Since a new
salesperson is, as a general rule, much more open to learning than a more experienced person, your efforts will return better than average results. If you only had one hour of coaching time to allocate, for example, that hour would get more payback if you invested it in a new person than if you invested it in a more experienced one.
Now let’s look at the other side of the issue – your more experienced salespeople. Let’s start with an observation that I have made over the years: Just because a salesperson has the experience, that does not mean that he/she knows how to do the job well. You cannot count on all your current salespeople to know how to do the job well. You can count on them having arrived at someplace where they are comfortable in what they are doing. In fact, they may
not even know what it means to do their jobs well!
See my article, “Stop the bleeding,” for a description of what I’m talking about.
OK, let’s assume
that you have worked with your experienced salespeople sufficiently to come to the conclusion that they are competent at what they are doing.
Can you then leave them completely alone and devote all of your attention to the new people? NO.
They still need direction and feedback from you. That doesn’t mean that you need to micromanage them. But it does mean that you should have created and communicated specific annual expectations for their performance. Not only that, but it also means that you ought to meet with them individually each... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
