Promoted to VP of Sales: The Year 1 Toolkit

Sales Management Maturity Model

The Sales Management Maturity Model
depicts the movement a sales manager
and their sales team through several
levels of maturity. Starting with a state
of chaos and eventually assuming a
state of predictable performance, each
one of these growth and maturity
stages is represented by certain
attributes that can be measured to
sustain productivity.

Level 1: Chaos
Heroic Efforts

Level 2: Defined
Standardized Processes

-Ill-defined processes
-Unpredictable result

Sales Environment

Yes

No

Processes are ad-hoc and undocumented

Sales Force

-Documented Process
-Some Repeatability

Sales Environment

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Adoption is low, if tracked at all

Crisis-driven

Sales Force
Success and execution varies widely from rep to
rep
Sales accomplishments are repeatable with
similar campaigns and scope, but managers
cannot depend on outcomes
Sales Management

No consistent hiring process

Performance tracking is largely qualitative

Expense budgets exceeded

Whatever Quantitative analysis that does exist is

unreliable and not tied to decision-making

No sales process in place

Inconsistent performers are the norm

Unpredictable pipeline with Forecasts off by > 25%

No

Some processes are developed and documented

Over-commits and under-delivers

Unable to repeat sales success

Sales Management

Yes

Yes

No

Promoted to VP of Sales: The Year 1 Toolkit

Sales Management Maturity Model

Level 4: Managed
Quantative Sales Mgmt.

-Leading Indicators
-Early Problem Detection

Sales Environment

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Leading sales indicators are connected to sales process

Sales strategy and corporate strategy aligned
Sales Force

Level 3: Reportable
Basic Sales Management

Best practices are proactively found and shared

-Adopted Processes
-Lagging Indicators

Sales Environment

Rep-provided data quality consistently improves

Sales Management

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Processes are thorough, adopted, and use is evident

Organizational commitment to driving process
improvement
Tools enable the business not the contrary
Sales Force

Data and quantity increase in depth and complexity and

enables robust Business Intelligence
Some execution of best practice methodologies
Management shifts focus to identifying future
improvement opportunities, not reporting on the
business

Sales force is aware of measurements and data needs

Sales force changes in response to marketplace
developments without organized resistance
Sales Management
Quantitative measurements track performance, but
majority of metrics are still lagging indicators
Aware of best in class methodology but not executing

Level 5: Predictable
Casual Sales Mgmt.

-Change tolerant
-External Benchmark

Sales Environment
Shift in emphasis to continuous process improvement
Processes are nimble, adaptable, and innovative
Sales Force
Sales force is empowered and aligned
A player retention is over 90%
Sales Management
Management understands causality and predicts
performance
Leading indicator sales metrics are benchmarked against
external data and against peer groups
Best practice execution of all methodologies