The quality of your sales talent is one of few elements to profoundly impact the long-term success of your business.
Yet, few organizations have the recruiting structure in place to attract, identify, and ultimately hire Sales Wolves -- high achievers.
In those organizations that do employ Sales Wolves, they typically go unrecognized (and poorly managed). As a result, those Sales Wolves either move elsewhere or simply underperform, the product of a poor system and poor management.
If you build it, they will come (and hit home runs).
When Sales Wolves are properly managed, provided the best available tools (systems), and held accountable to an activity and performance standard (culture), they deliver extreme sales value to organizations AND their Customers.
Sales Wolves seek mutually-beneficial and financially-rewarding relationships. They have strong feedback loops that seek to stop repeating poor outcomes while maximizing favorable outcomes. They know the value of the product / service they sell. They are as valuable or even more so than the product / service they sell.
Sales Wolves know how to identify ideal future Customers who will most appreciate their value proposition and do everything in their power to identify, engage and sell ONLY to them. Ideal future Customers are called “target personas”.
Sales Wolves alone won’t “save” your organization.
While mismanagement of Sales Wolves, in some instances, will expose the lackluster performance of other salespeople, Sales Wolves cannot inherently make the rest of your sales team better. At least, not without the correct systems and managers in place.
To that end, Sales Wolves cannot innately make your managers better. In other words, they cannot transform non-Sales Wolf managers into Sales Wolf managers. It’s up to your managers to create the systems and environment necessary for Sales Wolves to succeed.
When Sales Wolves lack the proper management, systems, and culture, they are hobbled in their ability to deliver strong value to their company and Customers. When Sales Wolves are managed by non-Sales Wolf Sales Managers, they lose their mojo. Their ability to deliver is diminished.
Sales Wolves flee non-Sales Wolf Sales Managers.
Non-Sales Wolf Managers play favorites and by doing so, they destroy accountability, morale and the mojo of Sales Wolves. Sales Wolves expect to be held to a high standard. When they and their team members are not, they become disappointed and ultimately, disengaged.
Even Sales Wolves have limitations.
Those who are categorized as Sales Wolves receive that designation because they have the potential: 
The sales personality, background, education, and experience; to be a Sales Wolf in a given sales role. In other words, their Sales Hiring Scorecard indicates that when placed properly, this individual can and likely will reach Sales Wolf performance.
There are many types of sales roles. Some have long sales cycles, some are a one-call close. Some require heavy cold calling. Others require waiting for the phone to ring. Salespeople may be Sales Wolves in a particular sales role, but not in others. It is critical for organizations to ensure they have the right Sales Wolves in the right sales roles.
Once correctly placed in their roles, potential limitations on Sales Wolves are straightforward: Their own mindsets and the mindsets of their Sales Managers. Mindset issues come in two forms:
1. Limiting beliefs.
Limiting beliefs tell people what they can and cannot do. That conversation becomes the mental drumbeat that drives, shapes, and limits their potential. All human beings have the potential to be held back by their limiting beliefs. Sadly, this is the case for most people.
Sales Wolves learn how to harness their own limiting beliefs and master the voices in their heads.
2. Not knowing their true cruising altitude ( also known as top sales performance).
With rare exception, only Sales Wolves can push other Sales Wolves to their highest potential. Sales Wolves aspire to be the best they can be at all times. If they are comparing themselves to the efforts and outcomes of non-Sales Wolves who are incapable of sustained top sales performance, inevitably, the bar will be set artificially low.
When Sales Wolves push or compete with other Sales Wolves, the sky is literally the limit. Through healthy competition, learning, and support of one another, Sales Wolves craft a sustaining feedback loop and constantly identify and refine best practices. Smart Sales Wolf Managers take these best practices and cross-pollinate them with the rest of the sales team – particularly other Sales Wolves.
Sales Wolves deliver for your Target Personas.
Sales Wolves deliver value. But, not every prospect is ready for value.
This is why Target Persona identification is essential.
Not all Customers value Sales Wolves. Some Customers focus solely on price. This is most often because that is all they are capable of comprehending, or because that is all their company culture will accept.
These prospects do not understand the notion of “price is what you pay/value is what you get.” Steer clear of them and instead, engage your Target Personas. Sales Wolves will never convert these prospects, and the effect these interactions have on the Sales Wolf mindset is incredibly detrimental.
That is why it is just as essential to know and understand your ideal prospects as well as those prospects who are not ideal.
The Sales Wolf/ideal customer relationship is focused on true value. That is the value from the Sales Wolf counsel/product/service mix. The Sales Wolf is a value-multiplier. The Non-Sales Wolf often believes golf outings, trinkets, and trips are important parts of their value propositions. This is false thinking that damages businesses. Relationship buyers are being replaced more and more through attrition and retirement with highly-discerning buyers. Keep reading for a more thorough explanation.
Non-Sales Wolves deliver too.
Non-Sales Wolves deliver a performance drag that impedes sales and progress for their companies AND their customers or prospects. Unfortunately, accounting does not track missed sales. Only astute Sales Managers and CEOs track the sales missed by Non-Sales Wolves. That is why so many organizations slowly fails with a team of non-Sales Wolves until they inevitably are acquired or go out of business.
Non-Sales Wolves not only miss sales, they miss creating strong value for their customers. Non-Sales Wolves do not deliver value to their customers. They often fail to prospect altogether and when they do, they do so poorly.
When they reach prospects, Non-Sales Wolves deliver weak competitive positions relative to strong competitors who deploy Sales Wolves.
Non-Sales Wolves imperil both their employers and their customers or prospects. They believe they are delivering value when the relationship itself is value. Non-Sales Wolves believe that being “buddies” with their buyers is key to finding sales success.
It is not.
More and more relationship-driven buyers are retiring and/or are simply being replaced by highly-discerning buyers with strong business acumen and expectations for value. These customers are ecstatic when they meet with Sales Wolves who can clearly articulate their value proposition and deliver on their promises.
What is your sales team delivering?
