The Holy Grail of the Repeatable Sales Process: Is Repeatability Enough?
The article examines what constitutes a repeatable sales process and argues that repeatability alone (CMMI Level 2-3) is insufficient for sales excellence. Using the Capability Maturity Model as a framework, Kellogg advocates for advancing to quantitative process management (Level 4) and continuous optimization (Level 5), with specific attention to cohort analysis, rep attrition, and stage-level metrics rather than just quota attainment.
Metrics in this report
20%
maximum acceptable
for recently hired cohorts
50%
percentage of reps
more realistic than annual 80% benchmark
80%
of reps at % of quota
enterprise software healthy benchmark
20%
standard model
between quota and expected productivity
80%
percentage of salesforce
alternative industry benchmark
80%
within cohort
when hiring 10 reps in phase 3 without process maturity
12-18months
typical range
from premature sales scaling
3-5$M
typical range
from premature sales scaling