Some reps evolve from a promising new hire to a sales team all-star in a way that’s easy to miss.
If you’re a manager or even the owner of a company, you probably have so much to do you just hope every rep will stay on top of their account list and work diligently towards their number. Anything more than that is icing on the cake.
There are some reps, however, who add a lot more icing than others. It’s important to recognize the over-performers as quickly as possible, and to reward them accordingly.
Top talent has a way of attracting other employees, especially those who may not be growing as quickly as your organization and can take the time to put out feelers about a job opening.
Even if you’re not in danger of losing a stellar sales rep, they may have reached a point where it’s time to give them new challenges — for your benefit as well as theirs.
Depending on your company’s priorities, you may want to be able to promote your best rep because it will free you or other managers to focus on even higher-level tasks.
For the rep, a promotion will ensure they don’t get bored doing the same thing for too long, or begin doing less than their best because they don’t feel much incentive for going above and beyond.
What makes all this tricky is that sales numbers don’t always tell the full story.
Of course you want to recognize the reps that not only meet their quota but do it consistently, or who manage to close even more business than is expected of them.
True success in sales, however, can involve a number of interpersonal skills. They’re the kind of qualities that only the best managers notice. And if you’re now managing a remote team of reps who are primarily working from home, it’s even more critical those qualities are appreciated.
As we get nearer to the time for year-end performance reviews in many firms, here are a few of the qualities that should be part of your assessment:
- They’re already a leader, except for their title: Even if most of your sales meetings are done by videoconference at the moment, you might be able to detect the way a certain rep carries themselves. They’re the person everyone seems eager to listen to, or the person you find out later that they came to for peer coaching or advice. These reps are as persuasive with the team as they are with their own customers. There’s usually a good reason behind all this — reasons that mean a new title is already long overdue.
- They are a credit-giving machine: We think of the all-star as the person who should be feted for their accomplishments. That’s not how the real top performers behave. Instead, they’re the ones who go out of their way to make sure other reps get credit for passing on a contact, putting a critical piece of detail in the CRM or for suggesting a piece of sales enablement content that helped seal a deal. These are true team players.
- They’re never above a little coaching: The best sales reps know they have some talent, but they also recognize they got to where they are by actively listening to their managers as much as their customers. So even if you know they’re good at what they do, when you see a chance to make them just a little bit better they’ll be eager to learn from you.
- They give back, rather than push back: Successful reps aren’t necessarily happy in their jobs all of the time. Occasionally they’ll experience frustrations and object to certain orders too. It’s the way they do so that matters. Rather than outright refusal, they’ll offer an alternative approach. Instead of complaining, they make a constructive suggestion. In essence, they bring their managers solutions where others would bring only more problems.
- They don’t always show, and they don't always tell: Lots of us will put on your best face and demonstrate a hard work ethic when we know the boss is walking around, or checking our progress on a dashboard. The real gems are those that do great work in the shadows, paying it forward to the members of the team without encouraging anyone to share what happened with their manager. This is part of how they build so much trust and loyalty among their peers (see point No. 1).
- They are the worst-kept secret among the senior leadership team: Most likely you’re not the only one who’s spotted a top performer. Unless you’re the CEO, your boss may have noticed you have a winner, too. This is actually a good litmus test: how hard would it be for you to make the case for this person’s pay raise or promotion? If it feels like it would be a slam-dunk rather than an act of convincing one of the higher-ups, you’re probably making the right move.
- Their achievements don’t have any ‘Yeah, buts’: They’ve crushed their quota five times in a row! Yeah, but they had to offer deep discounts to do so. They got three new customers to sign on in one quarter? Yeah, but they lost even more.
You won’t have to live with these kinds of trade offs or excuses with a truly successful sales rep. They make their numbers, but they do it by the book. No shortcuts. Just good work that they can be proud of — and which you can use to take their career to the next level.
