Saturday Morning Sales

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.

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.

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.

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.