This is the last in this mini-series of monthly bulletins in which I will write about the virtues of applying elite level sporting measurement (AFL, NRL) to the B2B business setting.  I used the term “vertical Sales scoreboard” to describe how each member of the team should be equipped thatrepresents an integrated set of indicators (activity inputs, process outputs, financial outcomes).  The sporting team’s, or the sales team’s version of a “balanced scorecard”.  An individual scoreboard for each individual in the team to track and monitor progress against goals, targets and benchmarks.

That is all well and good, and too many organisations don’t equip their Sales Execs with well designed sales scoreboards.  But the better of the best don’t stop there in terms of tools for accountability and transparency of performance.  Here comes the concept of turning the individual Sales Exec scoreboard on its side and providing a view from a different management perspective.

The league table connotes the notion that the individual can now see his/her scores on each of the key indicators on the scoreboard, compared to all other players in the team.  This is the fishbowl view where everyone can see and contrast each other’s relative performance on each indicator, compared to the cocoon view of the scoreboard. And the best designed suite of league tables,  featuring exactly the same activity inputs, process outputs and financial outcomes as the scoreboard, rank the sales Execs top to bottom in performance on each such indicator.  The AFL/NRL teams do this brilliantly (click here for example).

Now, some sales organisations find this kind of brutal transparency too culturally challenging, and hide behind attitudes of “don’t want to create competition among team members”.  Leading sales organisations find a way to harness the inherent power of both the vertical (individual) sales scoreboards AND the horizontal (team) sales league tables to measure and drive high performance,  define and articulate best practices and underpin incentive programs and motivational culture.

How do these organisations design incentive programs to link to these measurement systems? Ah, that dear reader, is a topic for a forthcoming monthly instalment………….”The sales process and the order-to-delivery (service fulfillment) process – the lenses by which our customer’s view and sit in judgement on business performance”

Visiting The Next Level’s website can help put this discussion in perspective. Or simply send us an email  info@nextlevelenterprises.biz we will gladly answer any questions you may have or organise to come out and have a discussion as to what The Next Level Sales System can do for you and your business.