You can hire people with solid track records, give them a great product to sell and the best technology available to assist them. However, sometimes, for whatever reason, a rep won’t hit their targets. It’s far from unusual; data from RepVue shows that only 39% of mid-market reps hit their quota over the last year. Nevertheless, Your job as a Head of Sales is to spot underperformance as early as possible, identify the causes and get them back on track.
In this article, with the help of MySalesCoach expert sales coach Volker Ballueder, we’ll share strategies to address underperformance and ensure your reps hit their numbers more often.
This article is part of our essential guide to Sales Team Leadership.
In this post, we'll cover:
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Recognising And Assessing Underperformance
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Analysing Causes Of Underperformance
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Developing And Implementing Improvement Plans
Recognising and Assessing Underperformance
Typically, the first signal of underperformance a Head of Sales notices is a rep’s sales figures. If they’re miles behind where they should be at a specific point of the quarter, a leader will be curious about why they’re lagging.
To find out more, they’ll likely look at that rep’s activity data. They’ll look at how many calls they’re making, how many emails they’re sending out, and how they’re building their pipeline. Activity levels aren’t a perfect way of assessing performance. A rep could spend all day on the golf course with one client, but close a massive deal while they’re there. Another rep could spend all day hammering the phones without making any deals. However, analysing activity can point you in the right general direction.
The earlier you spot underperformance, the earlier you can address it before it harms your team’s numbers. The best sales leaders have a handle on their data at all times.
Analysing Causes of Underperformance
Individual and Team Assessment
Once you’ve spotted that a rep is underperforming, you must find out why and address the issue. If their activity levels are low, it may be a motivation problem that coaching could solve. Alternatively, if their activity levels are in line with others in their team, it could be a skills gap. Once you’ve worked out the cause, you can invest in training or coaching to fill that gap.
‘If they’re doing everything right but not achieving, the question is, who are they contacting? Are there problems around negotiations or building relationships?’ - Volker Ballueder
Often, one rep dropping behind signals that something isn’t right in the team as a whole. A good approach is to schedule a team coaching session with everyone in the room. Let your reps share their challenges and determine what you can do to get things moving in the right direction again.
if you're interested in finding out more about sales team coaching techniques, we have an article here.
Considering External Factors
It’s important to remember that a sales team can sometimes underperform due to factors outside their control.
You’re often at the mercy of the market. For example, if you sell in the finance sector, a market crash will negatively impact your sales figures.
Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) has to be right, so your reps spend their time selling to people who can get value from your product. That audience also has to have money to spend. You could have the world’s best salespeople in your team, but if your prospects don’t have budgets, they won’t buy.
Finally, your product has to meet the needs of the market. A misaligned product will lead to underperformance in your sales team.
Developing and Implementing Improvement Plans
Setting Realistic Performance Goals
Many sales leaders put underperforming reps on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) to give them a final chance to succeed. However, this is usually seen as a way for a company to ‘manage out’ poorly performing people.
’When it comes to a PIP, it’s almost too late. 90% of people don’t survive PIPs. It wouldn’t be my approach.’ - Volker Ballueder
Instead, sit down with the rep and set short-term SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) targets that your rep can work toward. Think about where you could be in a week, a month and three months. Show them that you want them to succeed rather than manage them out.
Tracking Progress and Offering Support
To support your rep as they work to hit their new targets, provide training where required, reinforced by coaching. For example, if they lack proficiency at cold calling, train them on calling techniques, but also coach them with call recordings and roleplays. Assess how they’ve improved during your coaching sessions and see how it aligns with the all-important sales numbers.
You should be sitting down to coach your reps at least weekly. A recent survey by Salesforce found that only 26% of sales professionals get coached on a weekly basis. The more frequently you can coach, the easier you’ll find it to address underperformance issues quickly.
Involving Team Members in Plan Development
Engaging your underperforming team member in creating their improvement plan shows that you’re committed to their development, which should get them to buy into it on a deeper level.
Give them ownership of their journey in your team. Show them that if they can achieve, it will lead to success. This will keep them motivated as they face the inevitable challenges. It also helps you build a better relationship with your team members.
Recognising and Reinforcing Progress
With a strong plan for improvement and your support as their Head of Sales, you should start to see signs of recovery. At this point, do whatever you can to keep the ball rolling.
’Celebrate achievements, even small milestones like hitting a weekly or monthly target. A lot of people don’t do this often enough.’ - Volker Ballueder
Recognise the effort your rep has put into turning their performance around, however small. It boosts morale and encourages them to stay on track.
However, make sure you extend this praise to your entire team. Take them for drinks, get pizza delivered on a Friday, send them a Deliveroo voucher if they work from home. Whatever works.
Motivating Underperforming Sales Team Members
Keeping your sales team consistently motivated is a perennial challenge. Positive reinforcement is an excellent approach. When your reps are in the office, praise them when you see them performing well, like using an effective line on a call with a prospect. This makes this individual feel valued, motivates others to work together to improve and generally improves the group dynamic. Of course, this can be trickier if your reps mainly work from home.
Incentive programs can also be an effective motivator. While money matters, especially to salespeople, they often prefer different types of incentives like vouchers, nights out, even personal development opportunities.
If you're interested in finding out more about motivation and sales team incentives, we have an article here.
Balancing Accountability and Empathy
As a Head of Sales, your job is to ensure your team hits its targets. But you’re running a team of human beings, not robots. While you need to hold your team members accountable, you must also be empathetic to their personal circumstances and the problems they may be facing.
‘Someone came to me and said, ‘Is it OK if I leave 15 minutes earlier tonight? I have to pick my child up from daycare. I’ll make up for it by working in the evening.’ I told her that those 15 minutes didn’t matter and to focus on her family.’ - Volker Ballueder
Making sure your team members are happy and stress-free should be part of your remit as a leader. After all, happy reps perform better.
Conclusion
A great Head of Sales will always be on the lookout for underperformance and never ignore it when they see it. However, once they’ve identified it, the key is to address their reps’ challenges constructively, with empathy and respect.
Coaching should be key to any performance management issue you may be facing. Coaching helps to upskill your reps, positively reinforce good behaviours and maintain motivation. In fact, the more you coach, the fewer underperformance issues you should see.
Find out more from MySalesCoach
At MySalesCoach, we help busy sales managers and ambitious reps reach their potential with expert, consistent 1:1 coaching.
To find out more about MySalesCoach, book a call with us today.
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