Sales Training

An under performing sales person is going to be an unhappy individual who descends into a downward spiral from which it is well nigh impossible to get out of alone.

Here’s the hard bit to swallow:

You are at least partly responsible for the situation if the decision to employ that person was yours – you got some part of the process wrong.

It can be expensive to remove that under performing sales person from your payroll.

Yet it’s expensive to keep such a sales person in terms of not only salary and overheads but also possible damage to your company’s reputation and certain lost business opportunities.

You cannot afford to do nothing: That’s really not an option.

You could

1. Let the person go and replace them
2. Move them to another role in the company and recruit to fill this vacant one
3. Let them go and, if things are really tight, go back to doing the job yourself
4. Or you see if help in the form of training and coaching can turn the person around into a success

It’s worthwhile to bear in mind here that there’s probably already been an investment of time and money whilst this individual went through a product/ service/ solution learning curve before it became evident that certain sales skills were missing. That learning curve will have to be gone through to a greater or lesser degree by anyone else you take on.

In the final option the four key considerations are:

• Does this individual want to learn skills that will enable them to do the job successfully?
• Is he or she capable of learning?

• Have you or can you provide the underpinning proven processes that will help successfully carry out the role?

• Are you prepared to invest in providing training for the individual to get the skills he or she needs?

What would be the best way forward for your company and all involved?

Linda

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Before you rush to write that job description and even start the recruitment process take some time out, go back to basics and think hard. Ideally you should:

1. Know from your own experience what needs to be done and how to do it to take your company forward in terms of your sales and marketing activities
2. Ensure that you understand what strategy works best for your company in your market and why
3. Be able to articulate your company’s positive differentiation from its competitors
4. Have a good and fair idea of what you could reasonably expect from someone who would be in a full time sales role
5. Have processes in place that anyone with the right attitude, product knowledge and ethical sales skills can follow and achieve your expectations

Obvious? Yes. Simple? Possibly. Easy? It may take some time but it’s worth getting right! You want this sales person to fit in and succeed.

Happy hunting

Linda

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