Do as I Say…Not as I Did! Part 2 of a 3 Part Series
Last week I began to give you some advice to spare you from making a lot of mistakes on the road to becoming a more effective Sales Manager. This week I give you a few more of my hiring foibles that you can choose not to repeat:
3) Failing to identify and establish the “Sales Drivers.” Sales Drivers are those daily and weekly activities that lead to success in staffing sales. UGH, what was I thinking? Don’t do it! Create, set, and religiously monitor and measure the results against your companies’ standards each week. The song “nowhere to run, no where to hide” comes to mind on this issue. A word of caution here, when you implement this strategy the slackers on your team may run for the exits with in 90 days. They know they can no longer hide in a system that holds them accountable for the quantity and quality of their weekly activity level. One of my clients had one of his three sales reps quit within two weeks of implementing this type of process. He was shocked by her resignation, but also glad to cut his losses. The other two reps have stepped up their game considerably.
4) Hanging on to a “House Wrecker” type of sales person too long. If you have one of those, you know what I mean. They are aggressive with clients, the recruiters, and the contractors in much of their dealings with them. You may even be fair game for a “House Wrecker.” Nearly everyone in the organization has had a run in with this person at some point in time. “House Wreckers” have a tendency to self destruct and because of their personality type, they don’t seem to understand why you are showing them the door. It is a constant battle to manage this type of sales rep. Left unchecked, they will cause a lot of turnover on your staff. Who needs to put up with a bully in a business that is by its nature extremely demanding each and every day? One of my clients eventually terminated his top sales person because of the continual complaints and chaos that she caused with the recruiting team and even with a few clients. She out sold the next top performer by a two to one ratio but the staff would have imploded had the sales rep been allowed to continue her employment. If you have someone like this on your team and you really want to try to keep their behavior in line, you will need to become very confrontational with them on a regular basis. The pattern that I have experienced is; confrontation will lead to some behavior modification for a period of time and then they will go off again until they are once again confronted by you. This type of person requires “in your face” management.
Tune in next week as I wrap up my three part advice series on how to hire sales staff.