The reality for most leaders is that motivating and causing change in their most senior reps is one of their greatest challenges.
If your senior rep is outselling everyone else, instead of getting them to conform to your new standards and requirements, you just might want to leave them alone. At that age, they’re likely not going to significantly change anyway,
But what about a senior rep who’s been selling for 20 years but their performance is flat, and has been flat for the last ten years? They used to be one of your better reps, but today they’re now underperforming as the rest of the team passed them by.
One of the best ways to address this is to sit down and talk to them about their performance. Show them their numbers compared to the rest of the team, asking if this is something they can change and improve. If not, you may need to begin looking for a good exit strategy or soft landing.
Consider bringing them inside to handle telephone sales so they don’t have to travel. Could they become your technical coach to the rest of your reps on technical issues and challenges?
Managers need to be constantly looking for ways to improve their team. One of the worst things you can do is to leave an underperforming rep, even with seniority, to continue under-performing. It’s costing you money.
Join me as I share what you can do to motivate and help your most senior under-performing sales reps to turn this around…and sell even more!