A couple of weeks ago I posted on a friend’s review experience and now it’s time for a follow up. She relayed to me another experience she had with her manager. Once again, this is an example of what not to do as a sales manger.

My friend set the personal goals she wanted to attain so that her territory had a good chance at winning the contest. In fact, she started talking with the rest of the team and they each set their own goals to win (unbeknownst to the manager). On the manager’s weekly conference call, the team found out they had already moved up a place in the standings.

After the call, the manager held a quick impromptu meeting with the team and told them they had 2 specific add-on services they needed to start selling. He told them that he would give them a spiff for every time they sold one of these services. Then he told them if they sold 10 he would give them a half day off work or the spiff, whichever they preferred.

Looks great, right? Unfortunately the service is a commodity and is more work to sell than any of the other services. If someone were to catch on fire and actually sell 10 of them in this time period, they should be running the company. As a sales manager it is important to understand the reality of the obstacles your team faces before promoting incredible contests or spiffs.

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