How Long Do You Give A New Sales Person To Succeed ? Five Considerations

A company hired a new sales person three months ago. This person has signed some good customers, but only generated $5,000 in sales. How patient should the CEO be and how much time is reasonable to demonstrate performance? What metrics do other companies use to assess or provide incentives for sales performance?

Advice from a group of CEOs:

Set 90 day targets that you expect the individual to reach to demonstrate success:

*X new accounts. Y in sales revenue. Other measures as appropriate to your business. Set these targets WITH the individual, not FOR them so that the individual has ownership of the targets.

*Monitor frequently. If the trend is below the target, ask what the individual plans to do to meet or exceed the target.

*Targets are best set at the time of hiring. If the individual cannot approach these numbers, cut sooner rather than later.

How do you differentiate a sales person from a sales talker?

*Based on results. Expect to see results quickly.

*When evaluating candidates, what do their resumes say about past sales success? Are these claims verified by references?

The traits that correlate with success are not traits that sales reps develop after they are hired. They have to have these from the beginning and your hiring process must select for these traits. Several companies offer tools that help identify whether a candidate possess the traits to succeed in the sales role, including Target Training International (TTI) and Sandler Sales.

Since an individual has already been hired, observe how he or she is spending their time.

*What percent of the individual's time is spent in the office or on the phone compared to time spent in front of customers? Other CEOs expect a 90/10 ratio with 90% of time out of the office. This varies by customer type and accessibility.

*If there is a lot of phone time, consider a cell phone so that the individual can be making calls between customer appointments.

What can you do to bring new sales people up to speed post-hire? How can you accelerate the process and also provide early indications that they are performing or floundering?

*Spend time with them. Coach them. Provide them with good support.

*Particularly for sales people who are new to your industry and market, assign a sales mentor to hone their presentation skills more rapidly, introduce them to the market and to teach them the market dynamics and industry sales cycles. Mentors should be chosen carefully, and must be open to the role of mentor.

*Provide them with a good flow of leads from your marketing activities.

*Track their calls, customer meetings, business close rates and other factors to determine whether they are exhibiting the right level of effort and improving their results over time.

*For both sales and other hires, draft a 90 day plan. This plan should include the training that new hires will receive, and the competencies that they are expected to master during the first 90 days. A 90-day plan will provide early alerts for individuals who are either on track or may not succeed.