Like almost every team, you have a group of sales people that can be categorized into several groups. Top performers execute day in day out without much intervention needed by the management team. In fact, your key objective is to simply run interference for them so that they won’t get slowed down. Then you have the journeyman role players. They do a great job at representing your business and are reliable, but they probably won’t set the world on fire. They will do anything that you ask but most likely will not have the initiative to try anything new on their own. Finally, you have the non-performers. I’m not talking about the brand new reps; these reps are industry savvy and have been selling for years. For their own reasons, they are disengaged and bringing down the total sales effort of the group.
This last group may be experiencing self-doubt as they struggle with new technology as well as clients who have modified the rules of engagement. Which comes first for this group, complacency or self-doubt? I’m not sure. It could be a skills issue in that they are having trouble selling the whole “solutions” concept or perhaps in understanding how clients want to communicate today. Maybe they are out chasing jobs and without anything else, are getting beat up with price issues. Fear and anxiety are often components of both change and the necessity of learning new skills.
What’s their sales process look like? Is it make the pitch and wait for the emails to come with print specs? If it is and the job specs aren’t coming in, these reps can become paralyzed trying to determine their next best step to get into the account.
I hear these sales rep situations daily and would recommend that you take the time to understand why your rep is not as effective as the others or perhaps as much as they once were. This can be a simple meeting where you work to uncover the situation and offer your guidance. It’s probably not a “your sales have tanked and you’re a bum” speech. Your goal is to determine whether or not you want to fix this or just eliminate the problem and it’s more likely to have these components in the meeting:
Determine if they are still in the right job and interested in making this work for them and you. First things first, they need to want to be helped;
Where are they stuck? What skills or assistance could they use to jump-start their activity? Focus on the problem, not the person;
Decide how you can best help them to turn this situation around with a focus on the activities needed to be successful;
Create a time-line for actions and a way to report the progress on a regular basis;
During this process if there is no buy-in from the rep or you get the impression that they are not taking any responsibility for their situation, it may be the time to “ask for the check…they’re done.”
Make no mistake; this is hard work for the management team. It’s trying to make the best out of what you have. It is however a small investment in time that will help you make the best decision for your business. Now, if you have a line of qualified, top performing sales reps outside your doorstep waiting for an opportunity to work for you then you may not choose to go down this path and focus more on getting the performers onto your team and the non-performers off the team.
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