GETTING FIRED BY YOUR SALESPEOPLE
(author unknown)

When a salesperson leaves you for "a better job," it's a big, red flag. If yon say, "It's all his fault," or "if she had done this or that,"or "he wasn't that good anyway," or "we're better off without her" --you're kidding yourself.

When a salesperson leaves, don't rush to judgment. Your first inclination is to say it's his or her fault. Whose fault is it? My experience has shown me that salespeople leave because of corporate, management or leadership failures -- not because of a better offer. Sure there was an offer, but you created the opportunity for that offer to be considered and accepted.

If your salesperson was happy and earning well, would he have left? No.
I challenge you to find out why that one really left before they're all gone. I challenge you to get real enough with yourself to get to the truth behind your salespeople leaving.
Whether you want to admit it, here arc the major reasons salespeople fire you. How many of them are you going to deny?

1. Lack of sales training. Support growth (and success) by training. It's tin investment, not an expense.

2. Lack of sales tools. Provide them the tools and technology they need to compete, or they will lose to the competition.

3. Lack of an inside team. Fighting between sales and production, or sales and inside administration, equals loss of enthusiasm and momentum.

4. Lack of an immediate boss Bosses who blame and badger are the Insets, not the salespeople they chase away.

5. Lack of corporation. Unrealistic goals and quotas followed by reduced support, canceled advertising and stupid memos about "numbers" not being met. Wrong attitude about success.

6. Lack of leadership. Salespeople want to follow a leader with a plan.

7. Unfilled promises about money or process. If you promise a salesperson something about money, deliver on time or lose.

8. Repeated poor delivery. The inability for salespeople to have their promises fulfilled to their customers. Salespeople take their promises seriously. They take it personally when their hard work is destroyed by an unfulfilled promise.

9. Poor service after the sale. Eliminates referrals, makes the salesperson look bad, reduces pride, causes belief in the company or product to diminish.

10. Inability of product to perform to claims. Your salespeople must develop a belief system around a product, or it can't be sold. Before they can sell it, they must be sold on it themselves.

11. Unfulfilled promises after tile sale. Salespeople feel personally responsible for the promises they make.

12. Negative attitude of the boss. Grumpy boss equals low morale, equals high staff turnover. Bosses create their own fate. What's yours?

13. Owner (or boss) does not command respect. If the boss is inexperienced, has questionable ethics, is moody, or is poor at selling, it's hard for him to earn the respect needed to lead (or keep) the team.

14. Internal conflicts. Fights that no one wins. Production fighting sales. Accounting fighting sales. Outside people fighting inside people. Why? No answer makes sense. Who loses the fight? The customer.

15. Not delivering what they were told when they were hired. When you tell a prospective employee sniff about the company and the job, they remember it.They believe it. They rely on it. And if it's different after they begin working, different is usually bad.

16. Lack of acceptance by either party. Not fitting in to the existing culture. Not feeling at home. Petty jealousy and arguments. Resisting change.

17. Poor communication. Not being told or finding out the wrong way leads to confusion, frustration, anger and quitting.

18. Unmet expectations.

19. Lack of action to fix or alter the situation. When too much time passes between problem and solution or resolve, people become unsettled and disgruntled and look elsewhere.

Here's the secret: If you want to build great salespeople, build a great sales manager.