Sales Management: The Failure of PIPs, and what to do instead.

Sales Management:

The Failure of PIPs,

and what to do instead.

The Two Sides of Sales Management

• The Fun Part • The Not so Fun Part

Watching your employees excel. Watching your employees struggle.

What are you supposed to do when a Team Member doesn‘t live up to the

job requirements?

…Should you fire them?…Should you ignore the issue?

…Should you put them on a PIP?

NO

So What Should You Do Instead?

Easy-Peasy: -Manage with Compassion.-Support your Team in Good, and in Bad Times.-Do what is best for THEM.

What is Wrong with PIPs?Performance Improvement Plans:• Don‘t improve Performance• Provide evidence that manager has tried to help the employee• Protect companies from legal action

PIPs are the Lazy Way of Managing.

What a PIP Really Does…

Suck the humanity out of the manager

Humiliates the employee under investigation

Lowers team moral

Takes focus off the real work

Indicate that the employee in question is going to be terminated

What Should You Do instead?

I recommend two alternatives:1. GOSPA Plans2. Use a Recruiter

GOSPA

(Goals, Objectives, Strategies, Plans and Activities)

For more information on how to introduce GOSPA Planning, please visit http://www.somametrics.com/sales-management-manage-your-team-their-way/

-Business Plan outlining how employee can achieve goals

- Reviewed and signed off by the manager

- Consequences of not performing up to standards are

clear- Actions a manager will take if metrics aren‘t met

(e.g. sitting in on calls, coaching)

-Weekly Review- No improvements within 90 days - termination

Recruiter to the RescueI was tasked with turning around a call center. There was one team member who struggeled to achieve his call metrics. While he was the most technical person on the team, he hated making phone calls. I wasn‘t going to humiliate him through a PIP. What could I do to help him?

I realised that he would make a great Customer Service Rep.His manager and I found an outside recruiter, whom we asked to anonymously interview our struggling employee, for a customer service job. Within 2 weeks the struggling employee had a customer service job. He will never know that we helped him …

Get Happy Endings and Good Results

Use PIPs as your last resort.Use compassion to manage your team.

Use our website to find the complete article. (http://www.somametrics.com/sales-management-pip/)

Use SOMAmetrics to help your company and employees succeed.

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About the Author

• Alicia Assefa has over 25 years of Telebusiness and Sales Management experience.

• Her experience at over 50 companies (including CA, Oracle Corporation, Informix Software, Granicus and Blaze Software, to name a few) has helped her to create a set of field tested best practices that massively ramp sales funnel and revenue.

• Alicia is the Chief Operating Officer at SOMAmetrics, a business consultancy practice that provides effective Inside Sales and Teleprospecting Services.

• If you would like to ask Alicia a question about Inside Sales or Teleprospecting email her at [email protected]

www.somametrics.com510.206.9263