Is this a disciplinary problem?

Question

Out of 90 sales reps on the 5 sales teams, 15 consistently miss monthly individual sales quotas, and provide excuses for not taking additional training. Is this a disciplinary problem?

Your boss has asked for a Department Report on call center problems and possible solutions. As the new VP, you will make a presentation to management stating the problems, possible causes and offered solutions. Approved new policies will go in to effect the following week.

Answer 1

Yes. They need to be told to shape up or they will be fired. If they are not interested in doing their job, the company is not interested in paying them. However, a good part of the problem falls on their supervisor for not insisting that they attend the trainings and for not holding them accountable for their quotas.

1. Make sure they understand their boss' expectations.
2. Provide (mandatory) training so that the "lack of training" excuse is no longer valid.
3. If possible, pair them up with a top performer for a while to learn best practices and to see that the quotas are attainable.
4. Review progress more frequently with low performers so that problems can be addressed and corrected.
5. If none of this works, get rid of them and stop letting them drag your team down.

Call center specific things:
1. check the average call length. Sales can be a numbers game. If they are taking too long on calls, then they will only be able to field a small number of calls. The more calls they take, the more chances they will have to sell.
2. Some people are just not good sales people and never will be. They need to find another line of work.
3. Listen in on several calls. There has to be some sort of rapport and trust between the caller and the sales person. If your sales rep is not pleasant to talk to or doesn't seem to know the products, the caller will not buy. (I know I have called my cable company and ended up talking to someone who clearly had no clue what she was doing. I called back to place my order with someone competent.) This person is representing your company to your customer.
4. Role play. Role play. Role play. Yes, it can be cheesy to act out sales situations BUT it helps tremendously.

Hope this helps with your homework. (Wink)

Answer 2

Each and everyone of the 15 to be interviewed and their problems re Quota's clearly documented then if probs found to be individual to be treated that way if found to be resultant of company procedures reasons to prevail and company policies to change ~~

Answer 3

i would say that it could be discl. problem. each rep should have clear written goals and then stick to them. if they do not stick to them they should be documented within the performance management.

Answer 4

You could do all that warm and fuzzy stuff OR you could fire the bottom five and replace them with your relatives.