For
the past few years, since I began using this weekly blog to share stories about
sales and sales management, I have been receiving numerous questions from
readers including my own clients. Over the next several months I am going to
use my weekly ramblings to post one reader question with my answer. Please note
– my answers are based on my personal and professional experiences and in no
way reflect my company or specific clients.
Q: In your opinion should an employer challenge
a dismissed employee’s claim for unemployment?
A: I cannot speak from a traditional
human resource or legal perspective, but I can speak from a sales manager’s
point of view. I have and would challenge a claim filed by a dismissed employee
if that employee was terminated with cause. Sales people in particular can and
should be held to a very specific performance standard. Whether you call it a
set of goals, a quota, or a position agenda, the sales person must perform.
When they do not, they become a burden on their entire company. Sales people in
general are also relatively easy to track from a performance standpoint. Numbers are black & white and do not lie. If the time comes when an underperforming
sales person is terminated, it should be considered with cause, and there
should be documented performance evidence to support the case for termination.
If that sales person who was terminated with cause, after being warned, on
probation or on a Performance Improvement Plan runs out and immediately files
for unemployment, then I will challenge. They key is with cause and I must take
a protective position for my company especially when our unemployment premiums
are subject to an increase because of this former employees filing.
Tags :
For
the past few years, since I began using this weekly blog to share stories about
sales and sales management, I have been receiving numerous questions from
readers including my own clients. Over the next several months I am going to
use my weekly ramblings to post one reader question with my answer. Please note
– my answers are based on my personal and professional experiences and in no
way reflect my company or specific clients.
Q: Do you believe an employee can make
it through a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and become an active member of
their sales organization?
A: Absolutely, I do. I recently answered
a question about a ‘B’ sales person becoming an ‘A’ player. They can make the
transition if they have the will and desire to become a top performer. The same
can be said for a sales person placed on a PIP. If they have what it takes, the
determination to learn from their mistakes, learn from those that have gone
before them, and learn from their peers, then yes they can get through the PIP
and become a key member of their organization.
Employees, sales or otherwise, who have
been placed on a PIP more times than not believe they are being singled out and
set up for failure or ultimately dismissal. That is not the goal of a
Performance Improvement Plan. C’mon, why do you think it’s called an
Improvement Plan…we want the employee to improve. We, the managers, are laying
out the plans for the employee to improve. The employee needs to step up and
make it happen. The other thing I wish employees could grasp as a concept – it
costs an employer more to recruit, interview, hire and train a new sales person
than it does to retain one. If the employee can step up their game, learn from
the PIP, and ultimately become a contributing member of their team, they have
become valuable to their employer. Unfortunately, many employees only see the
PIP as a step to their firing. They are misguided and fail because they don’t
believe the employer has the best intent behind the PIP.
Employees on a PIP need to put their
trust in the PIP, improve as it is defined, and then become a better employee.
Everyone wins in this situation.
Tags :
For
the past few years, since I began using this weekly blog to share stories about
sales and sales management, I have been receiving numerous questions from
readers including my own clients. Over the next several months I am going to
use my weekly ramblings to post one reader question with my answer. Please note
– my answers are based on my personal and professional experiences and in no
way reflect my company or specific clients.
Q: You regularly share insights on your
personal and business life. You, like everyone these days, seem to be extremely
busy. What is your best tip for time management?
A: This one is easy for me, I calendar
every detail of my life, and these details are available for everyone around me to
see. I use my Outlook calendar to log all of my activities from doctor’s
appointments to parent-teach meetings to my kid’s games and my client meetings.
I rarely mark anything private because those that have access to my calendar
should be able to use good judgement when requesting time from me. I log my
weekend activities no different than my mandatory management meetings. Wherever
I go I have my iPhone with me and my calendar sync’d. Last thing…I also make
sure to log some personal time for reading or exercising. I find that this
habit has allowed me to not only know when and where I need to be, but allows
me to budget my time in a way that allows me to say yes much more than I say
no.
Tags :
For
the past few years, since I began using this weekly blog to share stories about
sales and sales management, I have been receiving numerous questions from
readers including my own clients. Over the next several months I am going to use
my weekly ramblings to post one reader question with my answer. Please note –
my answers are based on my personal and professional experiences and in no way
reflect my company or specific clients.
Q: Maybe not an all-time favorite, but
who is one author that you truly enjoy reading either personally or
professionally, and why?
A: I am a big fan of Matthew Kelly from
Floyd Consulting and Dynamic Catholic. I enjoy reading Kelly for both personal
and professional reasons. On the Dynamic Catholic front I find his writing hits
me pretty close to home. We are close in age, and although Kelly grew up in
Australia before moving to the US, there are similarities to being raised in a
Catholic family in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. He writes from experience and from his heart.
His beliefs mirror many of my own and he bares his soul in his writings. He
does not preach, instead choosing to pose many questions that push me to think
beyond my own comfort zone. From the Floyd Consulting perspective I find again
his approach is personal. He takes more of a teaching stance than that of a
traditional consultant. His writing style, much like his Dynamic Catholic
books, forces me to think outside of my comfort zone. Kelly has traveled the
world, talked and presented to more than a million people, and has written
dozens of books, yet I find his approach is more like a friend that I’ve known
for a long time even though we’ve never met.
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