How You Know When It’s Time to Let a Sales Leader Go

Knowing when to hire and when to fire are critical skills for any team leader. The timing of when to add employees and when to let them go can make a huge difference in a company’s bottom line…especially when you’re talking sales team members.

Firing is a miserable task for anyone and, as a result, far too many leaders hang on too long to employees they should have fired long ago. By avoiding the difficult conversation and possible unpleasant reaction, leaders only make a bad situation worse. They just hope for a miracle—either the low performer will suddenly be effective or they will decide to quit on their own. But all the leaders do is postpone the inevitable firing, risk demotivating the entire team, incur continuing salary expense and face long delays in hiring and training a replacement.

Maybe not a miracle cure but there is help at hand. Have you ever heard about pre-ramp accountabilities? If not, it is a simple tool designed by solution selling training professionals for knowing when to let a new hire go before too much time or investment is wasted. Here is how it works.

If you are a sales team leader, for instance, draw up a list of what activities you think are necessary for success. This is not about the intangibles, such as positive attitude, commitment, work ethic, ability to work independently. It is more about job execution. What are the early leading indicators of success in a sales leadership role at your organization? Some examples are:

• 5 C-Level customer meetings per month
• One-on-ones with each rep on a weekly basis
• Once a week review of top ten deals
• 6 days per month coaching in the field

The list of accountabilities becomes a development plan for onboarding and sets clear expectations for what success on the job entails. Share the list with your new sales leader and make it clear that you will be tracking progress bi-monthly.

Instead of trusting your gut on how well your new hire is doing, you will have real evidence of the activities you consider essential. If the new employee misses the marks, you have a way to cite specific performance issues. Not only will it be easier to let them go, but you will also cut your losses early on.

Begin the hiring process anew before too much time has passed…you still have a chance to reach your numbers with a better hire next time.

Give Your Sales Team a Boost by Evaluating 3 Key Areas

If your sales results have been on an upward swing but now seem to be tapering off, perhaps your sales team needs a boost.

As sales manager, you were feeling pretty good after last year’s success. Your sales and margins beat target…enough so that the entire team was treated was rewarded handsomely. But this year, sales are lagging, and you need to assess if this is just an unavoidable lull in the action or if there is something you need to do to jump-start productivity.

Start by evaluating the ability of your sales team to “win” all along the customer buying process and, in the end, earn the business how and when you need it.   This can be accomplished through a combination of targeted assessments, 1x1 interviews, facilitated focus groups and observations.  This creates the foundation to identify the critical few moves that will have the greatest impact on sales performance.

Recognize that this is not a simple proposition. There are many levers available to push and pull. One our research partners has identified 74 unique moves (from value propositions to compensation) available to sales leaders to improve performance.  The challenge is to determine the one or two that will make the most difference. Here are some suggested targets for your evaluation:

1. Markets and Customers
Take a close look at your current markets and customers. Do they fit your target client profile?  Prioritize them according to those with the highest short-term value and long-term potential. Know where the greatest opportunities lie so your sales force can focus their energies where they will receive the greatest return.

2. Face Time
Are your sales reps spending the right amount of time with the right customers and decision makers? Are they spending enough time to truly understand the customer’s situation and build a strong relationship at the right level? Make sure your reps have the tools and technology that allow them to spend as much customer face time as required and that they know which customers deserve their time one-on-one.

3. Interaction Quality
When your sales reps meet with key customers, are they making the most of that precious time? Each interaction should move the client forward in the sales process. Solution selling training programs advocate a deep knowledge of your customer’s industry, business issues and personal goals. Knowing what your customers need and want and what business results they seek will put you way ahead of your competition.


To learn more about solution selling training visit http://www.lsaglobal.com/solution-selling-training/

What You Can Learn from Successful Car Salespeople

We are all familiar with the stereotype of the sleazy car salesperson who pushes you into buying something that does not suit you as a customer but only their own bottom line. And yet we have all bought cars that worked well for us. Maybe it is time for those of us who follow solution selling training techniques to dump the sleazy stereotype and learn a few tips from car sellers who make successful matches for a wide variety of customers with a wide variety of products.

Typically potential car buyers are not ready to buy on the day they begin their car research. They are nervous about making such an important purchase. In fact a vehicle is the second largest purchase most consumers ever make…it is a big commitment and they need help in making a wise buy. Statistics show that a very large percentage of car customers actually buy within only three days of their initial visit to the car lot. This means that car sellers have to make their moves fast and effectively. They need to connect with their customer, find out the customer’s needs and priorities, and identify the car that will serve those needs the best. They need to sell a solution that fits their family, their budget, and their personal aspirations etc., not just a vehicle.

The most successful sellers know how to qualify their buyers upfront and learn quickly what the customer’s priorities are. When you are a complex B2B solution, you need to do a lot more than a “sell a car” including making sure that you know:

• The business reason (pain or gain) that has caused the customer to seek a solution.
• The challenges your customer is facing that produced the business driver to buy.
• What the customer thinks are the major challenges they face in their current market environment.
• What has kept them from solving the problem until now.
• How the customer will make the buying decision.
• Who will make the decision to buy.
• How to get access to the ultimate buyers.
• When they will be ready to make the purchase.
• What competitors you are facing and how the customer rates your solution against the alternatives.
• How the customer rates the value of your solution against the cost of your solution, your competition and other priorities.

Do you have the answers to all of these questions? As a salesperson, the better you have uncovered the answers to the questions above, the more likely you are to complete the sale successfully. Know your customer, know their needs, and know what solution will suit them best.

To learn more about solution selling training visit http://www.lsaglobal.com/solution-selling-training/