We see many sales teams that have a handful of under performing salespeople on the team. Often, the sales manager rationalizes something to the effect of a warm body is better than no body.
I don’t subscribe to that thinking and neither does Jack Welch as you can see in this CareerBuilder article – Terminate 10% of Your Employees Each Year. I haven’t worked in a company as large as GE, but I think this approach works well in that environment. Obviously, GE has been on a tremendous tear for quite some time.
Under performing salespeople drag a team down. I think many sales managers are reluctant to train in new salespeople since they know it will require more effort than they are exerting today. The under performing salespeople usually attempt to delay their fate by inflating their forecast. The sales manager sees the large amounts of potential business, thinks about the effort to ramp a new sales hire and pauses.
It is a vicious cycle that delays the inevitable. Granted, some salespeople get it turned around. Most do not. There are talented salespeople out there and you can identify them before making the offer. Follow through and you won’t be disappointed.