You may have the wrong salesperson if ... with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, here are 35 sure signs that there's deadwood on your sales staff.LET'S FACE IT." Sales people are expensive. Great sales people are hard to come by and even harder to keep. But at the other end of the talent pool, you have sales people who are just not performing. Sometimes the signs of underperformance can be subtle, and your vision can be blurred. You need some help in figuring out the difference between a good salesperson and one who should have been pushed out months ago. But help is on the way. My completely new, foolproof checklist shows you 35 ways to identify the deadwood Deadwood, city (1990 pop. 1,830), seat of Lawrence co., W S.Dak.; settled 1876 after discovery of gold. A Black Hills tourist center, it is also a trade hub for a lumbering, stock-raising, and mining region. in your sales department. You know you've got the wrong salesperson when: 1. He says he does not believe in forecasts. They are a waste of time, inaccurate and how can he possibly know what the customers are going to order when they don't even know? 2. He asks you what's going on What's Going On is a record by American soul singer Marvin Gaye. Released on May 21, 1971 (see 1971 in music), What's Going On reflected the beginning of a new trend in soul music. with his customer. 3. He asks you how to get in touch with the buyer. 4. He gets lost taking you to a meeting with his "best" customer. 5. He continually tells you that he could sell a "ton" of business if only you had ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. , HDI HDI Human Development Index (UNDP yardstick of human welfare) HDI Help Desk Institute HDI Humpty Dumpty Institute (New York, New York) HDI High Density Interconnect microvias, flex, offshore capabilities, a new laser drill, better pricing, etc. 6. His odometer odometer (ōdŏm`ĭtər), instrument provided in an automotive vehicle to indicate the total number of miles that have been traveled. shows only 38 new miles since your last visit six weeks ago! 7. He defends his lack of performance by blaming your Web site. 8. She defends her lack of performance by saying it's all about the company's literature. 9. He says he does not believe in cold calling. 10. She tells you she is better at taking care of current customers than finding new ones. 11. He tells you that the directory you just bought for cold calling is a piece of crap. 12. His largest entertainment dollars are spent on his long-standing smallest customer 13. His customers won't see him. In fact, they ask you to keep him away from them. 14. He says there is no business out there because of India. 15. He says that people from Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin only buy boards from people from Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 16. She says that there is no business out there because of China. 17. He says that he can't find any business because the PCB PCB: see polychlorinated biphenyl. PCB in full polychlorinated biphenyl Any of a class of highly stable organic compounds prepared by the reaction of chlorine with biphenyl, a two-ring compound. market is down from $43 billion to $40 billion, while your company does $8 million a year in sales and he is expected to bring in only $1 million. 18. He spends Friday in the office working on his expense report. 19. You ask for his hi-monthly report and he asks you to choose between booking business and doing paperwork. 20. You pay her a $500 car allowance but she rents a car on your dime when you come to town. 21. You plan a sales meeting sales meeting n → reunión f de ventas for six months and he comes to the meeting with his territory plan written on airplane napkins and hotel stationery. 22. He gets mad because you take away a customer, one he hasn't visited in a year. 23. She can't make the monthly sales conference sales conference n → conferencia de ventas sales conference n → réunion f de vente sales conference n → call that has been held at the same time each month for two years. 24. There are no phone calls to his largest accounts on his monthly phone bill. 25. Her longest phone calls are to co-workers. 26. Charges to a Web site called "Barely Legal" keep showing up on his corporate credit card. 27. It takes three days and five phone calls for her to call you back. 28. You ask him to follow up with a customer about that big contract and he tells you not to panic--no news is good news. 29. He has no new business, a base salary of $40,000 a year and a better car, house and watch than you do. 30. She comes back from a business trip to Minneapolis in January with a nice tan. 31. She wants to give the buyer at XYZ XYZ interj. Informal Used to indicate to someone that the zipper of his or her pants is open. [ex(amine) y(our) z(ipper).] EMS Company a new Harley for Christmas. 32. He has the same handicap as Tiger Woods  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled. .
33. He's always talking about what happened on "General Hospital" yesterday. 34. Every time you call him you can hear the racking of billiard bil·liard adj. Of, relating to, or used in billiards. n. See carom. Adj. 1. billiard - of or relating to billiards; "a billiard ball"; "a billiard cue"; "a billiard table" balls in the background. 35. There are constant frantic calls from his or her worried spouse. If any of these fit your salespeople sales·peo·ple pl.n. Persons who are employed to sell merchandise in a store or in a designated territory. , get rid of them before they self-destruct and take you with them. DAN BEAULIEU is founding partner in D.B. Management Group (www.dbmpcb.com). He can be reached at 207-873-0793; danbbeaulieu@aol.com. His recently published book, Printed Circuit Board Basics, is available from UP Media Group. |
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