The performance of an excellent sales person should be rewarded with a promotion to management.
Rajiv Noronha Published Aug 28, 2014 "Promotion is not a reward for performance!!". I once made this rather bold statement at a employee town hall meet and it kicked off a good bit of discussion. In my view this came about as a rather provocative statement and I
ended up meeting at least a dozen mid to senior level folks who came back and said they never saw it that way. It did change their perspective on how they look at their role and I tried to capture some of the sentiments in this piece. In the past I have spent quite a bit of time detailing out, designing and running performance management framework and systems for large organizations and came across many many people (a good estimate can be as high as 75% and more) consider promotions as a
reward for performance. The more this idea gets reinforced the more it creates a problem for the organization. Organizations that send this signal are setting themselves for failure. Sooner or later you end up with a entitlement paradox, where every good performer starts saying "When's my turn?". Here are some perspectives on this... Promotion is all about recognizing someone's capability for a job and making that fitment. If you
had to promote someone for just for his good performance then you can be setting him up for failure. Remember the commonly encountered saying... "Your best operations guy may end up being your worst sales person" One thing I often observed is that managers, at times when it comes to promotions, try to play GOD. They make every effort to give the promoted employee a feeling that they worked a lot through the network to manage their(his / her) subordinate to get a
promotion. How you manage the process in the organization will determine how others view it and who you promote matters because people read the message loud and clear when you promote the wrong persons and punish the right guys by not giving them the role they truly fit into. In reality it will be an incidental thing that a person who is promoted is a good performer but not always true the other way round. Another point to remember is that performance is a necessary but no sufficient condition for a promotion. Take the simple case of A being the best territory sales representative for GETWELL PHARMA. As a Territory sales person he is responsible for ensuring good services to clients within a geographical boundary, increasing sales all at optimal travel and overhead costs. He is the star performer among sales folks. A is a a go-getter, loves traveling, loves meeting people and extremely achievement oriented. He always prefers to be in the limelight, gets excited and highly motivated when receives a praise and recognition from the Regional Sales Head or the Territory Sales Manager. The Regional Sales Head had just received a resignation letter from the Territory Sales Manager and was contemplating making A the new Territory Sales Manager in next 3 months. When he discussed the proposal with the HR Manager he got the following feedback. A loves to follow schedules, meet Doctors as per assigned protocols and engage with them in a very pleasing and detailed oriented manner. However he really hates managing outcome of others. He just can't lead a team, motivate performance, coach or mentor others. He prefers being a star and can't stand losing out on sales targets. He gets completely dejected and takes the failures to meet targets as his own doing. The regional sales head knows this very well and is not sure how to retain A if he is not able to promote him in at least next 2 years. But the question is will he be setting up
for failure.
At times you may be promoting someone into his or her area of expertise or capability then in such case it may be a good thing but if not then it is a recipe for failure. The dichotomy comes in when you don't understand that performance is not a sufficient condition for promotion. To rephrase - it more appropriate to how people should see it... "Promotion is not causally related to performance" or "Performance is not the cause of promotion". It maybe a pre condition or given but the real
precedence is good fit on capability or competencies and whether the organization is growing, whether there are roles in the organization for the individual to move. That is why companies known for their HR practices actually have multiple career path options for their employees. The challenge for HR as well as Line managers would be how else do your reward high performers and your stars. In days of stiff talent competition it is very important that you keep a very sharp focus on who you retain. Retaining your best performers will be on the top of your agenda and it is here that disgruntlement with not being promoted plays a key role in turn over. However the reason for this is the lack of understanding of the relationship between performance and promotion and normally confusing the advancement as something that is a validation of their role in the organization. So when you create clarity about these aspects on the table it plays a vital role in making people understand the stance and this is the only pragmatic way to approach promotions and the complexities. ___________________________________________________________________________ (Image Acknowledgement: http://www.copyright-free-images.com/ Image by Steve Hillebrand, US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Others also viewedExplore topicsHow do you motivate sales performance?6 Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team. Set goals. This one may be obvious, but it's important. ... . Focus on purpose. People who love their jobs tend to do better at their jobs. ... . Build trust. ... . Get others involved. ... . Create a culture of recognition. ... . Get creative.. How do you motivate a sales person in an organization?Strategies to Motivate Your Sales Team. Build trust with the people on your team.. Ask your direct reports how they like to be managed.. Understand your direct reports' personal and professional goals.. Make sure they're covering the basics.. Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals.. Figure out where the issue lies.. What are three 3 key motivators that make you a good sales person?While some salespeople are motivated by teamwork, many salespeople prefer to be and are motivated when left to their own devices. This involves empowerment, independence, and freedom, enhancing feelings of power and control. This motivator should not be ignored or minimized because people belong to a team.
What should be the main motivation for a person in sales?Money. The most common way of motivating anyone in any profession is through money. A salesperson is especially conscious of that because his income increases when he closes a sale.
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