Recruiting and Retaining Top Sales People


by Rick Johnson - Date: 2006-12-08 - Word Count: 786 Share This!

Two of the biggest issues facing the industry today are recruitment of sales personnel and retention. Problems in this area may not be due to bad hires or low unemployment rates. If they are related to bad hires then it means you don't fire well. You are not holding people accountable. If that's the case, it only stands to reason that you are probably overpaying a sizable portion of your sales force, as they are not performing as "A" players.

The first thing you must do is a gut-wrenching honest assessment of your personnel. This must be done both quantitatively and subjectively. Measurements must be in place. You cannot manage what you cannot measure.. Once you do have a sales system with measurement you must complete your personnel assessment. Upgrade your sales force to minimum acceptable standards. It would be exceptionally rare to find any distributor that didn't have at least one salesperson that wasn't performing up to expectations. "If you pull the gun, don't be afraid to shoot." Being fearful of sales consequences by terminating a salesperson is the lifeblood of mediocrity in a sales force.

Question: Is your sales force prepared and held accountable? Conduct an assessment. Do this for each sales rep. Answer the following questions honestly and fairly. Use this scale as a guide:

1. Very Little

2. Somewhat but needs improvement

3. Meets acceptable standards

4. Above expectations

5. Walks on water

Number Question

Assign Assessment Score for each question

1 Meets revenue and margin objectives --------------------------------------------Score

2 Follows through on all major issues -----------------------------------------------Score

3 Does not panic when facing a challenge and uses all resources effectively----Score

4 Is confident and knows how to effect change -------------------------------------Score

5 Committed to territory and account penetration planning------------------------Score

6 Is clearly focused and has established priorities----------------------------------Score

7 Is well thought of and respected by their peers----------------------------------Score

Interpretation:

28 - 35: You have identified an "A" player.

21 - 28: May indicate a solid performer but additional training and mentoring may be advisable to help them reach their maximum potential.

0 - 21: Needs serious attention. Replacement may be the only answer.

"It is OK to carry your wounded but you must bury your dead."

Once you have done an assessment and established new acceptable standards the situation you find yourself in may be due to the fact that you don't clearly recognize your employees as one of your core competencies.

Admittedly, they don't fit the purest definition of core competency as stated in "Facing the Forces of Change", but it is a fact that it is your employees who are responsible for creating profit.

Once you accept that concept, your next step is to make people part of your strategic initiatives. That means becoming an "Employer of Choice" - someone everyone would like to work for. The following attributes are absolute musts in becoming an "Employer of Choice:"

• A personnel skills inventory: Questions would include: What functional area or position is ultimately desired? What interim positions would help you on your way to reaching this desired position? What training do you need to accomplish this? To which area and branch office(s) would you be willing to relocate, if any? List the languages you speak fluently. Hobbies/Interests. Experience in any field including computers, marketing, sales, distribution, and management. All training and education.

• People are the company's highest priority (people aren't profit but without people there are no profits)

• Pay at market wages

• Recognize employee contributions with praise and awards

• Have a well organized and defined orientation and training program

• Review your total compensation programs annually. Do market testing to ensure you are paying competitive wages.

• Make sure Human Resources is more than just one person handling insurance and benefits.

• Create an E.A.P. (Employee Assistance Program)

• Do more than annual performance reviews. Insist that all managers meet with their employees for a minimum of ½ hour once a month documenting the pluses and minuses of their performance.

• Use the monthly informal evaluations to complete the annual appraisals (example of this form follows).

Informal Monthly Employee Review

Date:

Supervisor Name:

Employee Name:

Dept.

Positive contributions or strengths demonstrated:

Negative issues, problems or weaknesses demonstrated:

Recommended Action

Supervisor Signature

Employee Signature

" A warning. . .make sure you have assessed your team fairly and removed the bad apples from the barrel."

If you still are too small to adopt some of these initiatives, that's OK, as long as you make your people your highest priority, they will notice.

• If you have a recruiter, use them. Do not allow sales management to waste time recruiting or screening new applicants. If you don't have a recruiter, assign a non-revenue producing person to screen sales applicants based on specific guidelines.

• Create a probationary program that has a definite timeline and a plan for improvement that is measurable. It should be crystal clear to the employee that they either meet the criteria in the improvement plan or they are terminated. This follows your assessment rating.

• Create both a formal and informal communication channel.

• You must build the human resource strategy, "The People Plan," into your business plan or strategic plan.


Related Tags: success, sales, growth, sales management, recruiting, hiring sales people

http://www.ceostrategist.com - Sign up to receive "The Howl" a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. - Straight talk about today's issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution's "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: