Years ago (yes, before even I was born), the carousel was the top ride at county fairs and amusement parks. In the early days, not all of the horses on a carousel were “jumpers” (moving up and down). In fact, none of the horses on the outer row were, so a game was developed to entice riders to sit on the outer row. Riders would try to grab a ring dangling just outside the ride. As a rider got hold of one ring, another ring would show up. The big winner was the rider who got the brass ring. The prize was a free ride – yippee!

When it comes to creating a high performance sales organization, attracting, creating and maintaining top-performing sales reps is like getting the brass ring on the carousel. SiriusDecisions has completed primary research that provides fact-based intelligence aligned to our High Performance Sales Organization Framework. On October 22, at SiriusDecisions 2014 Summit Europe, I will give a presentation based on this research that highlights the key differences between top-performing sales reps and the rest of the herd. I will deliver data that B2B sales organizations can use as a benchmark for evaluating their own top-performing sales reps, as well as action items they can use to advance sales reps in the herd to the top of the leaderboard.

Sales organizations can use many programs and initiatives to drive productivity, but if they know what top-performing sales reps really need and use, sales leaders, sales operations and sales enablement can focus on the programs that will have the biggest impact. I look forward to sharing our research with Summit attendees, and I anticipate hearing their future stories about how it helped them grab the brass ring.