Hydrangeas Tell the Story of Underperforming Salespeople

One of our favorite garden plants is the Endless Summer Hydrangea, the first Hydrangea bred to bloom all summer long, every summer.  And they always do. Except last summer.  Except this summer.

Last summer, they barely flowered at all and this summer they flowered around two weeks early, with a tremendous number of large, full blue blooms, only to not flower again for the rest of the summer.  What a shame.

Last year’s Hydrangea failure reminded me of salespeople who have promise, but don’t produce.  For the Hydrangea, was it lack of rain?  Too much rain? Too much sun? Not enough fertilizer? A one-off?  For the salespeople, is it lack of ability, lack of hunting, inability to listen and ask questions,  inability to qualify, a bad hire, insufficient training, lack of coaching?

This year’s Hydrangea failure reminds me of salespeople who close one huge deal and then they become your new superstar.  The Hydrangeas were supposed to continue flowering all summer after the first bloom, but nothing happened. When the salesperson finally brings in a big deal after failing to meet quota the previous year, expectations are raised but your new superstar reverts to what you saw last year.  Lack of additional blooms/sales.

There isn’t much you can do to counteract Mother Nature and the reasons for the recent Hydrangea fails. You don’t have to stand by, throw your hands in the air, become frustrated and use hope as your strategy for under-performing salespeople.  When did hope even become a strategy?  You don’t necessarily need to terminate your underperforming salespeople and replace them with new salespeople who might not get it done.  Take matters into your own hands, get the help you need to actually develop your salespeople, and read my list of the things you can do with Hydrangea-like salespeople, including:

• OMG Evaluation to understand root causes
• Consider that an incomplete or non-optimized sales process can cause some, otherwise capable salespeople, to fail
• Comprehensive Sales Training – tailored to the competency gaps shown in the OMG evaluation
• Commitment to new, attainable, agreed-upon goals for required daily activity to produce agreed-upon revenue
• Commitment to build and maintain a full pipeline
• Strong daily accountability for meeting activity, pipeline and revenue goals with consequences
• Expert coaching to overcome weaknesses in the salesperson’s Sales DNA
• Daily post-call debriefs and pre-call strategy coaching with role play
• Educational requirements including books, blogs, videos

That said, there will always be a percentage of salespeople whose capabilities you can’t and won’t improve, who do need to be replaced, but the OMG evaluation will let you know who they are.  Those who lack the Will to Sell (Desire and Commitment) lack the incentive to change.  Those with very low Sales DNA will be long-term projects that you might not want to invest in.  But when it comes to pure tactical selling competencies, every salesperson can be helped.

Like the Hydrangeas, there are early and late bloomers and both are OK.  You want to avoid the sales equivalent of the Hydrangea crop from the last two years.  Those who don’t produce, and those who bump into a big deal but aren’t consistent producers are your problems.

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