Dave Kurlan has a post that struck a chord with me.  The topic is distractions and how they affect salespeople (my editing):

Distractions can take many forms, from the call that takes them off their game, to the illness or death of a loved one that stops their game cold.  Distractions can last a few minutes or they can linger for months.  You can even understand why some, especially the really bad distractions, can interfere for so long.

You know they’ll have distractions so it’s your job to know your salespeople well enough to recognize when they are being affected.  Helpd (sic) help them cope, focus and work through them in order to get from each as close to 12 months worth of effectiveness as you can.

That is a great point he makes for sales managers.  It is important that you help your salespeople through these distractions to keep/get them on track.  Of course, this assumes that you are managing them.  Calls, coaching, forecasts, activities, territories, etc….you have to know these things first in order to help them through the distraction.

We placed a strong salesperson at one of our customers and he was selling well above quota for 2 years and then I received a call.  He no longer on his game.  He was missing calls, putting together incomplete proposals and not closing business.  Our customer, the VP of Sales, told me the salesperson was going through a difficult divorce (is there ever an easy one?).

We put together a plan for him and coached the sales manager on how to handle him.  Unfortunately, the salesperson never recovered and they eventually fired him.  I suspect that may have been what he was hoping for – a new start somewhere else.

Well, that was a dramatic example of a distraction.  The daily, insignificant distractions are the ones for which to zero in as a sales manager.  A small improvement here can have a compound return later.

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This article from abcnews.com starts off with a terrific interview anecdote (emphasis mine):

John-Paul Lee, CEO of Tavalon Tea, a premium tea company based in New York, recently interviewed a job candidate he’s not likely to forget.

“The first two minutes were great,” Lee says of the recent MBA grad. Then Lee asked the candidate who he believed Tavalon’s biggest competitors were. To which the candidate replied, “I think Tavalon Tea is a formidable one.”

“I assumed he was nervous and had blurted out the wrong company,” Lee says, “so I played along and asked him, ‘Why?'”

The candidate’s answer? “I don’t think they have the right management in place. I know the CEO of the company and he is a real jerk.”

Rather than let on right away, Lee asked the interviewee if the two had met before, and if the grad knew where, exactly, he was interviewing.

The candidate, who finally noticed the Tavalon Tea logo on the wall, realized he was in hot water: “Oh my god, I’m sorry,” he fumbled. “I know this is no excuse, but I partied a bit too hard last night.”

I’m still laughing at that last line.  The article continues with many more laughable stories that will start your Friday off right.

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