Sales Managers — How to Deal with Low Performance

Working in sales can be tough, and no matter how solid your team may be, there are going to be slumps from time to time. It’s the nature of the business and basically inevitable. However, as the leader of a sales team, it is your responsibility to ensure that these slumps happen sporadically, if at all, which means making sure your sales team are all at the top of their games. It only takes one underperforming member of your team to bring down your numbers, which is obviously the last thing you want. So, how do you address the issue of underperformers on your team? Well, there are several things you can and should do. Here are a few ideas to help boost the performance of your sales team:

Communicate Your Expectations Clearly

One of the first — and most important — things you should do to address underperformance on your team is make sure your expectations have been made perfectly clear. Let your team members know what you expect from each of them individually. Let them know how you want them to speak to potential clients, show them which sales targets you are predicting and setting, and let them know that consistent underperformance and unprofessionalism will need to be addressed.

Never Confront a Team Member in Anger

Whatever your level of annoyance, it’s never ever constructive to lose your temper and confront team members in anger. Some sales managers make the mistake of screaming, shouting, acting irrationally, etc., in response to underperformance from their team and it never ends well. Losing your temper will make the team member in question feel bad, it will make you feel bad, and it will have a negative impact on anyone within earshot — it can demotivate the entire team. If you feel like you’re losing your temper, take a brief walk, take some deep breaths, count to ten, or just spend some time away from everyone while you cool down.

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Avoid Public Confrontation

While angry confrontation should be avoided at all costs, you will still need to address the issue and perhaps discipline the team member appropriately. Your goal should be to get to the root of why the team member/members in question are underperforming but you should never do this publicly in front of others. Take them aside and speak to them in your office or away from everybody else. Confronting them publicly could alienate them, but it will almost certainly embarrass them and drain their motivation. Not to mention bringing down the morale in the office.

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Get to the Root of the Problem

As I mentioned above, slumps in sales are inevitable from time to time. However, if there is one team member that seems to be constantly underperforming, you’ll need to get to the root cause of the problem. Take them aside, let them know you’re disappointed and work with them to uncover the reason for their low performance. Maybe it’s something at home that’s affecting their performance, and maybe they just need to talk or take some personal time. Let them know that you and the company will support them and help them in any way you can. The issue could be simpler than that, like not fully understanding new software or systems, for instance. You want to offer additional training and support wherever you can.

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Provide Incentives

Giving incentives is an effective way to help ensure that the people on your team are pulling their weight and meeting (or hopefully exceeding) their sales targets. The incentives you provide will depend entirely on what you have to offer, but they should always be realistically attainable. Without incentives to work harder and perform better, why would they? You could even offer rewards for salesperson of the month, or something along those lines. By introducing incentives, you’ll find that your team is more likely to step up their game and hopefully exceed their sales targets in the process.

If you’re a sales manager considering new opportunities, I’d love to share all of the great things on offer here at Allied Mortgage Group. Don’t hesitate to reach out.?