Fire Them NOW! 11 Signs of a Toxic Sales Rep

Here are 11 telltale signs that you need to get rid of the toxic BS salesperson that's either already on your team or you are thinking about hiring. I have been duped, deceived, sold, and left with an absolute mess to clean up after. When I've made the mistakes of hiring bad salespeople, you know the drill. You've probably been there, or maybe you're there right now. The impact on your culture, the impact on your customers, and the lost sleepless nights thinking back, saying, I wish I did that sooner. So I hope that this video helps you protect your culture and sniff out the BS before you make your next hire and maybe even purge someone on your team that you need to get rid of right now. Hey, my name is Adam Bensman. Welcome or welcome back. And my new mission here on my channel is to help roofing companies and their salespeople adapt in these very first fast, changing and unpredictable times that we're facing in the roofing industry. So thank you for being here. Now let's get started. Roofing sales is personal development in disguise, and the reward for growth is life changing. I hope my content helps you create a richer life and bank account Telltale sign number one is a lot of hubris. If you interview someone that says, I can sell anything or I could sell ice to an Eskimo, generally, the people that have the most overt confidence about how good they are at sales, in my experience, suck the most. That means that they'll sit there and blab at someone. Which leads me to telltale sign number two. Telltale sign number two are the people that talk a whole lot more than they listen. They are terrible at asking questions. So if you're sitting down in an interview, and by the way, I met someone, I was at a friend's bachelor party. This was about a year or so ago. And I remember talking to a gentleman that was there and he asked what I did for a living. I told him. He's like, oh man, I could do anything. I could sell anything. And he just sat there and talked about how good he was at sales and how he could sell ice to an Eskimo and I could sniff right through it. I'm like, this dude doesn't know sales. He just thinks he can smooth talk and be suave and get through anything, but it's not the case. So if you're in the interview and people just sit there and sell themselves constantly without asking questions and you'll know right out of the gate they're not a strong salesperson because A strong salesperson would ask about your company, the problems you have, how salespeople like it, what your turnover is, like, how, why you're the best company for them to work for, and they're going to ask good questions. And that is indicative of how they think as a salesperson. Telltale sign, number three, job hoppers. You've probably seen it. We see this discussion happening a lot. These are the salespeople that went from one company to the next to the next and they haven't been in one place for a year. And those job hoppers generally have this. There can be a few things that are going on in their history, one of which is just like the grass is greener, right? And those folks, they don't stick around because they're not successful. People that are successful want to stay put unless they're with the wrong company. But seeing that trend, especially if they came from outside roofing and they're here for a little bit and here for a little bit and here for a little bit, they're likely going to just continually search for the grasses greener. So avoid job hoppers. Number four, telltale sign is entitlement. There is a lot of entitlement among salespeople and especially in roofing sales. They come in various forms. And one of those forms is the people that call the shots. We used to joke when I was leading a sales team, my sales team that I ran at Its peak was 30 salespeople. And we used to joke saying, hey, they want us to wipe their butts with golden toilet paper. So if that, if that saying lands true to you, you know what mean by the entitlement. And often these times try to call the shots and direct the company. And I've seen a lot of roofing companies ask questions in our community. Well, not a lot, a handful. And they're like, hey, you know, I have this opportunity to hire this great salesperson from another company, but they want X, Y and Z. And again, it's entitlement. Or they say, hey, you know, the guy or gal that's working for you starts coming, like, I think the company should be run this way. So be very careful on people that come across with entitlement and high demands and feel like they should be calling the shots for the company and taking the reins from you. Number five, telltale sign is demanding unrealistic compensation. This comes in two forms. One, they want the highest commission and they're cross shopping you. They're like, oh, well, I sold for this guy and he's willing to Pay me X, will you pay me more? And all they're doing is trying to negotiate the best deal and it shows the level of self serving again, back to entitlement. And I see it a lot. And sadly, when it gets really bad is where you'll have this guy come in with his chest puffed up. I'm the greatest salesperson in the world. I'm going to do amazing things for you. Listen, I want 50% commission and I want 25% of the company or 25% of revenue or vested ownership or whatever. So if you ever get people that have these unrealistic compensation demands and they're doing this, what you know is they're going to negotiate higher with you and they're going to go to the other company, negotiate higher and they're just going to play it back and forth. And these folks often turn into job hoppers as well. There's a lot of intersection among these things. And be very, very, very weary of the people that come in and ask for ownership or equity of your company. That's insane. Telltale sign number six, a common one, blame shifting all past employers. When you talk to someone who's hopped jobs or they're unhappy, there's. There seems to be this trend of blame shifting. It's like, oh, everything fell apart. I was great, but because of the company they couldn't produce what I sold. Or blame shifting, everything was great, but my boss or the sales manager was toxic and blah, blah, blah. The blame shifting to the owner, it was great, but the owner was never in the office and he was just out on his boat and everything was. When you talk about their past, there's nothing positive. And all it is is blame shifting. No accountability. And they never talk about their own faults, their areas of improvement. So if you hear blame shifting paired with job hopper activity in the past, run for the hills. Number seven, telltale sign is tuning out of meetings. When you have sales meetings or continuing education or training opportunities. The telltale sign for the know it all is the arms crossed tuning out. Maybe they're buried in Facebook. They're there, but they're not really there. And it gets worse when they just don't show up and they're just like, well, I don't need to be there. So if they're tuned out again, this is a very, very telltale sign that it's toxic for the culture. It sets the expectation that you don't need to be there and it sets the expectation that you don't need to be engaged. When I ran A training. This was years ago. I don't offer one on one trainings anymore because all of my energy is poured into my community. Rsra. I ran a training in Minnesota. There was Minneapolis area specifically. There's two sales reps in the room that were earning over half million dollars a piece. And I was blown away that they were the most engaged of anyone in the room. Notepad was out, they were the first to volunteer for role play and they were even sharing their secrets to help each other out. So it's the opposite of a toxic BS salesperson. Those that are toxic and BS will find any excuse to not be involved because they know it all and don't need that. Number eight, telltale sign, the lone wolf syndrome. These are the people that refuse to follow a system or process. They think that their process is better or they set unrealistic expectations with homeowners because they're willing to say whatever to get the deal, thinking that the company will clean it up. I've had this happen, sadly a lot where the salesperson refused to follow the process. Let's say they didn't do a walkthrough with the homeowner to do the walkthrough inspection first or the pre inspection checklist or the post inspection checklist. And then that's when all of a sudden they leave and you're like, oh my gosh, this can of worms exploded. It seems to be like you find out about it after leave. So if you have people that are just refusing to follow the process think they have a better way. And the lone wolf syndrome, it is a sign of a toxic BS salesperson. But I have to insert one disclaimer here. Sadly, sometimes the top producers in the company, they have this syndrome and they are very unorganized. They need to be reeled in and it's up to you at that point. And I've watched people do this other company owners where they'll literally get the top producer and assistant if they're doing two, three, four million dollars a year, get them some help to clean up that disorganization. So if that's like a siloed only one category, maybe that's something that can be worked on through training or finding a way to support the lone wolf salesperson. But if it's in combination with more of these things, you got to cut ties. Number nine, they want a flexible schedule. I don't know what it is, but it seems to me in my experience the toxic BS salespeople have these demands or desires to have a flexible scheme Schedule. And what it really means is that they don't want to work. They sell themselves as, like, the world's best salesperson, but the way that they deliver on that, well, they don't. And that's the problem. So there was a gentleman that I hired. This was years ago when I was in my first position growing a sales team. I was a manager of our branch, and this guy came in, he sold for another company, and he's like, I did all this. He, by the way, looking back, I feel so stupid because it was like all the telltale signs, because the blame shifting, the hubris, like, he was like, leaned back in his chair all cocky, talking about how much he sold. Anyway, he needed a flexible schedule. Of course we can do that. So I hired him, and he was never out knocking doors. He'd run appointments when he had them, but he was never out knocking doors. He ended up literally earning like 20 grand a year that year, and we let him go. So my point is, if they say that they need a flexible schedule or want a flexible schedule, it usually is indicative that they just want to not work. And my favorite two for last, let's hit number 10. And that is they don't want to be micromanaged. Micromanaged. I love when they use this language, I don't want to be micromanaged. And usually when someone says that they don't want to be micromanaged, what it really means is, I don't want to have accountability. Anytime I've heard that, it's usually a squeaky wheel from one person. Now, if your entire company says you're micromanaging, then listen. But my guess, and I know, I know very few, actually, I don't know if I can recall one roofing company owner that's been accused of micromanaging, because there's generally not that type of systems and that type of oversight in the roofing industry in general. So if someone says, I don't want to be micromanaged, and you have accountability checklists in place, that is a huge red flag that the real thing is that they don't want to do is to have accountability. They just want to go do their own thing. They want to slip under the radar, work when they want to work, have the flexible schedule, and do what they want to do. Run for the hills. And this leads me to number 11, which is my favorite and probably the most common. Let me see if it is for you too. And that is, hey, I'll make this quick. My goal is to help you win big. So now you can get free one on one coaching advice from my brand new AI clone. That's right, you can call, text and even video chat with me. So click the link in the description and check it out. Right now, their life is a soap opera. Holy smokes. The toxic BS salesperson. Everything about their life, there's excuses. They're late because someone was sick, they're in a fight or getting divorced or dealing with some sort of drama with their partner, their car has problems and is breaking down, their friends, blah blah, blah, blah blah. It's always drama. It's this vortex of just like a toxic life that impacts their sales and it needs to be at the forefront of their excuses and why things aren't going right and why they deserve special consideration and treatment and a draw and all this stuff. So if you have someone whose entire life is a soap opera in a drama, you gotta just cut ties with them because it only gets worse. So those are the top 11 telltale signs that you need to cut ties or not. Hire the toxic and BS salesperson. I want to hear from you. Which ones did I miss? Because I put together this list and I know that I probably could have had more, but these are the ones that are just like, yep, that's the person not to hire. So drop a comment and share it with me. Thank you for being here with me. I really do appreciate you spending your time here and I want to continually add value to your life and your business. So one way I can do that is to get you inside my free training center. It's the number one sales training and owner resource library out there for our industry. Click the link in the description, hop in, share it with your team and I'll be seeing you in the next video.