Managing Underperforming Salespeople

by Hélène Pielmeier and Doug Lawrence

The symptom is easy to recognize: A member of your sales team fails to meet his or
her sales quota. Now what? Instead of just diving into the constant cycle of hiring and
firing, executives and sales managers should examine: 1) why salespeople struggle to
perform; 2) how to set the conditions for success at the strategic level; then 3) how to
execute it at the managerial level; and finally 4) how to follow through by holding
salespeople accountable for their performance.

Why Salespeople Struggle to Meet Their Quota

The reasons behind not making a sales target fall into four categories:

 Unrealistic sales quotas. Inexperienced sales managers often randomly set the
target. They fail to take into account the level of activity needed to achieve those
numbers, the volume of qualified leads that will generate the desired revenue, the
length of the sales cycle, the past performance of existing accounts, the untapped
potential at those companies, or the state of the economy (see “How to Assess the
Revenue Opportunity of Clients,” Mar14).

 Uncontrollable elements. In sales, you are at the mercy of the client signing on the
dotted line. Although you did everything right along the way, you can still lose an
opportunity because the client’s priorities changed or budget shrank. However,
while bad timing can happen, lagging sales are often misinterpreted as a bad
streak when insufficient pipelines or individual and management issues are the
actual cause.

 Underperforming sales staff. Executives sometimes deflect the problem and

assume that the one at fault for not succeeding is the salesperson (see “How to
Drive Translation Sales,” Mar11). Skill gaps, insufficient activity levels, or lack of
motivation can hamper the performance of business development managers (see
Table 1).

 Insufficient structural support for the sales function. Account executives rarely
fail by themselves. More often than not, their lagging sales can be linked to
leadership and organizational issues (see Table 2). You may assign the wrong

Copyright © 2014 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc. 23 June 2014

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Managing Underperforming Salespeople 2

salesperson to a selected vertical, geography, and buyer type. Thus, you might
have a junior person with minimal sales skills selling C-level people at large
accounts. Failing to measure the performance and provide guidance, lacking in
sales focus or differentiation, or selecting the wrong markets makes sales managers
just as guilty as the business development staff. It is an act of negligence that may
result in a salesperson being unfairly dismissed when she wasn’t given the tools to
succeed. Sales teams need strong leadership to succeed.

Issue Examples of Symptoms

 Don’t generate sufficient leads.

Skills gap
Insufficient sales activity
Lack of organization
Eternal optimist
Not a believer
Lack of motivation
 Pursue unqualified opportunities.
 Are not good at closing deals.
 Struggle to master the vast amount of knowledge
needed to service clients properly.
 Oversold skills during the interview process.
 Don’t log enough calls, meetings, or mailers on
their activity reports.
 Spend too much time researching leads instead of
just picking up the phone.
 Are pulled into production issues.
 Fail to systematically record prospect interactions in
the sales force automation tool.
 Don’t use available follow-up tools.
 Hold on to opportunities that just never seem to
close.
 Don’t know when to move on and keep servicing
lost opportunities.
 Believe the service is too expensive so jump on
discounts.
 Don’t have confidence in the value of their service
and convey this in interactions with clients.
 Have no in interest in tasks such as cold-calling.
 Have personal problems.
 Don’t like the job.

Table 1: Examples of Individual Factors That May Lead Salespeople to Underperform

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc. 23 June 2014

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3 Managing Underperforming Salespeople

Issue Examples of Symptoms

 Have not identified the client profiles that you want

to proactively pursue.
Broad focus of the  Have too many targets for them to focus on a
organization vertical and region and thoroughly exploit it.
 Lack the clear differentiation that makes the
company a clear choice for your targeted clientele.
Organizational Level

 Lack the infrastructure, technology, or service

Weak offering of the
offering to win the clients they are pursuing.
company
 Can’t deliver on realistic promises.
 Don’t provide access to a sales force automation
software.
Lack of company support  Receive slow turnaround times on specifications to
develop quotes.
 Have strict limitation on travel budget to close deals.
 Insufficient incentives exist to motivate the staff to
Inadequate
put in the right levels of activity.
compensation
 Incentive generates counterproductive behaviors.
 No sales philosophy, methodology, or processes
that the sales team can follow.
No sales methodology
 Sell based on price instead of elevating the
conversation with the client.
 Given the wrong accounts for their skill level.
Strategic Level

Poor account assignment  Sell into a vertical such as life sciences without an
strategy understanding of the specific requirements of that
market.
 No marketing team devoted to generating qualified
leads for sales to exploit.
Insufficient leads
 Are not assigned the right territory or volume of
leads.
 Have no flexibility in the pricing structure to show
Rigid pricing structure
prospects they are giving them a good deal.
 Doesn’t have a sales background.
Management Level

 Struggles to provide the necessary direction.

Lack of leadership at
 Doesn’t know how to help salespeople realize their
manager level
full potential.
 Hires “farmers” instead of “hunters.”
 Put in charge of revenue generation with little
Minimal oversight from
oversight on the activity and techniques used to
executives
bring in the business.

Table 2: Examples of Organizational Reasons Why Salespeople May Fail

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

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Managing Underperforming Salespeople 4

Strategy: Set the Conditions for Sales Success

Before diving into solutions at the individual level, ensure that your organization is
ready to embrace successful sales. Develop and follow a sales strategy.

 Put a sales structure in place. You need a clear philosophy and documented
processes in place to channel the sales effort the way you want it done. Which sales
methodology do you follow – “spray and pray,” CustomerCentric Selling®, Miller
Heiman®, SPIN®, or something else? Decide how to sell, whether in person, by
phone, by e-mail, or via a portal. Link the sales structure to the sales strategy and
the inactive program to the goals. Establish processes such as when and how to
follow up on leads, and what to record in your sales automation tool. If you don’t
have a system to track prospect and client data, invest in one.

 Get a sales coach for yourself. This outside perspective on your approach will
help you better direct your sales team and teach your managers how to develop
sales talent. For small-LSP executives who aren’t willing to go through that effort,
hire a sales manager to take the lead. However, you need to provide your sales the
same support elements that he or she delivers to the sales team, so you are never
completely off the hook.

 Identify client personas to target. Spend time researching the ideal customer
because with a clear profile in mind and good market segmentation, salespeople
can better target the right prospects. Look at past data to assess how you landed
the type of work you’d like to get more of (see “How LSPs Can Use Client
Analytics,” Sep13).

 Identify the metrics to track. You can define leading indicators that measure the
activity that has the potential to generate sales, lagging indicators that measure the
outcome, or comparative metrics (see Table 3). Focus on the output (sales) rather
than the input (number of calls or meetings). However, when you have new hires
or salespeople who aren’t performing well, study their activity levels to ensure the
required effort is there before you review the quality of their interactions.

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5 Managing Underperforming Salespeople

Metric type Examples

 Number of prospects at each sales stage

Leading indicator
Lagging indicator
Comparisons
 Number of dials, calls, or contacts
 Number of e-mails or brochures sent
 Number of product demos made
 Number of quotes
 Total amount quoted
 Total sales
 Average sales order value
 Number of new clients
 Number of projects sold
 Conversion ratio on sales stages/steps
 Sales to target ratio
 Sales against other salespeople’s performance

Table 3: Examples of Sales Metrics

Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Management: Execute on Your Strategy

Once the sales strategy is in place, manage it closely:

 Hire wisely. Resolve non-performance issues by starting with the right individuals
for the selected verticals, geographies, or type of companies. If you are a large
organization with a proven sales process and support system, you can hire
individuals with the right attitude but no experience in sales or the language
industry. However, if you are hiring your first salesperson, get at the minimum
someone with proven sales experience selling a service to executives (see “How to
Recruit Translation Salespeople,” Aug10).

 Have realistic expectations. Expect to remain heavily involved with developing

the sales process after your first sales hires. You can’t dump responsibility on them
without close support and collaboration. Plan to transfer responsibilities gradually
once they master each new sales activity you assign to them.

 Lay out expectations upfront. One of the primary roles of a manager is to set
expectations for employees. Conduct a meeting when you onboard new staff to
outline a 60-day action plan with the results you expect – and on which you will
compensate them. Detail the skills they must master, the activity level to reach
such as the activity metrics you’ll track, the results to obtain, and the attitude to
display. Provide examples to show what it looks like in practice. Review the other
side of the equation, too: Outline the sanctions or dismissal process if they don’t
meet their goals. This will allow you to identify bad hires early on.

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Managing Underperforming Salespeople 6

 Give them leads. Ensure your marketing and branding efforts are aligned with
your sales strategy and generate qualified leads. Ensure salespeople are working
on the type of leads you want and log their progress (see “Ten Common Marketing
Mistakes that LSPs Make,” Jan14). Make sure they document their interactions
with prospects. That way, if you have to let them go, you won’t have lost
everything and may retain a strong pipeline.

 Review performance regularly. Sit down with each team member – at least
quarterly – to review his or her performance against the expectations you had set
as well as the results of the metrics you track. Then agree on the next goals to
reach. Conduct an annual 360-degree performance review – this means seeking
input from all parties that the salesperson interacts with – sales manager, other
salespeople, project managers, account managers, marketing, accounting,
prospects, and clients.

 Perform a skills gap analysis and train as needed. Use hands-on training, scripts,
and role-play to beef up selling skills. Spend time as a team discussing client
scenarios and how to handle them. If you are not a stellar salesperson yourself,
consider sending the team to external sales training or bringing in a motivational
speaker to educate or inspire your sales force.

 Continuously train and coach. Make collaboration and development a way of life.
Hold a daily powwow with your sales team to discuss successes, failures, and
daily goals for the team. Implement training and team-building activities to
motivate the sales staff and support each other’s success. Provide additional
support by accompanying a salesperson to an important client meeting or calling
on a hot prospect that isn’t making a decision. Mentor the team every day – not
just in spurts.

 Reduce non-selling time to a minimum. Your salespeople must spend the

majority of their time on revenue-generating activities such as calling prospects,
following up on pending quotes, or filling out RFPs (see “How to Win the
Requests for Proposals that Matter Most,” Jul12). Limit their need to attend
internal meetings or to provide production assistance. If existing clients take too
much of their time, create an account management layer in your organization (see
“An LSP’s Guide to Account Management,” Sep13).

Tip: If your salespeople chronically suffer from not being able to get to a
particular type of activity, implement a schedule with blocked-off time to cold-
call or send brochures.

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7 Managing Underperforming Salespeople

Follow Through: Hold Salespeople Accountable for Their Performance

Should account executives fail to meet a goal, follow through on the steps you
outlined when you laid out your expectations for them. Executives often put off
confronting under-performers. You must learn to sort the valid reasons for lagging
sales from poorly performing individuals. Here are some options of consequences that
may apply if they fail to meet their goal.

 Reassign to another role. For example, a sales rep doesn’t like cold-calling but
loves to nurture existing relationships. In this case, you could move him to an
account management role or to a non-sales related role.

 Demote the individual. Ideally, hire lower-level people and let them handle
increasingly more complex tasks as they prove they can master the foundations of
sales. However, when they’ve transitioned too fast to a role where they have to
handle many sales tasks that they don’t excel at, you can reduce their role to a
discrete process step such as just cold-calling until they achieve some successes
and then reintroduce other tasks. Note that removing responsibilities often results
in employees seeking work elsewhere.

 Reduce responsibilities. Limit the territory, remove accounts, or even reduce

commission. While this is partially a punishment, it also allows the account
executive to focus on the activity that is most needed.

 Proceed with your termination process. When all else fails, put the individual on
probation and terminate if results don’t occur within the specified period. If you’ve
provided guidance and training but the salesperson doesn’t act, you are tolerating
mediocrity and carrying dead weight around. Cut your losses.

Copyright © 2014 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc. 23 June 2014

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