4 Misconceptions of “A Players”

By John Holland, Chief Content Officer, CustomerCentric Selling®

“A Players” Can Sell to Any Industry

• I believe “A Player” behavior is situational. For companies having a wide variety of verticals, they will often find their top performers get the majority of their revenue from specific industries that they are familiar with.

• For instance, an “A Player” that is very familiar with Manufacturing might struggle to be as effective with a Financial Services company.

• In many cases, “A Players” have worked in verticals (sat on the other side of the desk) and therefore relate very effectively when calling on those titles.

• If they came from Operations they would likely have a harder time calling on people in Finance, Marketing, IT, etc.

“A Players” Are Effective Selling to All Titles

• “A Players” are selective about organizations they want to join. Painting with a broad brush, they are less likely to migrate to large organizations that are guerillas in their spaces. In my mind such organizations typically “grow their own” top performers. Their comp plans, high degree of structure and longer windows for promotions won’t be as attractive as earlier stage companies or start-ups.

• “A Players” also have egos and like to be recruited by senior executives enticing them with equity for performance.

Why Not Just Hire All “A Players?”

• As talented as they are, I refer to “A Players” as “unconscious competents.” By that I mean they are extraordinary at what they do, but every sales cycle is different because they rely largely upon intuition.

• They are “winging it” and sometimes may skip steps that should be covered.

• Having a process to codify “A Player” behavior should benefit the entire sales organization.

“A Players” Don’t Need Process