A Roadmap to Sales Success

Fifth (and last) of a SERIES: - *“Profitable Sales Management – for Managers AND Salespeople”* Previous “Mini Sales Class” can be found at: http://www.salespartnersinc.com/newsletters.htm LAST of a SERIES - Next month’s issue will be - "Allowing Your Sales Process to Flower”
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"Hire Slow, Fire Fast” - - Old Adage
For help with sales issues: see "Ask your Sales Partner”. Submit your questions to info@salestraininginc.com. All Questions will be answered via e-mail.		Ask your Sales Partner: George asks: “How do we avoid the pain of firing someone?” SP: “If it is really the best thing for all concerned, it shouldn’t really be painful”

About the “Roadmap …”

Each issue of the “Roadmap to Sales Success” will contain items of interest to the business (especially the sales) community.

Following is the schedule for this volume, “Profitable Sales Management – for Mangers AND Salespeople” – to help everyone reach their goals:

No. 1	-	“Root Causal Analysis: why hire (salespeople) and how”
No. 2	-	“Getting started - 1^st 6 months”
No. 3	-	“Sales Management (101)”
No. 4	-	“Remediation”
No. 5	-	“What if, in Spite of the Best Efforts …?”

This Month’s Sales Tips …

"After you have taken all of the preliminary steps, considered all of the potential ramifications, legal and otherwise, and have made the difficult decision to let someone go, stick to it.”- - Bob Adams, STREETWISE SMALL BUSINESS START-UP Adams Pub (1996)

Upcoming Events Involving Sales Partners:

April 26, 2005 -	Sales & Marketing Mania "Closing the Sale"

To improve your sales situation see:
http://www.salespartnersinc.com for details

FIFTH (and last) of a SERIES

“Profitable Sales Management – for Managers AND Salespeople”

Vol. 3 No. 5 - - April, 2005– “What if, in Spite of the Best Efforts …”

“The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley (often go awry)”
-- Robert Burns(To a Mouse)

So, after all of the effort that has gone into recruiting, hiring, managing, and remediation, we are faced with the unpleasant realization that things are just not going to work out with our salesperson in our environment. “What’s a Mother to do?”

Even as we struggle with our disappointment, we must not consider the effort to be a failure if we:

1. Take decisive action quickly

2. Incorporate the experiences in our “lessons learned.”

Take decisive action quickly.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of books and articles (and legislation) describing the “proper” means of letting someone go. We won’t get into those here. Suffice to say, you will need to “bone up” on the “letter of the law.”

After those considerations are met, try to accomplish the task quickly, without burning bridges if possible.

Assure the person that they will get no worse than a “neutral” reference. (I mean, what good will it do YOU for anything else?)

Incorporate the experiences in our “lessons learned.”

Go back to all of the steps involved in the hiring process. Was there a point where we could have/should have known that there might be issues with this person in our environment? If so, change the process and do better the next time.

Again, “hire slowly, fire quickly.”

"There are two tragedies in life: one is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it." - - George Bernard Shaw

Next issue: Be on the lookout for next issue of “Roadmap …” entitled, “Allowing Your Sales Process to Flower”

Until then, Good Selling!


Helpful Hints this month: Need to To keep up with the latest in technical happenings around the Triangle? see: http://www.triangletechjournal.com/ Need a dynamic sales organization for professional development and networking? Visit the Triangle Association of Sales Professionals at: http://www.taspro.org/ Need a superb recruiting organization for professional development and networking? Visit the Triangle Technical Recruiters Association at: http://www.ttra.org And, of course, to improve your sales situation, please see: SALES PARTNERS, INC. ^SM http://www.salespartnersinc.com/		SALES PARTNERS, INC. ^SM Sales Coaching, Training and Consulting to help companies and individuals: * Grow Revenue * Improve Sales Productivity * Enhance Customer Relationships Submit your question/comments to: info@salestraininginc.com Subscribe to the “Roadmap …”