236: The Big Myth of the Sales A Players

<p>When we read commentary about how we should be recruiting A Players to boost our firm’s performance, this is a mirage for most of us running smaller sized companies.  If you are the size of a Google or a Facebook, with massively deep pockets, then having A Players everywhere is no issue.  The reality is A Players cost a bomb and so most of us can’t afford that type of talent luxury.  Instead we have to cut our cloth to suit our budgets.  We hire C Players and then we try to turn them into B Players.  Why not turn these B Players into A players?</p> <p> </p> <p>This is a contradiction isn’t it, because we always striving and thrusting for the best possible results.  If we invest and take a B Player to A Player status, there is a very strong likelihood someone else will admire our handiwork and poach them from us.  We have all heard that truism about “what if I develop my people and they leave”, countered with “what if we don’t invest in them and they stay?’.  This is correct up to the point of your cash flow reserves.  We are not talking about having useless people staying on, sucking up our cash resources.</p> <p> </p> <p>B Players are very capable and are worth investing in to become even more capable.  The additional investment to turn them into A players though, if they have that capability in the first place, may be a case of over investment. Having large portions of your revenue centered around a very small number of clients is recognized as a very dangerous position to be in.  In the same way, having one or two people accounting for a disproportionate amount of firm income or expertise is also dangerous.</p> <p> </p> <p>When the top performers leave it can be very disruptive. Most bosses do not sufficiently explain their departure to the remaining staff.  In this vacuum, the other members of the team worry about what the A Players know that they don’t.  Is the firm going down and are those most capable of getting another job jumping ship?  Will an exodus of A Players introduce fragility into the business