sales person

globex

We have a person in sales, who has been with our company for over a year. We are a coffee roaster/espresso machine importer, selling 99.9% to restaurants in the DFW area. He was hired after being let go from another coffee company in Dallas, from a sales position. We have talked to him several times about his not selling equipment and not obtaining new accounts. The only accounts he has brought onboard are some of the ones from his previous company. He has been paid a salary plus commission except his sales have never exceeded his base so he has not been paid a commission. We are thinking about putting him on stricly commission. Any (negative) thoughts?

Don D

Having quite a bit of experience recruiting, hiring, counseling and firing sales people, I really think you should just tell him it's not working out and you're offering him a severance package. In the absence of that, just cut him loose. Changing his compensation schedule will absolutely NOT make any difference in what you want to accomplish. Replace him with somebody who can produce.

ScorpioHR

DITTO that th-up Unless you have too, I would not give him a severance package. Sounds like he has just stuck around for the ride. Either a sales person is motivated to make money, or they are not-Hard to teach an old dog "new tricks"...

Dutch2

I agree. We have a similar situation with an investment Broker. He was hired with a small base salary and was to receive incentives for his sales efforts. So far this year he has received $0.00 in incentives and he appears to be content to live on the base salary. However, it is like pulling Hen's teeth to get his superivsor to give him the old lets see some new sales comin' in "or else" you're going out speech.
Good luck,
Dutch2

Rockie

In my estimation, the best sales people are those strictly on commission. Our office supply salesperson works strictly on commission and he has the best attitude/customer service philsophy of any sales person I've ever met.

He knows you'd better be happy with his service or he won't get repeat business. I throw as much business his way as I can.

Down_the_Middle

The only analogy that comes to mind is : Why would you stop paying someone in dollar bills and convert them to the equivalent in quarters????? The problem seems more on actual performance than how to pay the salesperson. Replacing this person strikes me as the route to go, but since you have all the facts I'll assume you're in a better position than me to know the preferred course of action.

pork1

SALES, SALES, SALES: Without sales there is no job, KISS Keep it simple, ______. One working in sales is very wise to the sales compensation and can either produce sales for success or know they are gone. Move the person out and hire a real sales person. Without sales, we just have "baby pigs" eating us out of house and home! The salesperson must not eat much PORK or he/she would not be in this fix.

PORK

ritaanz

You have wasted too much time with this one. Sack him. You need a salesperson that is hungry and has sales and lead generation strategies. Doesn't necessarily need to know your business. Think, "Who he/she is, not what they know."

globex

Thank all of you for your input. I agree that the best sales person IS on straight commission. Even though this man is "likeable" he is as slow as molasses in winter in Minn. (no offense to Minnesotans). I did not feel we were trading dollars for quarters - but making him see he is in control of his financial destiny, not me.

Don D

I don't want to sound flip about your situation, but, in my mind, being 'likeable' and realizing he 'is in control of his financial destiny' are good traits, although I would spend not one minute helping him reach that plateau. He's bringing in no business which tells the whole story.