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Why is it that good salespeople
fail to become top performers? © 2007 David Peterson
Do you have this in your
organization...? Two sales reps sitting across from one
another, one makes $100,000 a year and the other one makes
$65,000?
To make matters worse the one
that makes $65,000 is the better sales representative. The
make all around better sales calls, they have some good
follow-up habits, they know the product inside and out, and
for the most part they accept coaching.
So why is it that they don't
perform as well as the person sitting right across from them?
Don't they want to make
$100,000 a year? Their resume says they made that much in the
past. They know the person across from them makes that kind of
money.
Beyond all of that - they see
the habits of the top performer every working day. They see
the top performer, sitting in their seat, not getting up,
coming to work on time, going home at a decent hour. They see
their every move; they hear every pitch, yet for some reason
they are destined to make $35,000 less every year. Year after
year!
A lot of times when you are in
this type of situation you get professional jealousy. You
start hearing the age old rumblings:
- "Jimmy is getting the
good leads."
- "Jimmy must be doing
something illegal."
- "I think Jimmy is
stealing sales, I hear his pitch and he is not that
good."
- "Jimmy is taking too
many inbound calls and not doing his fair share of cold
calling."
Never once does the under performing
rep look at themselves and say... "You know I should do
what Jimmy is doing." Maybe I should model myself after
him. There must be something to his work ethic and his call
techniques.
As a sales manager you try your
best. You let them listen to your calls and then the top
performer's calls. You point out the work ethics such as
remaining in your seat all day, and working while you are in
your seat. You show them how to improve their own follow-up techniques.
But after all
of that coaching they still make $35,000 less than the person
right in front of them!
What is the
problem? You know that this under performing rep has the
skills. They prove it day after day. They know how to open
their calls, they know how to build rapport, they know how to
probe for problems, and the know how to solve those problems
with your product. Finally they know how to close when the
time is right.
They know, they
know, they know - yet they still make $35,000 less than the
sales representative sitting right across from them.
What
is the solution?
This is a tough
one. Ultimately you have a skill vs. will problem. They
obviously have the skill to get the job done but they just
don't have the will. Not having the will means that while
they are at work, but they are not really working.
What are they
doing while at work?
They are emailing
friends, instant messaging one another, looking at the
Internet, etc. Anything but real work. I had an old boss that
used to say... "What are you doing right now to produce a
sale?"
You may start
hearing words that prove this "will" issue during
coaching. "So if I hit this minimum amount of 85% I can
stay out or trouble?"
That's a skill vs.
will statement. Essentially they just told you I'm going to
work just hard enough to keep my job. And oh by the way... I
can hit that number pretty easily.
I try to attack
the skill vs. will issues in three different ways.
-
Find out what
really motivates the individual rep.
-
Raise the
floor number so that 85% is no longer acceptable.
-
Run Sales
Spiffs that can get the rep to the dollar target.
-
Do a better
job of hiring a top performer in the first place!
Motivation:
To me this is the
hardest one to tackle, motivating an under performing rep. You
have to try. Sit them down and talk to them about their goals.
What do they want to do with their career? What do they want
to accomplish in their own personal 1yr, 5yr, and 10yr plans.
This could take
months if not longer to get the actual aspirations to come out
in the open. A lot of times sales reps really do live month to
month. Many times they haven't thought about the future. Many
times they haven't even begun investing in a 401k
program.
As a sales manager
you have to try and get them to not only share their goals but
you have to lay out a plan for them.
Raise the bar:
This solution is
fairly easy. You know they have the skill so just raise the
floor numbers a little each month until they get comfortable
with 90% instead of 85%. Eventually you will get them to 100%
vs.90%.
The only problem
is that the rest of the team has to be able to handle the
higher numbers. Remember some of your team is already at 100%
so now you are moving them to 105%. Some average reps may be
doing just fine right now but if you start taking the bar up,
you will start losing some of the marginal players.
By moving the
floor number you may accidentally penalize an average rep that
really did just have one bad month. Careful - this solution
works but you have to monitor it so you don't lose a sales rep
by accident.
Spiffs:
I have always
loved to run short spiffs. You can really help accelerate a
compensation plan in a definite direction by focusing on one
area. A spiff is a "sales performance incentive funding
formula"
It is extra money typically
built into a sales expense budget to help move under
performing sales categories forward. In other words if you
need to sell more blue widgets then offer the reps a slightly
higher commission on those or a few dollars extra per unit to
get them to focus. I use it a lot of times to get the reps to
make a few extra outbound calls. Make "x" calls and
get "y" dollars.
Spiffs are very
simple and very short ways to get the reps to make more
money.
Now if you can get
your under performing rep to make more money through the use
of these spiffs then a lot of times they get use to the extra
cash. Once the rep gets used to the extra cash they will raise
their own performance to keep at that level of income.
I often say my
main job is to get the reps paid. Once I get them to that
level it is their job stay at it or exceed that dollar amount.
Hiring:
Every sales
manager has to do a good job of hiring. I have two questions I
ask every sales applicant:
-
Are you goal
motivated or money motivated, and why?
-
How much money
do you want to make and how much do you need to make?
I personally like
goal motivated people over those that are money motivated.
Question #2 will show why. With goal motivated people they
understand that if you hit the goal the money will follow.
Goal motivated people are always trying to get the next unit,
or to make the next revenue level. They are never content
until they reach the number you gave them.
You have to be
careful of money motivated people. The reason is you need to
know question #2. There is a big difference between how much
money a person wants to make and how much they need to
make.
As an example if I
was to say next year I want to make
$150,000 the interviewer would have a big smile and probably
start telling me how I could do that with this job offer.
However if I was to say that I need
to make $65,000 the interviewer would probably say
that is doable in this job while he's thinking that you would
fit nicely in his budget.
The real problem
with the $65,000 is that once the rep hits that income they
are comfortable. They don't need to make $150,000. They need
to make $65,000.
So how much
money do you think they are going to make next year?
They are going
to make right around $65,000. No exceptions. This question
works every time. Ask the applicant how much money do they
need to make and that is how much they will make.
There really is very few
differences between two people with equal sales skills. If you
have someone consistently making $35,000 less than the person
right in front of them then you probably have a will vs. skill
problem. In this case it's not the skill. Don't waste your
coaching time on skill issues, concentrate your time on either
motivational sessions, raising the bar, or Spiffs. In the end
if the salesperson is still under performing you will have to
concentrate on your hiring techniques because you will need
them in a few short months.
Sincerely,
David
Peterson
Author
of:
Been There - Done That
David
Peterson's Search Engine Optimization Guide
Please
send all correspondence to: questions@usreference.com
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