ement and to control. Yet my firm conviction is that it is easy because it doesn’t work. It works in the short term – granted, and there’s even a place for it during field induction and as a mechanism for performers to appraise themselves, but as a coaching tool it is a non-starter.

I believe that you teach salespeople

I recall a heated discussion with a sales director some time ago where I proposed that the long-term effect of setting activity targets for salespeople would eventually lead to failure. He vehemently made the point that he had systematically imposed activity targets on his sales force and that the result had been to treble average income per salesperson within 18 months.

What he didn’t say, something which I found out when I investigated further was that he had at the same time:

• reduced his sales force from 450 to 300 – letting the bottom 150 hundred producers go, and

• the average income per salesperson at the time he took over was one quarter of the industry average

There are two types of targets most often associated with selling and sales coaching:

• Financial targets – results, and

• Activity targets

Given the choice between buying activity management systems and implementing a performance coaching system to bring out the best in salespeople, my unfortunate experience is that many senior management teams will inevitably choose activity management. The reason? It’s easy. OK, so you have to push people around a little; you might have to dismiss a few non-achievers; there will tears before bedtime; but it’s a relatively easy thing to implement and to control. Yet my firm conviction is that it is easy because it doesn’t work. It works in the short term – granted, and there’s even a place for it during field induction and as a mechanism for performers to appraise themselves, but as a coaching tool it is a non-starter.

I believe that you teach salespeople

verage income per salesperson within 18 months.

What he didn’t say, something which I found out when I investigated further was that he had at the same time:

• reduced his sales force from 450 to 300 – letting the bottom 150 hundred producers go, and

• the average income per salesperson at the time he took over was one quarter of the industry average

There are two types of targets most often associated with selling and sales coaching:

• Financial targets – results, and

• Activity targets

Given the choice between buying activity management systems and implementing a performance coaching system to bring out the best in salespeople, my unfortunate experience is that many senior management teams will inevitably choose activity management. The reason? It’s easy. OK, so you have to push people around a little; you might have to dismiss a few non-achievers; there will tears before bedtime; but it’s a relatively easy thing to implement and to control. Yet my firm conviction is that it is easy because it doesn’t work. It works in the short term – granted, and there’s even a place for it during field induction and as a mechanism for performers to appraise themselves, but as a coaching tool it is a non-starter.

I believe that you teach salespeople

over was one quarter of the industry average

There are two types of targets most often associated with selling and sales coaching:

• Financial targets – results, and

• Activity targets

Given the choice between buying activity management systems and implementing a performance coaching system to bring out the best in salespeople, my unfortunate experience is that many senior management teams will inevitably choose activity management. The reason? It’s easy. OK, so you have to push people around a little; you might have to dismiss a few non-achievers; there will tears before bedtime; but it’s a relatively easy thing to implement and to control. Yet my firm conviction is that it is easy because it doesn’t work. It works in the short term – granted, and there’s even a place for it during field induction and as a mechanism for performers to appraise themselves, but as a coaching tool it is a non-starter.

I believe that you teach salespeople

ut the best in salespeople, my unfortunate experience is that many senior management teams will inevitably choose activity management. The reason? It’s easy. OK, so you have to push people around a little; you might have to dismiss a few non-achievers; there will tears before bedtime; but it’s a relatively easy thing to implement and to control. Yet my firm conviction is that it is easy because it doesn’t work. It works in the short term – granted, and there’s even a place for it during field induction and as a mechanism for performers to appraise themselves, but as a coaching tool it is a non-starter.

I believe that you teach salespeople

ement and to control. Yet my firm conviction is that it is easy because it doesn’t work. It works in the short term – granted, and there’s even a place for it during field induction and as a mechanism for performers to appraise themselves, but as a coaching tool it is a non-starter.

I believe that you teach salespeople about activity, not tell them about it. If you teach people, by example, that activity is important –that’s quite different from demanding levels of activity. The danger with the latter is that you will have your salespeople deliver the activity without a corresponding increase in business. I have numerous examples of salespeople forging activity levels simply to keep the manager happy. In the meantime the cuckolded manager sinks into a quicksand of statistics trying to work out where it going wrong.

I recently visited an area sales manager who was having problems with a non-performing salesman:

When I entered his (the manager’s) office there was a mountain of paper on his desk. He proceeded to tell me about Jack Newton who was under performing and had been doing so for some while. He told me that he had insisted that Jack increase his customer interviews from 8 per week to twenty per week. The manager showed me the charts he had put together showing the pattern of calls and results. When he opened it up it filled the surface of the desk in front of me. It was very impressive. It must have taken him quite some time to put together. Jack was now calling on an average of 21 customers per week. His results had not increased. I arranged to meet Jack, with his manager present