A few weeks back at a business roundtable meeting a
young sales manager asked the question, "Can a really
good salesman go bad?"
That's a good question for a young guy to ask and know
the answer to.
The answer is yes, and there's a laundry list of reasons why.
First of all, when you take a look at the leading salespeople
in a company, you won't find many saints. Many of them
have a lot of bad habits, but they bring in a lot of money...and t
heir bad habits get overlooked, or swept under the rug.
In one company I worked for the leading salesman had a
human relations person assigned to him. Just for him! He
was an absolute terror in the corporate office, and most people
there would not do any work for him. He had his own staff,
which changed frequently. He had a long list of complaints
brought against him by company employees. Any day he
was in the office a sales manager was assigned to the bullpen
to put out the fires he started.
At the time I was there, the sales revenue for the company
was around $400 million, and this guy brought in around $60
million by himself. That's a huge chunk of revenue for one guy,
and you can see why the company protected him.
He was gruff, arrogant, selfish, territorial, an alcoholic, and
possibly a drug addict too. When he landed yet another large
account it was all about him, and I never heard him say a
good thing about any of the people who worked for him. At
times he couldn't even name his staff.
At another company the leading salesman was a walking
soap opera. You needed a book to keep the details of his
life straight. He violated every rule of sales I ever learned, and
still always closed the deal somehow. Being in his office was
high comedy. His secretary would say, "Your wife called." "I'm
not married at the moment," he would say. "Ex," she would say.
"What number?" he would reply.
These two managed to stay at the top, but many others
crumbled under the weight of their personal problems. Over
the years I have seen dozens of top notch salespeople fall
off the pedestal.
Some clean up their act and make it back to the show
again. Others can't break their self destructive habits,
and continue spiraling downward.
A couple of years ago I bumped into a guy I knew years
ago that fell pretty hard. It took him 12 years to get himself
straight and back in the game. He said it very simply, "I lost
my mojo for a while there."
Sales is a very tough game, and it isn't for everybody. For
every winner, there are a good number of losers. 20% of your
sales force brings in 80% of the business. That means that
the great majority of your people are mediocre.
That's a hard thing to swallow, but it's true. Then, your best
people are a kind of two edged sword. They bring a lot of business,
but also a tremendous amount of baggage. So it's always a tough
balancing act to get your organization moving forward.
"I had a salesman with no problems once," a friend of mine
once said. "He wasn't worth a nickel."
From the big saddle,
Jim Whelan
The Chairman of the Board
P.S. "The business graveyard is full of companies who
didn't take their message public." The Whelanator
Contact us at: thejamesrwhelanagency.com, or call 206 407 3124
Leave a comment