Two Salespeople That Aren’t Performing

A company president had three salespeople who were performing well and two that weren’t. He felt that he didn’t have an adequate method for forecasting future revenue. His request? ‘Can you evaluate the two non-performers and buy a more effective pipeline tool?’ A facilitator would say ‘yes’ to that. Take the easy money. Don’t rock the boat. But does that serve the client? Absolutely not!

Based on experience, I would question whether the three performers were actually that or just seem that way because they were better than the other two. What if the three better ones could be performing two or three times better? What if the two weaker performers couldn’t improve? What if they could all improve? What will it take for that to happen? What’s the difference between the performers and the impostors? Is it strengths and weaknesses? Skills? Motivation? What role does sales management have in their performance? Is sales management effective? What about their selection process? That couldn’t be very effective if 40% of the current group are not performing. Is this group capable of executing the company’s strategies? Are the strategies realistic? Remember the forecasting problem? What is it about the pipeline that isn’t working? Are the appropriate systems and processes in place to support the sales force?

The president could have two people evaluated and put a band-aid on them by learning about their sales future; or he could have the sales organization evaluated and learn what he must do to significantly and consistently improve performance.

A sales force evaluation will provide this information and more.