Video summary
The speaker outlines a comprehensive strategy for building and scaling a high-performing sales team that generated over $10 million in revenue last year with more than 20 representatives. Central to this approach is a rigorous and multi-layered recruitment process designed to identify top-tier talent from the very beginning. Prospective agents undergo a detailed screening that includes answering numerous custom questions, completing a lengthy survey, verifying contact information, and taking a personality assessment. This assessment categorizes candidates into four distinct archetypes: Challenger, Organizer, Developer, and Empath. The speaker emphasizes that while all types have value, their top performers often fall into the Empath category, who lead with strong relationships and people skills, though they also highly value Challengers who are driven to take risks.
To ensure continuous growth and motivation within the organization, the company implements a clear nine-level career progression system that allows representatives to climb from junior sales rep to business consultant or director of sales. Advancement is strictly tied to production metrics, requiring reps to hit specific revenue targets over defined periods to unlock higher salaries, commission rates, and access to better leads. This structured environment is supported by a transparent financial model where the company calculates a profit-and-loss statement for each representative every month, deducting their salary, commissions, bonuses, taxes, and a share of marketing spend. This data-driven approach ensures that only those who are profitable remain on the team, fostering a culture where individuals strive to reach the next level while understanding exactly what is expected of them.
Managing such a high-velocity team also requires the courage to have difficult conversations and make tough decisions regarding underperformers. The speaker advocates for regularly cutting the bottom 10% of the team to maintain high standards and inspire the remaining members, noting that two-thirds of their current staff earn between $7,000 and $8,000 per month, with top performers reaching six figures annually. To prevent surprises when performance issues arise, leadership provides early warnings and follows up on subpar results before termination becomes necessary. This philosophy ensures that employees are never caught off guard by being let go, as they have been consistently informed of their standing and the expectations required to stay on the team. Ultimately, successful scaling depends on knowing where every person stands, providing them with a clear goal to strive for, and having the integrity to address performance gaps directly and fairly.
Read the full video transcript
If you're trying to build a sales team,
we did $10.3 million in revenue last
year. We have over 20 sales reps, about
22 now. And we are constantly looking
for ways to increase sales through other
people. Right? So whether you have an
LOA team, whether you have a call center
team, we have an independent team, a
captive team, a bunch of 1099 remote
reps, whatever you have on your sales
team, I want to share a video
specifically about the things that we
are doing to grow and scale our sales
team. I'm doing a an event called Sales
Team Summit for Power Player Mastermind
in October in Seal Island, Georgia. If
at any point during this you want to
talk to me and our team and strategize
on how you can recruit and build your
team faster, click the link below in
description or go to
scale.codaskkins.com so we can
strategize on growing your success
faster. I'm working also working on a on
a um specific
uh recruiting project right now where
literally agents are coming in. They're
sharing whether they're unlicensed or
licensed. They're answering five, six,
seven custom questions. They're going
through about a 17step
long form survey. They're also verifying
their cell phone number. Um, then we're
putting them through a multi-question
personality assessment because I've also
learned that there's two specific type
of individuals on my team that that have
helped us grow and scale from a revenue
standpoint the most, which I'll touch on
in a second. After we put them through
an assessment, we're also then taking
them and having them submit a 60-second
video of why they should be hired,
right? And so, I'm building this out for
agencies behind the scenes right now.
Okay. Very unique. Never seen this done.
Very creative. Also, even after they
submit a video, again, they they've been
doing this thing for minutes by now, we
are also then putting them in a
three-way text introduction with the
candidate and the agency and us in a
three-way text introduction. Right? So,
one of the things we're doing with the
assessment is, and I do this in my own
hiring, it's called code. It's an
internal thing. We don't use it for
external, but we're about to use it
help. We're about to help our top
clients. We're help we're helping with
recruiting. It's called code. C stands
for challenger. O stands for organizer.
D stands stands for developer. E stands
for impath, right? Challenger is someone
who did their they'll take risk. They're
driven. Um they're they're um I'm I'm a
I'm a out of everything I'm a
challenger. Uh uh clearly. Um next is
organizer, right? They're someone who
likes to know things before they do
anything. They they want plan. They want
systems. Developer someone who um really
want they like they like solving
problems. They like developing. They
like learning right along the way.
Nothing wrong with that, by the way.
I've got a good strong sales rep. Um,
who might end up being a team lead at
some point that that is a developer. And
then four is Impath. Actually, what's
crazy is three of my top four I would
take as many challenges as I can get, by
the way, but three of my top four sales
reps were were last year, three of the
reps that did over $750,000
or more in revenue to our company. Three
of the top four were empath, which means
they lead with uh relationships,
personality, and they're good with
people. Okay? So, so, so when I put
people through these personality
assessments, I'm identifying who they
are. Okay? Which is important. Um, also,
couple things I've done that I'm going
to be sharing at this retreat coming up
is I also, um, have gotten to where I I
I I we've been doing this for a long
time, but I've been diving deeper into
this. We do a we do a P&L a profit and
loss statement on all of our sales team
every single month. Now, our sales team
is on salary in our office. So, so in an
office in a 6,500T office in
Springfield, Missouri. Also, I'm on a
family vacation uh in Vegas. So, I'm
hanging out literally right by the
sphere, which is pretty inspiring, by
the way. Um in a condo right off the uh
uh right off the strip. And so so when
I'm when I'm doing this and I'm doing
analyzing this P&L, right? I'm taking
revenue minus their their salary minus
commissions minus bonuses minus uh uh
payroll taxes minus workers comp minus
how much money we're spending to fulfill
the product that that they're selling.
Also, we have a pro we we spend about 50
to 60 grand a month just in promotional
ad spend to feed leads and meetings to
our team. So, we're taking their share
of that spend. We're taking that off of
their P&L. Um, out of those two reps
were were excluded from this because of
what they do because they're half ops,
half sales. Um, but the other 20 reps,
17 of the 20 were profitable in August.
Three weren't. So, we're, you know,
we're probably going to let one go. Uh,
one is still new that, uh, we believe
can get up to speed pretty quick. And
the other uh we're having discussions
with about hey this is this cannot
continue right and some are some are
there's some that are profitable that
are that are lower profitable right but
most people are not tracking the growth
and success okay another thing we're
doing and then I'll get into some of the
ideas of some of the things that we do
but um uh relation like conversations um
another thing we've done is we built out
about it's about 40 pages now some it's
close to that um I think maybe 39 but
about a 40page um sales growth track
it's a 40 page each PDF on what you need
to do within our company. And I'm going
to show this at the retreat for power
players. What you need to do to get to
the next level within our company. Like
what does that look like? How do you how
do you and there's there's nine
different levels. There's six different
sales levels, right? There's junior
sales rep all the way up to business
consultant. Then there's a team leader
position. Then there's a sales manager
position. Then there's a director of
sales, right? So there's nine different
levels and you have to climb up through
these nine levels. The reason I think
the level game is very important is
people need something to strive for.
Never underestimate how much you need to
enthuse and motivate your people. So
they need something to strive for. They
need something to shoot for, right? So
So when we have these different levels,
they can increase salary. They can
increase commission level. They can get
access to more leads and more
opportunities. And we and we look at
production. So to go from level one to
level two, as an example, they had to do
15,000 in revenue two months in a row.
To go from level two to level three,
they have to do 30,000 three months in a
row. To go to from level two to level,
I'm sorry, from level three to level
four, they have to do 120 grand over 90
days. Then they have to do 300,000 in 6
months, right? Like, so there's just
different production levels along the
way they have to qualify for and earn to
get to that next level. So, so you need
to have constant um also we we we have
we have weekly bonuses, monthly bonuses,
um uh semianual commission bonuses,
annual like like some big annual bonuses
where they can earn bonuses of a,000
bucks or 10,000 bucks throughout the
year, right? So, so there's a high
incentive um base. There's a high
incentive base on the way our team is
structured. Okay? And we still profited
six figures last month on just our sales
team and all even after all the expenses
that we that we that we that we share
in, right? Uh but but you need you need
to um have space people to grow. Never
underestimate how much you need, you
know, to to enthuse your team. And a lot
of people don't know the numbers or the
analytics of what they're doing. Very
important. You got to know what people
what people are at, what they're
striving for. You got to push people.
And also you got to cut the wheat, you
know, like we regularly cut the bottom
10%. Pretty regularly because it you
need the other individuals to see that
like, hey, if I don't maintain
expectations and standards, I'm going to
get cut. And uh about over twothirds of
our sales team is going to make 7 8
grand a month or more. So about 80, 90,
100 grand or more all the way up to
where some will make 200 something
thousand this year. Twothirds, right?
So, so by by doing that, we want more of
those two/3s, more of the top third.
Like again, the top so many are going to
produce 6,7 $800,000, a million dollar,
1.5, one guy's on pace for 2 million
bucks this year. You know what I mean?
So, so you have to analyze that amongst
your people. Um, but at the end of the
day, like managing a team,
here's what it comes down to. I've given
you a lot in eight minutes, but here's
what managing a team and scaling and
building a team comes down to. knowing
where people are at,
having something for them to run for,
and having very difficult, tough
conversations. I had our team leads have
difficult conversations, and then I
followed up with individuals who were
having subpar results because I don't
want people to be surprised, right? When
when when we cut somebody, I want them
to know that they were on the chopping
block all along, I don't want them to be
surprised. And most managers, what they
struggle with, team leads, CEOs,
executives, whatever, uplines, they
struggle to say the last 10%. Well,
you'll say the 90
and you'll you you'll have con
constructive feedback and criticism
along the way, but most managers and
team leads struggle to say the last 10%.
The toughest part, like, hey, you are on
the chopping block. I believe in you. I
believe we can get you there, but if you
don't get there quickly, we're going to
be letting you go soon, and I don't want
you to be caught off guard. That's the
final 10% that most people will never
say. So, if you're trying to build a
team, you're trying to scale a team, do
we help people scale their agencies,
that's what we do, whether it's through
brand, marketing, or recruiting. And
we're working on some really cool
recruiting projects behind the scenes
right now for a lot of our larger agency
clients. We have a bunch. We have some
agencies that, you know, they're only
paying us $800 bucks a month to help
them. We have some agencies that are
paying us uh $15,000 a month to help
them, right? We have some agencies on
the on the marketing and lead side. Hey,
they're paying us 70 80 68 70 80 grand a
month to help them. So, wherever your
agency falls, we want to help you. Go to
scale.codaskkins.com
to book time with me and my team to
strategize on how we can help you, too.
Thanks. See you on the next video.