Jason M. Lemkin on what separates strong sales reps from struggling ones: listen to your top performers' calls and make them share what works, listen to your struggling reps to find the problems, and train everyone relentlessly on product features and use cases. Product knowledge kills or closes deals.
Why is Bob performing more poorly than Jane? Listen to Bob's calls. I bet you Bob is saying dumb things, or Bob is saying the wrong things, or even it may be as simple as Bob is not as confident as Jane. But listen to far more calls every week than you have. Everyone should be listening to the top reps calls. That should almost be a requirement for the top reps that they distribute their top calls. And as a leader, you should be listening to the folks that are struggling. Okay, next point. Point six this sounds silly, but it's not. Your AES have to deeply, truly understand the product. They have to know every feature and every use case. What does that mean? It means constant training and strong onboarding. You know what destroys deals? When a prospect comes in, they're excited and the rep doesn't really know the product.
