B2B SaaS and technology companies. We help leadership teams build commercial engines that develop and keep their best people. If your team can't describe their next step, let's talk. kaizen-one.co.uk
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