What would you do if you managed a group of sales reps who in 7 months only produced less than 5% of their annual quota?
One of the responses suggested "sacking the whole team and starting over." Interesting thought, maybe necessary, but very "shoot from the hip".
It's rare that an entire sales team is underperforming. Look at all aspects of the role first to find the real cause of the problems before blowing up your organization.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Is your product / service truly competitive in the market? If not, it doesn't matter who you have in sales.
- Is your brand new to the market? If so it's not realistic to expect immediate results. It takes time to create brand awareness.
- What is your sales model? If it is relationship selling based and starting from ground up it will take time to build relationships. Hiring sales people with existing relationships can help. This being said, I’ve never seem a “magic rolodex”. It gets the door open but doesn’t mean companies will buy.
- What is the average sales cycle time for your product or service? If 7 months or more then there may not be an issue. If 60-90 days then there is a big issue.
- Do they have the proper lead systems to drive pipeline? If you are asking them to play marketer, appointment setter, closer and relationship manager their bandwidth will be severely limited.
- Do they have proper motivation through leveraged pay?
- Did you hire junior sales people to save money? Experienced sales people, in my experience, drive 2X – 4X the sales of junior sales people.
- Are any salespeople making their targets? If not the targets may be off. It’s unlikely that the entire team is missing their targets. Your position requirements might also be off systematically bringing in unqualified people.
Although not an exhaustive list, this would be a good start.
You may have to replace people, but don't throw out the "baby with the bathwater". Start looking for new candidates. The first person you replace will send a clear message to your team. If that doesn't motivate them then start replacing as soon as you can.
Just don't stop forward progress in your pipeline by scrapping everything until you are sure it's the people. It may be the process or their tools
