A very common discussion point that we talk about with clients is how to deal with under-performing salespeople, and when to ‘call it a day’. Some people say 3 months, others more, and some a lot less. I suppose the answer is heavily influenced by the nature of the business and the sectors that you work in.
For example I know people in retail/B2C environments where you pretty much know in the first few hours/days/weeks whether somebody is going to make the grade. With more specialist sectors it may well be that you have no other option but to run for 3, 6 or even 12 months.
The challenge with the longer ‘lead times’ is being able to forecast exactly when the ‘itchy feet’ are going to arrive; because it will at some stage. It’s a very nervy period of time as you continually invest in people, training, on-boarding with very little sign of returns.
In my opinion there is only one benchmark: their attitude.
1) If you have a person who is genuinely busting a gut to do what you want. They follow your lead and absorb training, but aren’t quite hitting the numbers then (providing they ‘get it’), they absolutely deserve your time and patience.
OR
2) Conversely, if the attitude is not where it was on their first day and excuses seem to be coming in thick and fast, then I would be looking to get closure as quickly as possible, for fear of waiting for another quarter of disappointment.
What I am also absolutely convinced about is the need to be very proactive with your recruitment strategy. In my opinion you should always be recruiting (or be seen as always recruiting sales people) in order to maintain a constant flow of enquiries and CVs. This way you can be observing potential targets before they know you have a vacancy, and you can do quite a lot of due diligence before you make your move.
Consider where most of successful hires have come from. If I were a betting man (which I’m not) then I’d be pretty confident that the best ones are when you on-target and had the luxury of a little more time.
The best sales speaker I ever had the good fortune to meet, Jack Daly, is crystal clear in his thought process ‘hire slowly, fire quickly’. I’ve thought about it long and hard, and I’ve looked at different situations and clients over the years but have never yet been able to find a scenario where Jack’s approach is wrong – it’s simple but amazingly effective.
