Building a sales plan: Sometimes the best laid plans…letting someone go

This post will be short and to the point. Something you should be prepared to do when letting someone go. There is nothing wrong with giving someone a chance, but it has to correlate with a strong possibility of success. If a team member cannot live up to expectations you MUST remove them from the team.

There are ways to prepare that can cause minimal impact. First make sure you set parameters for underachievers. This is when you should start to dig in and get detailed in the plan. The objectives should be based on activity/metrics and closes. Make solid numbers and do not waver for any reason. Stay consistent and people will know what to expect. If you tell someone they have to make 50 dials, send 20 e-mails, or go on 4 appointments a day and they do not, they have fired themselves. If you instruct them to have a certain number of sales by the end of the month and they miss, they know the verdict.

When you let someone go, make sure it is a private conversation and you have exactly what you are going to say prepared in advance. Do not get caught up in their emotional reaction. If they yell, stay cool and maintain your composure. If they cry, do not give in and lend support or sympathy. The most important part of your role at this point is to maintain professionalism.

Take people directly to their belongings and escort them out yourself. Do not hand them off to HR or someone else. DO THIS PERSONALLY. It is important that you close the loop on the relationship you started, and make sure that nothing distracts you from this task. This is a person’s life you are effecting, turn off the cell phone, make sure your superiors know to leave you alone, and anything else can wait.

I want to reiterate something from the previous post. Young coaches will want to save everyone. If someone cannot perform to the necessary expectations, this attitude will cause personal failure. We are not life coaches, trying to help everyone live better. While this is a benefit of our success as sales coaches, we have to remember that our goal is to increase the sales of an organization. Without this in the front of our mind at all times, we have drifted from our own performance expectations.

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