When a Rep has a Hard Time meeting his Sales

When a Rep has a Hard Time meeting his Sales Quota

It's only understandable that a sales representative should fear the moment each month that he's handed his sales quota. That number is going to tyrannize his life over the following 30 days. What makes the fear all the more understandable is the fact that businesses have raised sales quotas by about a third over the past five years. If you think about it, thats about when the recession started and companies began having a hard time staying afloat. Well, most sales representatives have risen to the challenge. They tend to meet their quotas most of the time. About one in four sales reps though, miss their targets. This of course is a bad thing as far as a rep is concerned; it's even worse news for businesses that depend on sales reps to keep the money rolling in. Here's what you need to do when a couple of your reps have a hard time meeting their sales quota.

The moment you notice that the sales rep is missing his target, you need to pay attention right away and try to find what's going on. For instance, is there a sales funnel that's in use? They also call it a sales process and it's a great way of whipping a sales rep into shape (without any actual whipping, you understand).

A lot of the time, the CEO will set a sales quota that is completely pulled out of thin air. He'll think of how as a startup, his company was able to touch 200% in growth and he'll think that if his company could do it then, it could do it now. But that makes no sense. A startup company with $1,000 in sales in the first month only has to go up to $3,000 to claim credit for 200%. A more established company that's settled into $100,000 a month isn't going to be able to grow at that kind of speed. But assuming that a company has the right kind process behind setting those numbers, there are ways to help sales reps get with the program.

Firing a sales rep only to get a new one and train him takes at least six months and lots of expense. Retraining a rep who's already well used to the program is far easier. The manager needs to take a close look at what exactly is going on in the reps sales life.

What exactly is the sales pipeline he has? Where exactly is it flawed? Most good managers regularly do pipeline inspections to find out where potential problems are and they offer guidance. Often, one finds specific problems there are poor phone negotiating techniques at play or the rep is hampered by an inability to face rejection.

The problem is that too many sales managers and CEOs believe that when they hire a sales representative, he needs to come in completely prepared to bring in results. But that is completely a fallacy. Sales reps need training like anyone else and constant guidance and input. Missed sales quota most of the time only point to the need for a little help. Because as sales gurus these days recognize, a good salesman is made. He isn't born that way.

You have read the best review article categorized by free tips and the title When a Rep has a Hard Time meeting his Sales. You can bookmark or spread this post by using this URL http://howto-howto8.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-rep-has-hard-time-meeting-his-sales.html. Thank You!