I have a sales person that has been with me a long time and has been one of my top producers. However, he is always late to work and is not following some of the other policies that are important to a good work environment. He has even done some things which have really gotten clients upset and senior management always seems to brush it off. I have spoken to him about his conduct and he just ignores me. To make matters worse, he is a favorite employee of the CEO as they have been together since the beginning of the company and used to go drinking together before they both got married. What should I do as this is disruptive to the rest of the department and makes me look bad?
Filed under: Sales Management | Tagged: managing salespeople, managing top sales producers
As an executive coach, I recently helped one of my clients through this situation.
If you study any organization that exemplifies sustained superior performance, you will find a remarkable culture. This culture is defined and constructed around the core values institutionalized by your executive team. In other words, the core values, when practiced on a daily basis, help top companies become more successful than their competition.
These values must be followed by everyone including your top producer. When my client realized that their top producer was not following their core values that approached this individual with the option of adhering to the values or choosing to face termination. Unfortunately that employee did not take it seriously and was terminated.
This was scary at first to the owners as this was what they believed to be a top performer. What they found was that they had the right core values. The new person that filled his seat increased the book of business with the same clients within 90 days by almost 20%. Comments from some clients were one’s of relief. Once the rest of the department saw these results they also got with the program and their production also went up.