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Topic : Team Building and Leadership
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Is it time to lay off your best salesmen?

Created by : Manish Sagar, Head - Business Development  | 10 06 2009 17:52:40 +0000
Industry : Human Resources (HR) ConsultingFunctional Area : Performance Management(People Management)
Keywords : teams competition team building salesmen aggression
Activity:  556 views;  last activity : 07 06 2010 20:18:09 +0000

I have been quite busy lately and hence, a late post! I was actually trying to resolve a situation that has arisen in one of my friends' companies (This has nothing to do with recession!). It is a typical cut-throat competition problem (internal employee) that many companies have to witness, and can usually hamper a successful business if not rectified or at least, identified in the early stages.

This is an IT Staffing company which has two separate Sales Teams focused at the same market. Both these teams are managed by their respective 'Team Managers' who are increasingly pressurized to achieve targets. Both the teams are very aggressive and really competent, however, there is always a sense of heightened tension in every member of the team.

<strong>THE PROBLEM</strong>
Both the teams have one star performer each who are really great in selling services to their clients. However, their aggression and motivation to earn incentives breaks all codes of conducts. No, they do not cheat their clients, but what they do is even worse, which is, that they try to hunt down (or steal) each other's clients. To give a clear picture, they reach out to each other's clients and then offer them their service at lower prices which in turn eats up the profit margins of the company. Moreover, their respective managers too support them in this endeavor, obviously, to have their targets in line.
 
How would you manage such a problem, because in the long run, it is the company that suffers!

<strong>SUGGESTED ANSWERS</strong>
Here is what my friend has in mind:
1) Lay off either one or both, as they are ruining company's culture.

My thoughts:
1) I agree with the above, but I personally would take it as the last resort! This does not imply that I am not worried about the company's culture and practices, but I guess it's a little late to address the situation.
2) Have them focus different exclusive areas/clients - (Given their expertise, I would love to put them where they fit best...)
3) Have both of them work together so that they can build a great team!

Any suggestions?

  
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Lay off either one or both as they're ruining company's culture Vs Have them work together (as per description)
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<strong>SUGGESTED ANSWERS</strong>
Here is what my friend has in mind:
1) Lay off either one or both, as they are ruining company's culture.

My thoughts:
1) I agree with the above, but I personally would take it as the last resort! This does not imply that I am not worried about the company's culture and practices, but I guess it's a little late to address the situation.
2) Have them focus different exclusive areas/clients - (Given their expertise, I would love to put them where they fit best...)
3) Have both of them work together so that they can build a great team!

Any suggestions?
By Manish Sagar, Head - Business Development  10 06 2009 17:52:40 +0000
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First I would like to say that this kind of situation hampers the company's brand image. It requires immediate action otherwise it will ruin company's image. Just to get business and fulfill the target if any sales person enters in other person's territory and gives additional discount makes buyer/dealer feel they can make any demand on company. It will make a trend where customer/dealer will always bargain because they know there is no coordination between sales team and they can break price further.

Apart from eating company's margin it makes bad impact on company's goodwill also. However I think this kind of situation happens only when top management is involved with it. Lay off is not the solution of this problem it requires proper message should be conveyed that in future these kind of instance should not arise.

 
By Deepak Agrawal, Consultant, Independent Consultant  | 10 14 2009 11:24:32 +0000
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Basically its a top level management fault. As a sales person each guy is forced to acheive his/her targets and if the system allow them they can offer discounted prices also. It is for the company's top management to think over it.
By Raheenul Hasan, Branch Manager, Redington India Ltd  | 10 14 2009 05:47:29 +0000
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This is a very common problem in many unstructured organizations now-a-days. The companies who donot invest in CRM, not even proper forecasting done in .xls sheet and distributed transparently within the sales team normally comes across this problem. So in true sense it is the Top Management problem and the poor effects of it are being faced by the performers, who in turn will basically quit within short time span as the belief has already gone. Though I may not be sure,  but may be there is some single person who is creating all these issues and playing not only with the sales people but also with the top management. So the company should immediately call for a open meeting ( prior to that giving full confidence to the performers atleast) and discuss, something may come out and if so that person(s) should immediately be layed-off. Afetr this 'Have Them Work Together' may work out but still tough....
By Uttio Putatunda, Business Development Manager  | 10 10 2009 05:09:41 +0000
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Sales persons should be given training of team building and respecting other co-workers. They do not follow the rule of team building and hence  the problem is there.They must fight but not with each other but in the work they should show there frustration in the work by archiving the work target. 
By Mohammadarif.A.Shaikh , Consultant, My Learning Centre (CALORX)  | 10 09 2009 07:12:08 +0000
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In any competitive scenario price cutting or discounting does get involved to get more sales. Though Discounting leads to margin cut but then the service income is guaranteed till the product lifetime. If discounting in not done then you loose the sales & also reducing the income from post sales service. In my opinion it will be wrong to lay off the best performers. One of the main reasons of agresiveness by sales executives is the stiff target set by company which he needs to achieve ( come what may) to get incentives/bonuses or promotions. If the company does not champion aggressive sales in competitive environment ( which cannot happen without discounting) then it should change its  policies.
By santosh kumar, Marketing Manager, AUTOMOBILE  | 10 08 2009 08:00:55 +0000
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Rightly said, merely sacking the salesman is not the solution. They are good performers but code of conduct is must for anyone. By sacking them, company will face a great loss because it will be losing its valuable assets. Rather, company should fix teritory & clients for both of the teams. They can only give lead to each other (which should be part of incentive on successful closure)......
By Mohit Aggarwal, Sales/BD Manager, Oracle  | 10 07 2009 05:05:50 +0000
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Its basically managing client accounts.if one has a client the other cannot catch the came client.

If the company is allowing this , its companys fault and not the emloyees.Its the company which wants to further its sales by hook or crook rather than the two teams,

Compny is creating such tensions which will not auger well in the long run
By Charles davison, Project Manager, Douglas OHI LLC  | 10 07 2009 03:52:05 +0000
Argue for "Lay off either one or both as they're ruining company's culture"
Argue for "Have them work together (as per description)"
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