A sales team or sales person isn’t hitting their numbers … what do you do?
Often the first response is to sit down with salespeople and assess their behavior, convince them to work harder and just close more deals and then get a commitment from them that they will. This strategy is more than a waste of time. Yes, you may get a little more energy from them for a short period of time, but, believe me, if they knew what to do to close more deals, they would be doing it.
Another approach is to spend more time with the faltering salespeople by going out in the field with them, talking to them more often and monitoring their behaviors more frequently. Again, this is rarely helpful and probably not even a short-term fix.
Undoubtedly, salespeople want to be winning and their managers want them to as well. So what may be going on here is a disconnect in the relationship between salesperson and manager and a lack of the skills necessary to evaluate the situation when both parties are just too close “in” it. When this occurs, it’s most likely time to shake things up a bit and bring in an outside, trusted resource to assess what’s going on. It’s not that either party is right or wrong, it’s just that you need someone who sees it from a totally different perspective and can help both parties collaborate to fix it.
Do you have people or relationships where you need a supportive “shock”? Get an outside perspective. What we know to be true is that without a fresh, objective look at a situation, your short-term fixes may be just a band-aid on the situation, but sooner or later you’ll be back dealing with the same or similar issue again and again and again, and you may end up losing the talent you once had, not to mention the time, money and resources you’ve invested. Of course, it could be time to change course, but how will you ever know if you don’t try something different?
See our “transformational” coaching solutions … we don’t rip off band-aids, we work to help you avoid ever needing them!
