Building a Productive Sales Department: Equality of Lead Distribution and The Impossible Sales Trinity

One of our customers approached us with a dilemma they were facing: “Our reps are assigned to regions and we only have a few setters who set appointments for all the reps. We prioritize the leads we want our setters to call. Problem is, we have an unequal distribution of leads per rep by the setters.”

The solution to this problem is similar to the popular economics idea – the Impossible Trinity.

In a sales department the impossible trinity is:

• lead priority
• equal distribution of leads
• defined parameters of sales rep role (i.e. geographic region, vertical, deal size, etc.).

You cannot have all three as top priorities and maintain productivity. Our customer was facing this exact problem.

The goal of a sales manager is to increase the productivity of your sales team. The first step is to prioritize which of the three variables is most important to your operation. Then you decide which of the three you are willing to be more flexible on. Finally, you decide which is least important in terms of reaching the results you want.

At XANT, we’ve decided that our top priority is “lead priority”. We want to ensure that our best leads are getting contacted first – regardless of their defined parameters. In order to accomplish this, we decided to be a bit more flexible in terms of our parameters and remain consistent in our lead distribution. What works for you and your sales department depends on your goals and what you think is more important to your success. Just make a plan and determine how you will balance among the three. And remember, it’s impossible to have all three.