Meet Jane.
Jane is an experienced and successful district sales manager who could work in any industry and for any company. In fact, there are many Jane’s in all companies. Jane is performance-driven, a very good coach and a people person. Each month Jane is put to the test with different sales reps she must coach to success.
Jane’s Profile:
Current:
District Sales Manager IBZ Inc. 2004-
Past:
Sales Manager Alba Inc. 2000-2004
Product Manager Alba Inc 1996-2000
Sales Rep Alba Inc. 1992-1996
Education:
Business Degree 1992
Courses:
Managing Effort Getting Results 2008
Professional Sales Management 2007
Sales Coaching for Success 2006
Professional Selling 1998
IBZ is a mid-sized technology company that has had some tough years but has turned the corner. It pays its reps a combination of salary and bonus for achievement of targets. This year the bonus plans have a super bonus portion which accelerates when a rep is 5% over quota.
Jane wants to get 2009 off to a great start. However, as she shared in one of our monthly coaching sessions, she is frustrated with one of her most tenured sales reps.
For some background, Jane took over an underperforming region last year and has helped lead the team to be in the top 25% of districts in the country. Jane’s goal in 2009 is to reach the top 10% of the country and she is focused. Her key area of focus is on finding innovative ways to grow the business. She wants her team to develop new business opportunities for lagging product lines.
As she reviews her team, the one rep keeps coming up. Ray has been with the company for over 20 years and has worked with 10 DM’s. He has been on 2 personal improvement programs (PIP) and has won several sales contests in the last few years.
Ray knows his stuff, he knows his customers and he knows how to get others in the office to do his work. When Jane works with Ray she has a good day although she wonders whether he works full days when she is not with him. He picks her up at 8:30 and drops her off around 4:30. The day is well planned and Ray has a good rapport with his customers.
Jane has invested a lot of energy trying to motivate Ray and a lot of time giving him positive feedback on his skills, customer service and business plans and on his year-end review. She would like to see the results if he would put the extra call each day.
In reviewing Ray’s 2009 business plan, Jane determine that he had not included any new target customers or innovative approaches to driving the business further. She is frustrated with Ray’s lack of initiative and drive.
Questions:
1. How do you motivate Ray to put in the extra effort required to be a top rep?
2. How much time would you invest in Ray in 2009?
See my thoughts on this page…..
Dear Jane,
Ray is an example of a rep that has all the talent but lacks consistent effort to be a top performer. The first thing we need to remember as managers is that it is not our job to motivate our reps. External motivation is short-lived. It is not necessarily sustained when you are not with your rep.
Another way to approach Ray is to encourage him to focus on developing new business. He may think he knows best and he will appease you by picking a few accounts. He knows he will have a new manager in time and will outlast that manager as well. Provide Ray with positive reinforcement only when Ray demonstrates that he is driving new business and initiatives.
You can continue to invest in Ray’s development but will get limited returns for the time you invest. With 8 other reps you can achieve a better ROI by investing in those reps that put out a consistent high level of effort and are self- motivated.
Let me know how it goes,
© Steven Rosen, MBA
Sales Executive Coach
Dear Jane,
I have three questions for you. How important is it to you, your team and the company to get new business rather than just looking after existing business? What is your target, therefore, for new business? What shortfalls in behaviour, skills and knowledge is preveting Ray from getting new business?
If new business is the most important element of a sales person’s output, set Ray some new business targets with an appropraite positive reward.
If Ray does not put new business into his plans once you have set him a target, then Ray has a type of behavioural problem which you need to confront. You need to be clear with Ray that he has to change his behaviour and that you will help him but you cannot make the change for him. Not confronting the problem will make it difficult to build a cmmon purpose and goal amongst the rest of your sales staff.
If you set the target, and Ray puts new business into his plan but does not succeed in making any visits, you have to determine whether Ray has a behavioural problem, a skills problem e.g. cold calling or a knowledge problem.
Behavioural problems may stem from a sense of low challenge and empowerment. You may need to give him some more autonomy and a large cahllenge to provide the environment that motivates him. Behavioural problems may stem from the same root as the refusal to put new business into his plans. Your only choice then is to confront those facts with Ray. Or they may stem from a need to spend time at home due to pressing family reasons. I that case you need to move to counselling mode to try to solve Ray’s problem together.
If Ray’s problem is a lack of confidence in executing a particualr skill then you need to move to training and practical coaching, much like a sports coach. If he cannot master the skill then you need to confront the fact that Ray does not have the skill to build new business.
It is unlikely that Ray would have a knowledge problem, but if he did you have to move to a knowledge acquisition programme for Ray, not forgetting to test that he is able to retain the knowledge at the end of the programme.
Give yourself six weeks to see a change in attitude in Ray and three months to see some change in key indicators such as appointments made and kept for new business and negotaions entered into for new business. If there is no change in three months and new business is very important to your business you will have to start thinking about how to deal with what really is an underperforming employee.
If new business is not so important to you, your team and the company, then Ray’s behaviour and results are fine.
Jane, above all you must get specific about what behaviour, skills or knowledge shortfalls Ray has and what you are willing to tolerate as part of your goal for 2009 and beyond and what you, the team and the company cannot tolerate.
Only when you have worked out the specifics can you choose to apply the apprpriate element of your coaching range to try and provide the environment in which Ray will motivate himself and therest of your team will stay motivated.
Good luck, call me if you want to talk it over.
Steve,
I think your point about the ROI being realized from the self-motivated reps putting in a steady effort is bang on. Total retur is likely to be greater than from investments in Ray.
Tibor
While it’s a nice “thought” that each and every member of a sales team would be aggressively pursuing new business while maintaining old business, reality tells me something different. Here you have the classic representative (Ray) who’s been in the same position/location for a period of time and has developed a “comfort” level (Clients, income, etc.) You’ve also got a district sales manager (Jane) who is a hard-charger and wants to continue her climb up the corporate ladder, which is rung with improved sales growth!
I agree with the perspective that this might be an individual that Jane should manage “around” in order to accomplish her goals. Ray is probably talented enough if not growing his area, at least in not losing any ground/accounts!
If she wants to see an increase of just one or two account visits per day, then she needs to establish new performance parameters for Ray to operate within (These should be established for the other rep’s as well). Along these same lines, and this is crucial, if she really wants to see Ray “attack” his market, give him a financial incentive for growing the business. When it comes to compensation modification, we always suggest to our clients that they NOT make modifications to the way compensation is currently paid (Sliding this X% to a Y% but still adding up to 100%). Instead, we promote adding to the compensation structure with an additional Z%! Why? The businesses that work with us don’t lose business this way, and furthermore grow their business with this new increased focus!
My gut, and experience, tell me that Jane will probably micromanage Ray, belittle/badger him until the point where he quits! Unfortunately, I see this play out time and time again. Jane should adopt our “Best Boss” campaign and lead by example.
I’ll add one thing that I believe may play part in this as well – I think there’s a simple, but important factor at play:
Ray has been with the company for 20 years. He has won sales awards with the behavior he has had over all those years, incurring the behavioral change after living through his PIPs.
He might not internalize the need to change, because he’s been rewarded on what he was doing and thinks (and others have told him) he’s doing it well. Changing behavior is not an overnight project.
Clearly, Ray did not resonate with the insight-approach. You were hoping you would intrinsically motivate him to call new customers, but it didn’t push his button.
He has outlived 10 DM’s that have tried that if I were to guess.
However, by means of his tenure he might feel undervalued by his new boss.
Therefore, if you can call on his commitment and tenure, and incorporate (empower) him in your approach to helping younger/newer salesmen succeed, he might change his own behavior because he will understand that displaying the right behavior towards these younger guys is important. You might catch both benefits at once: ROI and mentoring for new salesmen, and exemplary behavior by the mentor.
Good luck!