Should they stay or should they go? (The sales manager’s dilemma)
Previously in my career, I was a Regional Sales Manager with Ciba-Corning Diagnostics. I originally was hired by Gilford Systems, a division of Ciba-Corning (a joint venture between Ciba Geigy and Corning Medical). I was an Instrument Specialist selling a clinical chemistry analyzer (The Express 550) in small-to-medium hospitals and labs. Gilford was combined with Ciba-Corning Immunoassay business (Magic™ RIA and Chemiluminescent assays). We then combined/consolidated with the Blood Gas division of Ciba-Corning. After the consolidations (each one involved a change in management), the Ciba-Corning product line included:
General chemistry analyzers
An automated Immunoassay analyzer (ACS 180)
General chemistry controls and reagents
RIA and Chemiluminescent assays
Blood Gas and Electrolyte analyzers
Shortly after all of the consolidations were complete, we were sold to Chiron and added bDNA to the product line. Chiron kept the business for a few years; I think tripled their money and sold it to Bayer. I was a Zone Director with Chiron and Bayer by then, and left shortly after the Bayer purchase.
An unfortunate part of team building involves decoupling (isn’t that a nice way to say it?) those who don’t share the correct values or achieve the required performance milestones. The “decoupling” can be particularly stressful when the individual in question shares the right values, says the right things and is receptive to your coaching—which means that you probably like him and would have liked to see him succeed.
A case in point:
I was a newly-promoted regional manager and was assigned the lowest-ranked region in the organization. Part of the reason the region was performing poorly was due to bad personnel choices. The organization had gone through yet another management consolidation and we absorbed another division (which is relevant because the new National Sales Manager (NSM) came from the other side of that business and now he was in charge of products and people that were new to him).
In my new region there was a Technical Specialist that everyone loved. He was intelligent, communicated well and wanted to move in to sales. Sounds good so far, right? Well as likeable as that Technical Specialist was and as much as his team members and customers liked him, he was failing in his job and was on a Performance Improvement Plan as a Technical Specialist. A Performance Improvement Plan meant he had to achieve outlined milestones within 90 days to remain employed. Obviously, not a good place to be as an employee and definitely not the place you want to be if you are trying to get promoted.
The new NSM met this person and was persuaded (because of the Technical Specialist’s excellent communication skills and general likeability) to move that Technical Specialist in to a selling role in that same region. I can still remember the exact words I used with the NSM when he told me he had made that decision (which in my mind really wasn’t his to make if he was holding me accountable for the region’s performance at the end of the year): “Bill, are we doing this because it is the right thing to do or are we doing it because it is the easiest?” His response: “No, no, no. It is the right thing to do. He’ll do very well.” The fact that he was failing in his current role apparently wasn’t relevant to Bill.
Even though the Technical Specialist was a wonderful person and a pleasure to work with, he never should have been transferred to a sales role, and of course, he failed quickly. We tried retraining, having him work with successful reps and attend sales training seminars. No improvement.
As the year passed, this rep passed the point of no return (remember The Rule of 78) and it was clear he wouldn’t be able to hit his goals. Keep in mind that I never had anything but pleasant conversations with this individual and he was always going to “kill it next quarter” and everyone wanted it to be true, but, sadly, it never was. Once again, he found himself on a Performance Improvement Plan. But ironically this time, Bill (the same NSM who put the Technical Specialist into the sales position in the first place) was pressuring me to resolve the issue and had conveniently forgotten about his role in the problem.
Which brings us back to the original question: Should he stay or should he go?
It seems simple, but a complicating factor was that the failing sales rep had a large order that was pending.
As a manager, do you decouple now or wait until after the order? The order could save the individual.
The answer is: the two issues are unrelated.
Say what?
If someone isn’t performing to the standards prescribed by the organization, it is your responsibility as a manager to either improve performance through coaching and counseling or to replace them with someone who can achieve the organization’s objectives. A pending order shouldn’t really influence your decision because “even a blind pig finds an acorn occasionally.” (Say what again? That means that even if you are incompetent or poorly skilled, you may experience an occasional success. Some refer to them as “bluebirds”.)
So just because this person has an order in play doesn’t change the fact that their skill set isn’t a good match for the job that they’re in.
Enough of the theoretical—it’s a big order and you need it for the region. What do you do?
If you’ve been a good manager, you’ve already been involved in the strategy and tactics at the account. You’ve met the players at the account and understand their needs, so you should have a good feel for where in the sales process the account is and whether or not it is a Best Few.
My experience tells me that in most cases, the order that “can save me” isn’t really an order at all. Instead, they are a very strong prospect and if their needs are met and their objections overcome they probably will move from the “In the Funnel” position to the “Best Few” position. So–no, the order isn’t going to happen in the next 60 days. (I know there are all sorts of exceptions and anytime you generalize you open yourself up to being wrong, but this scenario has repeated itself many times in my career.)
If this order is the exception and it really is going to happen, I would do everything I could to help the rep close the business. If after pulling out all of the stops, it still wasn’t going to close before the completion of the PIP, I would move forward with the decoupling. After the employee had been decoupled, I would call the Manager or Director (at the customer account) and explain that the person had left the organization and I hated to see them go.
In most cases, the manager acknowledged and went on with business. Occasionally they might offer some feedback like, “That doesn’t surprise me, he seemed to be struggling” or “Gosh I hate to hear that, he was such a nice guy.”
What I have never had happen is that same manager or director cancel an order because of a sales rep personnel change. After all, they manage people and understand that things don’t always work out the way you would like with some of your employees.
I believe that if you lose the order, you never really had any order. If the rep had done a good job of positioning your product or service and building the value proposition, the customer wouldn’t be willing to miss out on those benefits for their organization.
Maybe my experiences are unique, but at the end of the day I believe most customers’ and managers’ top priority and allegiance is to their organization and what is best for it.
It is like they said in the movie, “It’s not called Show Friends, it’s Show BUSINESS.”
What do you think? Put it in the comments or e-mail me at kraig@phcconsulting.com.
Kraig McKee
Snr. Recruiter
Written by Peggy McKee - the medical sales recruiter
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