In fact, these low achievers are not only not talked about, they’re frequently not talked to at least not enough by their managers. According to OnPoint Consultings Jennifer Forgie, who’s quoted in a recent Incentives Magazine<\/em> article, many managers faced with poor performers prefer to dodge the issue, either by only sending subtle or indirect messages of disapproval to the individuals involved, or by simply hoping the problem will solve itself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSome sales managers act like these low performers have leprosy.\u00a0 If the manager works with them, they may go down with them too.\u00a0 Subsequently, the manager takes a hands-off approach and claims the salesperson will either “sink or swim.”\u00a0 I don’t like this approach.\u00a0 The manager is the manager of the entire<\/em> team so they should be down in the mud with these salespeople attempting to turn them around.<\/p>\nThe article lists 7 suggestions for turning around the low performers.\u00a0 Some of the suggestions are marginal, but a couple stand out:<\/p>\n
1. What are we shooting for?<\/strong>
\nTo reach the goals you set for them, people need to understand explicitly what the expectations are. Be precise about what high performance looks like. Avoid generic sounding criticism like, Bill, you need to be more proactive.<\/p>\n4. Timeliness is key<\/strong>
\nDon’t let performance concerns fester. No one enjoys confrontation (not counting the producers of the Jerry Springer show), but the awkwardness and unpleasantness is best dealt with immediately. If you have agreed-upon behaviors and performance targets, the conversation addressing a new issue will be much easier.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nGood tips, both of them.\u00a0 In these situations, avoidance is the worst option a manager can choose.\u00a0 Set the goals up front and stay involved in their progress.\u00a0 At the end of the day, you will know what has to be done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a sales manager, it is easy to get caught up encouraging the top 20% and accepting the mediocre performance of the middle 60%.\u00a0 But what to do with the bottom 20%? At a minimum, the sales manager should be riding herd on the bottom 20%.\u00a0 This is a group that can drag a sales department down faster than a boat anchor.\u00a0 If their performance does not improve, they need to be let go.\u00a0 I know that can be difficult for some managers, but that is the reality of running a productive sales department. Selling Power’s Incentives newsletter offers an article addressing this bottom 20%.\u00a0 Fair enough – they should… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[714,712,713,1750,213],"class_list":["post-1595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-management","tag-managing-bottom-20","tag-managing-poor-performers","tag-managing-under-performers","tag-sales-management","tag-sales-manager"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-pJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1226,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/10\/sales-management-top-down-or-bottom-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":0},"title":"Sales Management – Top-Down or Bottom-Up","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a sales management question for you - in terms of coaching and developing your sales team, is it best to focus on your top performers to make them better or your bottom performers to build them up? I have recently read articles that argue from each side of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retention"","block_context":{"text":"Retention","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/retention\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1554,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/managing-remote-relationships\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":1},"title":"Managing Remote Relationships","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The management landscape is changing drastically as more salespeople move to remote\/home offices within their territory.\u00a0 Yet, many aspects of sales seems to be moving more towards relationship-based sales.\u00a0 Yes, relationships have always been a key part of selling, but it seems to be the greater piece today.\u00a0 Information flows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/managing-a-sales-team\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":2},"title":"Managing a Sales Team","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Keys to Managing a Sales Team is a quick read from the abcnews.com career center. The article has hands-on advice (which we like) that cut to quick of effective sales management - at least in a limited scope. One item I want to pull from the article: Do you adapt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Management"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1606,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/06\/managing-through-distractions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":3},"title":"Managing Through Distractions","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave Kurlan has a post that struck a chord with me.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Leadership"","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":588,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/when-turnover-is-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":4},"title":"When Turnover Is Good","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We met this morning with a sales manager from one of our clients and had an interesting discussion about turnover. This company is in an \"old-line\" industry and has an established salesforce. In fact, the newest salesperson has been with the company for more than 5 years. Most have a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retention"","block_context":{"text":"Retention","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/retention\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1347,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/managing-a-remote-salesforce\/","url_meta":{"origin":1595,"position":5},"title":"Managing A Remote Salesforce","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"December 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We talk about this topic at length because it is more than a trend.\u00a0 ManageSmarter.com's Long-Distance Teambuilding addresses this topic in a real-world manner: \"Sellers by nature like to be in a team environment\u2014they want a high-five and a talk around the water cooler,\" says Cowitt, vice president of national\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}