Wanna Kick The Lazy Beggers In The Wotsits!

[GuerrillaIM]

What do you do to monitor and motivate your staff?

Due to recent poor sales I installed monitoring software on my staffs pc's and was shocked to find they hardly do any work at all! And my manager who is meant to be motivating them and making them work is the laziest of the lot.

I've ordered up some security software that will block them using the internet for non approved websites but I'm not sure how effective this is going to be. They are probably a bit over paid for the current climate anyway but I'm not sure if a paycut will be just turning over a hornets nest.

Has anyone else out there had similar problems with their sales staff? How did you manage to overcome it?

I've tried the carrot. I have given them a really good performance related bonus structure. Should I use the stick more? I only sack people when they cause a major problem, should i sack the bottom performer every 3 months or so?

I would really appreciate some help and advice as i've been working all hours of the day for as long as I can remember and I feel like my staff are just sponging off me. I'm sure there are many people out there who would be grateful of a job right now.

[PatriciaJ]

Sack the manager and promote the top performer

[BrianMcLeod]

Sliding scale commissions and quotas.

****ty > Good > Outstanding

Consecutive quarterly improvement or lower pay tier for a quarter (w/one qtr grace)

And fire your worst guy immediately in order to "establish the urgency of this matter".

Brian

[GuerrillaIM]

Originally Posted by BrianMcLeod

Sliding scale commissions and quotas.

****ty > Good > Outstanding

Consecutive quarterly improvement or lower pay tier for a quarter (w/one qtr grace)

And fire your worst guy immediately in order to "establish the urgency of this matter".

Brian

The way I have it setup is that they need to hit a minumim sales theshold each month in order to get their percentage based comission. This is 10% of the sales they bring in.

Then I take a 3 month average of their banked sales. Depending what the 3 month average is I pay a bonus accordingly.

In your system does their basic change depending on their sales? I like the sound of that

[jasonl70]

Originally Posted by GuerrillaIM

I've tried the carrot. I have given them a really good performance related bonus structure.

I do a lot of work with car dealers (and my family owns a few). I've discovered that most sales staff have a "comfort zone" in regards to their pay, and they will typicaly sell enough to roughly stay within that zone. A sales guy who who's comfortable making 30k will make 25-30k, whereas another sales guy who's comfort zone is 70k will sell enough to make approx 70k. They each have the same opportunity, but have drastic differences in results.

The solution? Hire staff that are not satisfied with making lower income. My brother in law only hires staff for his team that have a history of making at least 80k in their past positions - and his team is consistanly one of the best at his company.

Originally Posted by GuerrillaIM

Should I use the stick more? I only sack people when they cause a major problem, should i sack the bottom performer every 3 months or so?

This is an interesting model I've come across before at some very successfull consulting companies (other businesses as well - Enron even used it). Every year the bottom x% of performers were let go. I've done work with a company that would cut loose the bottom 30% of all of their employees
every year! I'm not sure what sort of climate it creates in the workplace though..

[Jeff Williams]

Just an opinion:

If spoiling them with performance bonuses isn't working, maybe a kick in the butt is your answer.

I remember hearing about a business owner years ago who would habitually fire the bottom 10% of his staff every year. Period. Didn't matter who you "were" or how long you had been there. If you didn't perform, you were out.

I don't know if this approach would be feasible for you. Or even practical. But, I think you might get at least a temporary performance boost from your staff if you just mention this idea to them.

They may not have the drive to want to become the top sales dog in your office, but if they think they're getting canned in December ... they'll hopefully bust tail trying to keep themselves out of the bottom 10%.

-Jeff

[GuerrillaIM]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the pointers. Your advice raises another question I have been having at the moment. If I set the basic low and the comission high I struggle to get people applying for the job. If I up the basic and drop the comission its easier to recruit but I don't like doing it as I feel staff are less motivated to sell.

I think I need to take a course on how to employ sales people. Problem with my line of work is that each lead costs £20-£50 and I dish out 5-10 leads per day to each salesperson. If it was a cold calling operation I would just "churn and burn". This is to say I would hire loads of people and give them a chance to sink or swim. (like throwing S&*t at a wall)

As it stands, the training period for this job is 3 months and hiring each person can be expensive if they dont stay and perform well. I advertise the job in the local paper and local job centre. I wonder if I should be taking a more proactive approach to recruiting and trying to steal other peoples staff?

[Kay King]

If I up the basic and drop the comission its easier to recruit but I don't like doing it as I feel staff are less motivated to sell.

But it doesn't seem to be working if that's how you're doing it.

Incentives can come in many forms as you well know. The most satisfying sales job I had over the years wasn't the most exciting. However, the base pay was enough to pay the bills (stress eliminated), the bonuses were clearly based on performance levels, reaching each new level wasn't easy but was doable, and reaching a higher level of sales resulted in being given MORE leads (made it easier to reach the next level).

In this economy each person might need more leads just to get the same number of sales - that's one thing I'd look at. If it's not cold calling and they work only leads they're given....they may not be getting a full day's "work" given to them. Maybe you don't need that many people - maybe you should let them know that....

If you have a corp sales group that has been with you for some time - why not brainstorm with them. Tell them what the problems are and enlist their ideas of how to increase sales without decreasing compensation.

Micro-managing sales people doesn't work. Set clear expectations, set clear rules of work behavior and clear consequences for those who don't meet expectations.

Remember, too, that a bad economy leads to more "no's" and that's wearing on a sales force, too.

kay

[Matt M]

You need to work on finding people with a lot of personal pride and a competitive nature.

The punishments don't apply to them as they are always giving their best and they want to be at the top regardless of incentives.

When you find these types you do everything you can to keep them.

[ExRat]

Hi GuerrillaIM,

I'm not an employer - but I feel my advice could be helpful regardless.

And my manager who is meant to be motivating them and making them work is the laziest of the lot

The way I see this set up is that the manager's role (ideally) is an outsourced version of you. In the ideal situation, you would sit with the team, managing them and constantly applying whatever is needed.

But you want your manager to do this role, so that you can do other things. Ideally, the manager would be just like you (a clone of you), with the exact same motivations.

Therefore in my opinion, one of the priorities should be to analyse and understand why the manager is not performing, and then put this right. If you can get the manager firing on all cylinders (or get a replacement who is), then you won't have to spend as much time getting the team to perform. The manager is the key point for you to apply your influence. Even if the team is motivated, a lousy manager will bring them down.

So find the problem with him/her, and solve that first. A decent manager should be able to assist you in solving any other problems with the sales team (as they are closest to them) - or better still, solve it themselves.

Currently, the team is not performing. Isn't it the manager's job to get the team to perform? It would appear that you have a manager who is not doing their job which is the root of the problem, and the key to the solution.

In my opinion, replacing the poor performers in the team before addressing the management issue is simply addressing the symptoms, not the cure.

Hope this helps.

[John Hixson]

How much face to face time do you have with your team?

I ask because in my experience of both being a sales person, and managing them (in previous roles, thankfully not now) the sales team often act as a reflection of their management. In this instance it seems like they are reflecting a lazy manager - which is not what you want.

From my own perspective I would be looking very carefully at the performance of the manager. Does he know his role - do you agree its the same thing? Obviously you see a big part of it as staff motivation, but does he? (obviously it could just as easily be a she for all I know)

If you do decide to change managers then I certainly wouldnt change the staff as yet, you need to see what changes a manager brings - and what they would recommend themselves (independent eyes and all that).

If you keep the manager you need to lay your cards on teh table, especially with the manager but I would also with the team. Say you feel that a lot of people aren't pulling their weight. Tell them you are looking at productivity reports and you are appalled at the level of work going on.

Set them KPI's (key performance indicators) that are work based as well as sales based. Hours on the phone, lead development of their own - whatever suits your business model. Then tell them you will be monitoring these KPI's and then talking to people about them in the future.

If you are worried this might effect the morale of your superstar sales people then set a certain sales target above which you won't be monitoring KPI's.

This way you are measuring peoples work flow and talking to them about it (which they will hate having to face home truths about unless they really are working hard - and so they will be spurred on) or they are earning you enough money that you're happy with the effort they are putting in, no matter which KPI's they are hitting and which they are missing

Obviously just my thoughts on the subject, hope they help straighten out yours!

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by GuerrillaIM

What do you do to monitor and motivate your staff?

Nothing. I don't hire ****ty people, and if a non-****ty person doesn't perform to my standards, I fire them.

[John Hixson]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Nothing. I don't hire ****ty people, and if a non-****ty person doesn't perform to my standards, I fire them.

I disagree most heartily.

KPI's ae an important factor in understanding your sales team, not just monitoring them for the sake of it.

You need to understand where individuals need to improve, where they are going well and tailor how you deal/train them appropriately.

In sales even the top people go trhough occassional slumps and it can useful to see what changed, if anything - and again monitored KPI's can help highlight any difference (often simply they have fallen into a comfort zone but not thought they had, by showing them KPI's they are faced with hard facts they can address).

To say you fire them if they don't live up to your standards is one thing, but as the OP says they have invested a LOT of money into hiring, training and supplying them with leads. Why throw it away without knowing if it is actually something simple that can be addressed?

[Daniel Scott]

Guerilla,

I'm don't have employees... but here's some food for thought...

I'm not sure a "forced curve" is a good idea... ultimately I think you want to people to know that if they perform well, they keep their job. An ultra-competitive environment isn't good for customers or business... you want your team to be able to work together if needed.

As others have said, it sounds like your problem is the manager. Remember, you have to lead by example... and employees will copy the leader. I suspect if you replace him, things will improve drastically.

My bet is that employees think it's okay to slack off because he has, directly or indirectly, showed them that.

Replace him and your problems should clear up... or at least you'll be able to take out one of your problems.

-Dan

[Daniel Scott]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Nothing. I don't hire ****ty people, and if a non-****ty person doesn't perform to my standards, I fire them.

To me, a "****ty" person is someone who is someone who WON'T perform, not someone who is unaware of how to.

Sure, you can use the "slash and burn" technique... and it can be successful... but I believe that even with good staff, you want someone to be training them, encouraging them, and helping them improve.

When I started copywriting I was terrible. Now I write letters that are pretty damn good... and a bit part of that improvement has been Vin, my mentor.

What would have happened if I went to Vin and he said "You suck, get out of my (proverbial) office!"?

I'm just saying that no one has all the skills... and that having someone to guide them and improve them would probably seriously help your bottom line.

-Dan

[spycraft]

Commissions commissions commissions.

That's my golden rule.

[jasonl70]

Originally Posted by spycraft

Commissions commissions commissions.

That's my golden rule.

true - but the problem is sales staff that are happy with the money they make just skating by.

I had a sales guy once tell me "if I can make 35k a year, I'm happy". Amazingly, he always managed to make around 3k a month. If his month started off great, it would start to fall apart at the end and he'd only make 3k. When the month started off slow, he'd usually manage to turn things up a notch and generate enough sales to get his 3k. Other sales staff, EQUALLY as talented, often made up to twice as much $

the trick to get this guy's sales higher? when they changed th epay program and he needed to sell more in order to make his 3k. Another scenerio that would get his sales up - sales contests with non-monetary prizes.

People simply have a way of staying within their own comfort zones and income expectations. If someone's goal is to make 35k a year, they will probably NEVER sell enough to make 70k a year.

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by Daniel Scott

To me, a "****ty" person is someone who is someone who WON'T perform, not someone who is unaware of how to.

To me, a ****ty person is someone who literally cannot perform - someone who doesn't have the skills or experience to meet the requirements of the position.

When people don't meet the requirements because they just don't bother, that's a different matter. I don't ask a lot of my people; just get the job done by the deadline. I don't care how you do it. If you spend 80% of your day posting on the icanhascheezburger forums, that's fine. Just do your job and meet your deadlines.

I believe very strongly that you should never have to make someone do their job. You should have to let them do their job. Give them the specs, walk away, and keep everyone and everything you can out of their hair until they come back with the work.

Not everyone can work that way, and if they can't, they don't need to be working for me. I'm fiercely loyal to my people, as long as they get the job done, and part of that is not expecting them to work alongside people who don't get the job done.

[Martin Luxton]

Part of the answer, as has been pointed out, lies with the manager.

You already know that but for some reason don't want to act on it (is s/he a friend or family member?).

I have worked for two companies where they had big problems which they were aware of but didn't do anything about. So, at great expense, they hired consultants to come in and recommend changes.
Guess what? The changes were exactly what they knew already so they did nothing.

As you spend so much already on training why not give each employee a copy of Tom Peters' "The Work Matters"?

Use it as a handbook to develop a company culture where achievement and great service are what you and your employees stand for.

Another part of the problem is this

i've been working all hours of the day for as long as I can remember and I feel like my staff are just sponging off me

Do you make their coffee as well?

The old chestnut "You don't have a business, you have a job."

Martin

P.S. Reflect on the tag line for your avatar

[KenStrong]

Ugh. I got into this online stuff so I wouldn't have to deal with either employees or bosses any more... and reading this thread makes me glad I did.

[John Taylor]

Originally Posted by PatriciaJ

Sack the manager and promote the top performer

Bad advice.

1. Competence as a seller does not guarantee competence
as a manager.

2. The top performers sales will be "lost" therefore reducing
revenue.

I agree with Roger, look for the root cause of the problem,
starting with a review of the manager's competence.

John

[John Hixson]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

To me, a ****ty person is someone who literally cannot perform - someone who doesn't have the skills or experience to meet the requirements of the position.

When people don't meet the requirements because they just don't bother, that's a different matter. I don't ask a lot of my people; just get the job done by the deadline. I don't care how you do it. If you spend 80% of your day posting on the icanhascheezburger forums, that's fine. Just do your job and meet your deadlines.

I believe very strongly that you should never have to make someone do their job. You should have to let them do their job. Give them the specs, walk away, and keep everyone and everything you can out of their hair until they come back with the work.

Not everyone can work that way, and if they can't, they don't need to be working for me. I'm fiercely loyal to my people, as long as they get the job done, and part of that is not expecting them to work alongside people who don't get the job done.

I think you just highlighted a difference between using freelancers/occassional staff and using a sales force that requires significant investment and training

Based inside a company that hires, trains and uses such people that sort of attitude is one that would create massive problems in

a) level of training
b) morale
c) employee loyalty

and a number of other factors.

Remember that in almost all cases a sales offices' profit is made by the superstars. The majority will make enough to cover themselves and make a small amount of money, whilst the bottom few are subsidised by superstars.

So this means keeping the sales superstars as happy and motivated as possible whilst trying to increase the profit of the others. For a short term fix firing the other bunch works - but the effect on morale can damage the sales figures of everyone else.

When you think of the financial investment made to train up all members of staff it is better to try raise those that you think have the ability but aren't yet hitting the standards that you want.

Sales people with real skill and potential can be hard to come by (trust me, I speak from experience). In many cases it is easier to motivate than it is to try train up new staff - especially when you consider the length of time and money needed to find the right person.

To say you wouldn't hire ****ty people ignores the problems that are inherent in an interview process, and the difference a manager can have on staff. Employees tend to get away with what they can (though obviously not all) and it seems this manager is allowing them more than most. Sales people are often notorious for doing as little as possible as long as they are within their comfortzone.

From your attitude I have to ask... have you ever run an office of employees? Especially sales people? I ask because your attitude very much sounds like one who uses freelancers/contract staff where they hire a person or company to do a job, give them a deadline and only pay them if they do it.

Employees tend to be very different.

[John Hixson]

Originally Posted by John Taylor

Bad advice.

1. Competence as a seller does not guarantee competence
as a manager.

2. The top performers sales will be "lost" therefore reducing
revenue.

I agree with Roger, look for the root cause of the problem,
starting with a review of the manager's competence.

John

Well said. Too many people just promote a top performer. A proper interview process needs to be put in place that can recognize the person with the best managerial skills - if there are any.

In a lazy sales office it would be likely that brining in an outsider that has not been part of the same ethos that the others have been may well be the best way forward. Otherwise staff are going to assume they can get away with what they were doing before because 'ah, it's just Jimbo, he's one of us' type attitude

[Peter Ramos]

My suggestion would be this:

Keep paying you regular employees just like you are now.

The big change would be for your manager. Make it clear
that his/her paycheck will be coming more as a percentage
of sales and not as a base pay. This way, the manager will
be working his butt to try and push sales because if there's
no sales, then there's no paycheck.

Your regular employees should get a base pay plus commission
because regardless of who they are, they always can benefit
from more sales.

By this you manager will push them for you, but will end up happy
seeing that his check can be good by just making more sales as a
full team or can shrink really bad if they are making poor sales.


Its late at night here, but tomorrow I'll put a more detailed work
plan that you might like.


Peter

[John Hixson]

Originally Posted by Peter Ramos

My suggestion would be this:

Keep paying you regular employees just like you are now.

The big change would be for your manager. Make it clear
that his/her paycheck will be coming more as a percentage
of sales and not as a base pay. This way, the manager will
be working his butt to try and push sales because if there's
no sales, then there's no paycheck.

Your regular employees should get a base pay plus commission
because regardless of who they are, they always can benefit
from more sales.

By this you manager will push them for you, but will end up happy
seeing that his check can be good by just making more sales as a
full team or can shrink really bad if they are making poor sales.


Its late at night here, but tomorrow I'll put a more detailed work
plan that you might like.


Peter

Reminds me of an important factor that has been used to help in a number of sales offices I have worked in.

How many people do you have on your sales team?

I ask because breaking down the sales team into teams of about 6 has been highly effective in many sales offices. Appoint one of the 6 as team leader and give them the task of additional motivation of the team & imrpove their commission by giving them a small percentage of what the others earn.

Gives them another step in career progression to aim for and brings in a motivational point of contact far closer to them. Set up KPI's as I was saying earlier and then have these team leaders monitor them - and have regular meetings with the team leaders about how the KPI's are progressing, address any issues etc

[ExRat]

Hi GuerrillaIM,

This is interesting and keeps drawing me back.

I can't help but keep thinking back to lessons I learned from an outstanding book - 'How To Get Rich' by Felix Dennis. If you haven't read it, I would advise it and would probably advise putting a copy in the desk of each of your employees and mentioning it to them as 'required reading.' (Sidenote - yes, it's written for those who wish to lead, but it also explains the difference between the employees who were cast aside, and those who Felix threw money at and promoted in order to hang on to them.)

Due to recent poor sales I installed monitoring software on my staffs pc's and was shocked to find they hardly do any work at all! And my manager who is meant to be motivating them and making them work is the laziest of the lot.

I can't speak for Felix, but I have an inkling that he would say (in response to the above quote) -

'Even though the eventual solution involves adjusting the roles and incentives of the employees, when approaching this, one should remember where the buck stops.

As captain of the ship, for whatever reason, YOU are responsible for the performance of the crew, no matter how many managers are put in between you and them. If it sinks, you must refuse the lifeboat. So don't leave your managers un-managed with your fate in their hands.

So once the solution has been devised, upon implementation it would be wise to approach ALL of the employees with an attitude of -

"I have let you all down. I have failed to to keep up with all of my duties. THIS has caused a problem. This is how we are going to solve it...'

And I reckon he would also say the same as Martin -

Reflect on the tag line for your avatar

A one man army should only have one man, in order to be effective. An army of more than one that is still a one man army has 'passengers' and more efficient armies will seek this army out for an easy victory.

HTH

[JB]

Weekly meetings with the staff where you go over the previous weeks performance and to set the comings weeks goals etc are vital. These meetings allow staff to provide feedback on what they feel is working or not working in the current way the business is setup - you should encourage them to actively involve in constantly improving your business/marketing/sales model and results. Offer a monthly incentive - whether it's dinner at a nice restaurant, a fancy bottle of wine or a cash bonus - having a leader board up on a white board can really get a sense of friendly competition and moral going. Once staff feel like they are not simply working for 'The Man' and that their opinions are taken on board they should perform better.

[GuerrillaIM]

Hey Guys,

Big thanks to everyone who has replied. Your points are really helpful and have given me some great ideas that are keeping me upbeat.

To give you a little background, when I set the company up I was on the front line. I used to do the selling myself and consistently managed to handle all the marketing, training and day to day running while still selling more than everyone else. When the business got to a certain size I could no longer stay on the sales force so I took a step back and left my business partner to manage the sales team. Now we are looking to expand again and he has taken a step back from the sales team and we have promoted a manager which I feel is where the problem lies.

In regard to myself "hiring ****ty staff". For each place that gets advertised we will get roughly 30-40 applications. After I have binned the non relevant ones and ones with poor grammer I have about 20 left. I then do telephone screening questions with lots of good profiling questions in there. Out of the screened candidates 5-10 will make it to interview, and 1-2 will get the job.

This process has worked very well for me and everyone has previously done very well. In hind sight, leaving control of the team to a manager has proven disatrous.

I do have something that could be called KPI. I have reports done each day on number of calls made, number of leads taken, average time on phone, number of demo's, number of trials etc... Like a fool I had left it to my manager to make these reports and he has put in the figures he knows i want to see instead of the real figures. Which is silly really as I can see the figures on his reports to us dont match the figures in the system. He kept them fairly similar, just fiddled it so certain people looked like they were working harder than they really were.

Today a salesman complained his deal had been stolen and his customers record erased. By checking my monitoring software I could see my manager deleting this record, and another salesman renaming an old contact to the new deal they had stolen. It appears they had set up quite a nice little racket to mean they dont have to make sales themselves and spend the day on facebook while taking other peoples deals. The both denied it and came up with several different lies but thanks to my monitoring software I could prove all were bogues. I sacked the both of them on the spot. I don't feel good about doing it as they have families to support etc.. but it was unacceptable. My business partner is now back in charge of the team and I think it will be a while (if ever) before we leave the team to a manager.

Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions suggestions. I will be coming back to tell you how I get on with them and what works best for me. As a final note on this matter. Is it better to hire a manager who doesn't already work for you? I had thought about this but it would be a tall order for someone to take control of a rowdy bunch of salemen when they are still learning how to do the job themself.

In direct response to a couple of above comments:

My tag line - I used to be a one man band and loved the guerrilla marketing methodologies (which can be applied by larger companies also). Things grew and one day I found myself owning a company with employees. Now my day job brings me in a nice wage I moonlight as a solo guerrilla marketer coming up with website ideas and doing a little affiliate and info product marketing in my spare time (I have set myself the goal of retiring at 35 so I need to work hard).

ExRat - I have bought every member of the company "Adbanced Selling Strategies" by brian tracy and make it required reading. They have to have it finished and pass a test on the principles inside it within their 3 month training period to get the full job offer. My partner and I have also written our own book on the consulting we do which we make everyone study. I will definately check out this you suggest.

JB - We have a half hour meeting every morning where we set goals and targets for the day and review the previous day. Since we promoted the manager I have been too occupied with my own work and have not gone to a single one of these meetings. This is my own fault I know.

[ExRat]

Hi GuerrillaIM,

Thanks for explaining.

ExRat - I have bought every member of the company "Adbanced Selling Strategies" by brian tracy and make it required reading.

I love Brian Tracy, although I haven't read that one yet. It was his 'maximum achievement' that won me over. If you read Felix's book, there will be times during reading it where you will feel silly for feeling bad about the inevitable sackings. They didn't care if they took the food off your family's table, did they?

I'd say the book might be more for yourself than your employees - read it yourself and decide.

Glad you found a solution, and I reckon it's worth enjoying the lesson you've learnt plus remembering the damage that one Nick Leeson can do - you will never know how lucky you might have been to be able to nip this in the bud before it did further damage.

[GuerrillaIM]

Originally Posted by ExRat

Hi GuerrillaIM,

Thanks for explaining.
I love Brian Tracy, although I haven't read that one yet. It was his 'maximum achievement' that won me over. If you read Felix's book, there will be times during reading it where you will feel silly for feeling bad about the inevitable sackings. They didn't care if they took the food off your family's table, did they?

I'd say the book might be more for yourself than your employees - read it yourself and decide.

Glad you found a solution, and I reckon it's worth enjoying the lesson you've learnt plus remembering the damage that one Nick Leeson can do - you will never know how lucky you might have been to be able to nip this in the bud before it did further damage.

Yes, it's very true. I doubt they care at all about wasting my money.

I think now I have removed some bad seeds and my business partner is watching over them they will have very little chance to slack and the good sales will quickly return.

[GuerrillaIM]

Originally Posted by Joeman

Make their surfing statistics public. Every week print off a top 10 list of web surfers and shame them into surfing less. Bring it up in the weekely team meetings and get the top offenders to explain in front of the team why they surf so much.

If youre the top 10 surfer 3 weeks in a year, you lose 10% bonus, 6 times 20%, more than 6 times your sacked!

Also hint at the fact that you can see everything they do online (even though you probably cant really) they will soon become paranoid enough to stop using hotmail, facebook, ebay, twitter etc... psychological warfare - its dirty but it works

Nice Idea but too much ball ache. I have paid a security company to block all but my own websites during office hours. The restruictions get lifted during lunch so they can surf then.

I can actually see everything they do on their monitor. It records screenshots of all activity they do, all emails they send and receive, all websites they go to etc.. I can go back to any point in time now and see what they were doing. All staff have been warned that computers are not for personal reasons and have signed a legal waiver.

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by Wall Major

I think you just highlighted a difference between using freelancers/occassional staff and using a sales force that requires significant investment and training

Joel Spolsky put it best:

The mediocre talent just never hits the high notes that the top talent hits all the time. The number of divas who can hit the f6 in Mozart's Queen of the Night is vanishingly small, and you just can't perform The Queen of the Night without that famous f6.

Investment and training will not make mediocre performers into top talent. Ever. If you want top talent, you have to hire top talent.

[Jeannie Crabtree]

Sorry to hear about the bad management and salesman. They stole both time and money from you and some of your other salesmen, if you think about it. Fraud and theft. I would not feel bad about firing them. May be stressful, but had to be done.

Something else you might want to do if salesmen are working with leads on the phone - get your best salesmen to write out and record what they tell prospects and how they handle objections. Writing it, for the words they say and recording it for word inflection. Have your other salesmen follow this as much as possible, while still being flexible if needed.

If on the internet use the write out and make templates that others can have for the basics, and then they just fill in what they need.

Have top salesmen do a training session if needed for your group every once in a while.

Jeannie