Why does denial stop growth?

One of the key indicators of a sales organization's ability to grow is the willingness to track (and courageously face!) quantifiable and qualifiable information.

The flip side of the above statement is this: denial is the worst enemy of growth.

Without tracking important metrics, it's a heck of a lot easier to avoid numbers that might make you wince. But the only way to progress and grow is to have a good grasp on objective data.

Imagine a sales leader who refrains from tracking close rates and prefers to focus on anecdotal success stories. Celebrating success is crucial and necessary, no doubt! But it must also go along with objective assessments of where the team needs help. 

In other words: denial inhibits our ability to pull specific levers to support a team's overall performance and development.

Are you measuring these today?

Here are some of the key metrics that serve as a signposts on the path to growth. They might seem obvious – but you’d be surprised by how many sales organizations aren’t tracking them! These include:

Close Rates:

• Tracking the conversion rate from initial meeting to close and from qualified opportunity to close.

Meeting Metrics:

• Monitoring the number of meetings scheduled and completed per week. 

Time-to-Close:

• Calculating the time it takes to close a deal from the moment it qualifies as an opportunity.

Qualification criteria

It's also important to be clear on the criteria that make an opportunity qualified. Most sales teams consider an opportunity qualified if the buyer fits their ICP. That's not enough!

In the Gap Selling framework, an opportunity is only qualified if:

- the prospect has a problem you can fix

- the prospect agrees they have a problem

- the prospect wants to fix the problem

- the prospect will go on a journey with you to fix the problem

Without these criteria being met, it's not a qualified opportunity. Which is why they end up sitting in the pipeline for months - even if the prospect seemed interested at a certain point. 

The bottom line - Denial stops growth!

It can be challenging to face the numbers, and to eliminate leads based on true qualification criteria - there's no doubt about that!

But as Peter Drucker said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Even more so, you cannot change and grow without first seeing and accepting the objective facts in your current environment. 

As sellers, this is how we help our customers to change. But even more importantly, this is how we help ourselves to change.

"Why does denial stop growth?"