10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to create and then maintain an "autonomous growth machine", November 10, 2007
Ignore this book's title. Surely Derek Gatehouse knows that there is no such entity as a "perfect sales force" but indeed there is much of great value to be learned from what the book's subtitle suggests: "the best practices of the world's best sales teams." However, questions immediately arise: Which are they? Who selected them? According to which criteria? How recent was the information when the selections were made? (Note: Most of the companies that Peters and Waterman praise in In Search of Excellence no longer meet the criteria by which they were selected and several of them have since been acquired by another company.) Gatehouse shares the results of the Gallup organization's 30-year study of top performance, which includes more than 3,000,000 people thus far. He asserts that people rather than processes process sell, and, that those who are "natural born" sales people will "sell circles around all the rest."
How to develop such a sales force? "The only feasible growth system for a sales force, and the only way to build a sales force of top performers, is to learn the language of selling talents. This will let you cast the exact right talents into each stage of your particular sales type, and then gain an understanding of what specific conditions generate autonomous top performance from these gifted sellers." That in the proverbial "nutshell" is what Gatehouse's book is all about: explaining "the formula for a top-producing sales force, one that is made up primarily of those salespeople that sell four times more than all others." This formula takes into full account three separate but interdependent components: "natural-born" sales aptitude, performance enhancement training, and the environment (i.e. "external conditions")in which people sell.
With regard to how Gatehouse organizes his material, he introduces the six best practices of "the perfect salesforce" in Chapter 2 and then devotes a separate chapter to each. For example, #1 consists of ten "selling talents" that Gatehouse examines with rigor and eloquence and #6 consists of best practices in results-based management. In the final chapter, he explains the need for a Perfect SalesForce committee that has only one purpose: to ensure that initiatives "stay on track" as the six best practices are adopted during what amounts to a two-phase process: determination of the changes that need to be made and then the on-going, daily operations. "This latter phase is where companies go off track; everyone is too close to the daily grind to step back and see things objectively. It is here that your committee best serves." Gatehouse then offers a detailed case history of an actual company, Dilan Ink, with which he was closely associated. He explains a four-stage process that begins with an assessment of the current situation and concludes with training.
For whom will this book be most valuable? Certainly anyone who serves on a "Perfect SalesForce committee" whose membership should include a C-level executive, someone from HR, the sales manager, at least one top sales performer (preferably more), and the company owner(s), if appropriate. Others who should read this book are those who are sales administrators or aspire to become one. My own rather extensive experience in sales and sales management suggests that most "natural born" sales people, those who "sell circles around all the rest," would rather be selling than reading about others who do...one man's opinion. However, I think CEOs should be among those who read this book because Gatehouse offers some valuable perspectives on how those in the salesforce, out on the proverbial "front line," in active and frequent contact with current and prospective customers, can provide invaluable competitive intelligence, especially about market trends.
Gatehouse encourages those who purchase his book to check out a wealth of resources at www.theperfectsalesforce.com that include articles, training videos, tools, his daily blog, and a members' forum.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Talent is not enough, April 21, 2009
This review is from: The Perfect SalesForce: The 6 Best Practices of the World's Best Sales Teams (Hardcover)
In The Perfect Salesforce, Gatehouse brings up a subject many companies avoid when dealing with sales issues and that is 'performance conditions.' I have witnessed A player sales reps become C player reps simply by changing companies. I have also seen C player reps become top performers when assigned a different territory. How can this be? It points to the issue of talent being an insufficient remedy. Talented sales people need to be placed into conditions optimized to their unique gifts. Fit is the critical element.
Are you asking your reps to do to much? Read this book to find out.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great guide to jumpstart your sales team, February 6, 2009
Few people would argue that one of the toughest job in nearly every organization resides within the sales department. However, there is a wide performance variance that separates the slugs and superstars along the sales spectrum. When you consider that a top-sales producer may generate four times the gross revenue of their closest colleague, it's easy to see why billions are spent each year trying to find the secret necessary to duplicate that success. Author Derek Gatehouse took up that challenge and interviewed more than 2,000 executives to uncover the formula for extreme sales success. In his resulting book titled The Perfect Sales Force, Gatehouse offers six critical practices that the best sales teams have in common. These best-in-class practices alone are worth much more than the price of the book. But Gatehouse expertly enlarges them to help sales managers identify and assess those intangible attributes that drive successful sales, which is why Soundview recommends this read. If you need to jumpstart your sales team, you need to get this book.
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