A sales manager job is not an easy task, but so is being a sales person. Quotas are always a burden on the shoulders. And no matter how good you are with the sales talk, if the person isn’t buying, there’s no way you can change his or her mind – which is why a sales person position is no job for an underperformer.

A top-performing sales manager should acknowledge this fact sooner than any other person.

Think about it. When you shelter and try to protect your underperformers, you are actually shortchanging them. Not to mention the company has them on the payroll… for being an underperformer.

For example, an underperformer who hasn’t been hitting quota lately obviously isn’t very happy with his performance. At the same time YOU aren’t very happy, either. As their sales manager, failure to take action is equivalent to stealing a part of the sales person’s life which could’ve been better off spent elsewhere. The sales person could’ve been someplace else, doing something he’s actually good at, but he is not.

It’s because you – as a sales manager – failed to do something about the problem.

In the process of sheltering your underperformers, you’re also shortchanging your other, better, sales people. Every time you hold a meeting and speak to them as their leader, you are sending them the wrong message.

You say:

I’m counting on every one of you to seek excellence and drive hard for long-term success.

But what you’re really doing is:

It doesn’t matter if you even want to try and hit quota since I’ll keep you on the company payroll all the same.

The longer this goes on, the bigger and more distinct the stain it’ll leave on your name as an incompetent sales manager.

ACT NOW. Don’t delay. An achiever is an achiever, an underperformer is an underperformer. Guide them, offer them a supportive hand. But never micro-manage them, and most importantly, learn to let them go if you don’t see a change in their performance soon even after you’ve done everything you can to help them get up on their own two feet.

The lesson: foster good sales persons, not underperformers.

Stop wasting everyone’s time and get your underperformers off the payroll.

You gave them a chance to get it together. Their turn is over.

Your move.

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