Sales managers: let's talk about account hoarders.
Have you seen these symptoms? Your sales team handles more inbound than outbound. As you scale, longer-tenured reps easily hit their number while new reps struggle to ramp. Overall team attainment sucks while a few folks do great.
It could be a training problem. But it might be something simpler.
OG reps have been in the round robin for a while and have way more accounts in their name than everyone else. Over time, more inbounds match with their accounts, sending them more opportunities. They do well because they essentially get a call option on a big chunk of your overall pipe! Plus, they've got more accounts than they can actively work. Chunks of your TAM are "locked up" in their book and not available to the rest of your sales team.
The result: uneven attainment, unhappy reps and lower overall revenue. Not good.
Here are 4 tips to restore the balance so you can scale.
1. Set an SLA
Reps must work an account to keep it. Make sure this isn't easy to game. A service-level agreement solves unfair gamification. Consider something like multiple touches within a 30-day period for an account to count as worked. Unworked accounts should be eligible for reassignment after some period (usually 30-90 days).
2. Cap capacity
Do a bottoms-up sales capacity planning/analysis to determine the max number of accounts a rep can effectively work simultaneously. Don't assign new accounts to maxed-out reps. Pair this with a way to voluntarily relinquish accounts after they've been worked.
3. Follow through
SLA or capacity-based reassignment is often included in a company's rules of engagement (RoE) but not done in practice because it's a challenge operationally and managerially. If these rules aren't enforced, hoarders will keep on hoarding.
4. Automate
A frequent, automated process of retrieving unworked accounts makes following through on the SLA easier. It removes any subjectivity - perceived or real. Running this process frequently (daily or weekly) at a set time normalizes it and is less disruptive than a big quarterly or semi-annual realignment process.
Equal attainment starts with equal books. If you're not actively managing them, you're hurting your sales team.
