We have a client that just terminated the sales person after 10 months for non performance. Why did it take so long, you ask, to terminate this person? Well, the client was very interested in making sure that it did everything possible to work with this sales rep in order to enhance their performance. But in retrospect, it should have been about 4 months ago or so that the client fired this person. The reason why it hung on was because the company was waiting and hoping that a different result was going to come by just providing some more time to the sales representative. What's the key lesson here?

It is when you can see that a sales person's not performing and that you can see that they're not making steady progress in improving their sales activity and pipeline and actually closing business. The best rule of thumb is to act quickly, to let that kind of person go so that you can make room for replacing them with somebody who can be more productive. Many sales managers get attached to the individuals who are on their sales team. The process of building positive motivation and a team spirit can cloud the image of whether or not a sales person is actually performing. Sales management needs to make sure that it doesn't wait and hope too long for a sales person to get success before taking the necessary action to terminate and replace individuals who are non performers.

But it's very easy for sales management to be clouded in their perspective on this subject, again, wishing, hoping and wanting the sales person to perform. Frequently, delay happens through the non-performer efforts to sell the sales manager on the fact that things are actually improving. On the case of our client, the sales representative actually spent a good portion of his time preparing and briefing management on trying to provide evidence that sales were actually picking up and that a full pipeline was right around the corner. So, this in one of the key things that you need to look for as a sales manager whether or not the person who you're working with actually is demonstrating actual results and improvement in their sales pipeline versus just selling you on the fact that things are getting better.

Do you have any sales people in your team who are not hitting their numbers and haven't been for several months? Do you have any new hires who are way behind in terms of hitting their forecast and achieving their sales results you originally hired them to produce? Now is a great time for you to take a look at those individuals and determine what you're going to do to either get them on a short term corrective action plan or move them out of the company. Make sure that 2006 is a year in which wishing and hoping is replaced by solid commitment to excellence and achieving the sales results that you need for your company.