There may be many reasons for why your sales people are underperforming. One reason may be mistakes made by the sales manager. The salesopedia.com website presented the three main mistakes.
The inability to say goodbye to bad sales people
In practice, sales people are often hired too quickly and fired too slowly. Managers usually recognize quite soon whether the given employee is well suited for the sales person role or not. If you ask in hindsight, you will see that the manager knew it after several weeks. So we have to ask: “Why did he only fire him after several years?” You do no service to either the company or the employee if you hang on to bad employees. Rather, you are actually in danger of losing your good reputation as well as the good sales people.
Poor training
The “sink or swim” rule still applies in many sales teams. If you want to be more successful, first clarify what skills and knowledge successful sales people in your company must have. You should properly train your sales people in your products and services, your industry, market, company operations, customer service and sales. The training should be gradual and should not be limited to only handing over manuals.
Unclear expectations and consequences
Managers must require responsibility from their subordinates. This means providing a clear structure of work and defining boundaries. Sales people need to hear what exactly you expect from them and what the consequences will be if they do not meet your expectations. It’s basically like with kids: parents must find the right balance between fairness and persistence.
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