Channel Partners: Start off by telling us a bit about Trans4mers. When did you start it and why, and what services do you provide?
Schmidtmann: At my previous company, I was too successful. Starting with one employee and no accounts, we became the largest Avaya reseller in the mid-Atlantic within six years. The company grew from $8 million when I joined to $125 million. But I was not the owner. Once a bunch of suits came in to run the company, I realized I don’t take direction well. I went off on my own and have been a sole practitioner ever since. I’ve been “Employee of the Month” every month for 15 years. I do what I love to do best: show companies how to hire great salespeople and win big accounts.
CP: Most salespeople fail to meet their sales quota, according to Salesforce Report on the State of Sales. Why is that?
Schmidtmann: A number of reasons: lack of training, unrealistic expectations, and valuing and measuring the wrong things.
- When I first got into sales, there were many companies with great training programs. IBM, Xerox, AT&T, Cisco, and my employer, Harris/Lanier. They would spend six months or more per person to train in all manner of sales and communication skills. Then, these companies realized it was too expensive to maintain a direct sales force, so they pushed the SMB and mid-market business to the channel. The resellers benefited from all that new business, but didn’t have the money or expertise to train their salespeople the way the big companies did. For the most part, the sales and business education that new salespeople get today is pitiful.
- Owners set sales goals unrealistically. Sometimes they don’t know any better. Sometimes it’s a deliberate act to suppress compensation. Sometimes they think stretch goals motivate their people. They usually don’t.
- Resellers tend to reward salespeople who sit on big accounts and bring in high monthly recurring revenue and gross profit. They include some of the million-dollar income salespeople I’ll be talking about. But the hardest thing in sales is opening up a significant new logo. That takes time, skill, and persistence, but it doesn’t show up on the sales board immediately So resellers overvalue the legacy, run rate business and undervalue the new business generation.
CP: What separates that one percent or so who become million-dollar income salespeople from the other 99%?
Schmidtmann: Ha! You have to come to my session to learn that. It’s all I will be talking about. But there’s not one path to million-dollar incomes, there are many. Certainly, expertise, achievement drive, persistence, and other factors play a part, as does luck, but you knew that already.
CP: What are the keys to recruit top sales talent, and retain those elite salespeople who are at the top of an organization?
Schmidtmann: I’ve hired over a dozen salespeople who went on to earn over a million dollars a year. Every one is different. But I will say one thing: If you want to hire a “9” or a “10,” they’ll need to work for a “9” or a “10.” If you want elite performance, you need an elite coach. That talented hire needs to work with someone who can help them realize their potential.