McKelvey – and, apparently, Joe himself. During his last days at the company Joe said to another sales- person, “I don’t know why I couldn’t follow the path Louis laid out for me.” For whatever reason, Joe’s bad habits got the best of him.


When it comes to bad habits, managers have seen it all: Such poor sales skills as failing to ask for the order or caving in during negotia- tions; such unprofessional conduct as interrupting a client when he or she is talking. Even running chronically late. Disruptive personal habits like fingernail biting or swearing. The list goes on and on.


While any given supervisor knows his or her team members’ shortcom- ings by heart, knowing what to do about them is a different story. Fortu- nately, by asking the right questions, you can analyze a problem situation and generate a successful resolution.


QUESTION ONE: WHO HAS THE PROBLEM?


Salespeople fall into one of two categories: they’re either above or below the line. With any functioning sales team, the majority of employees are making their numbers – or coming pretty darned close – and have a fairly good grasp of basic sales skills. Each employee probably has a thing or two you’d like to change, but, for the most part, major problems are few. After all, “You can’t perform at a high level and at a high intensity without the basic skills,” says McKelvey. These produc- ers tend to toddle along on their own without much direction or input from the manager.


Members of the second group are


the problem children – people like Joe. Some seem to need so much help and guidance that it would take you hours to itemize all the areas they need to improve. These people tend to occupy the majority of your time as you try one thing or another to get them up to par – some suc- cessful, some not.


While you may think you’d address a bad habit the same way with any


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rep, the two groups actually call for different strategies. When you’ve got top performers who just need to polish a rough edge or two, you may need to do nothing more than bring the problem to their attention, says a performance expert. “High per- formers are usually more sensitive to behaviors that are problematic and are much more likely to be proactive once a problem’s been identified,” says the expert.


McKelvey knows this firsthand. One


of his reps would get in front of a cus- tomer and lean way back in his chair, arms behind his head. “It would look like he was sitting at home watching TV,” McKelvey recalls. In that case, McKelvey used a series of questions to point out to the salesperson that his body language was telling the client he wasn’t interested or engaged in the discussion. The salesperson thanked McKelvey for the pointer and resolved to watch his behavior. With consci- entious employees, “It’s more of an awareness thing,” McKelvey says. Contrast this with low performers


who probably don’t know what they’re doing wrong, who might be defensive about their poor habits, and who also might have no idea how to change their behavior even when problems


are pointed out to them. It’s going to take a lot more than a simple conver- sation to get them back on track. In- stead, prepare to work over a period of time to identify exactly what the problems are, develop remedial ac- tion, and implement and reinforce the desired behaviors, beginning with...


QUESTION TWO: IS THIS A REAL PROBLEM? Does it really matter if your sales- people make cold calls on Monday instead of Tuesday? Is it critical that everyone answers the phone using the exact same wording? In some cases, the answer may be yes – and just as often, it may be no. As a man- ager, it’s your job to look objectively at the behavior you find objectionable and determine how it’s interrupting your team’s success. If you’re honest, you’ll find that some of your little pet peeves are merely matters of personal taste. “Any sales manager has to step back and ask, ‘Is this a behavior issue or a personal preference issue?’” says one behavior expert.


Not only is imposing your personal


preferences on others “crazier than hell,” he says, but also, by doing so, managers risk losing the ability to influence things that really do matter.


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