Adam Sand shows managers how to diagnose why a salesperson is underperforming by testing three things: effort (time on-site, checklist completion), knowledge (can they present without an iPad), and skill (do they handle objections and follow the pitch order). The fix depends on where the breakdown is, and some gaps are too big to close.
We have a poor performing salesperson. We love her, but not looking good. Can you show me how I can look for reasons for her failure using reporting? Outside or inside? Outside. Okay. First thing I go looking for when I'm looking at an outside salesperson failing is do they show up on time or late? And do they leave early or late more frequently? Because if an outside sales is underperforming, what are the inputs that drive the output? Were they on time? And did they take the time? Because if they're always arriving 5 minutes late, And they're leaving 20 minutes early, well then they're probably not asking for the sale. They're probably not pushing on the objection. They're probably not doing the presentation. Results come from effort, knowledge, and skills. So we look, are they putting in the effort? Effort is measured in arriving. Did you show up on time? Did you fill out the checklist? Did you take as much time as you're supposed to? Now, time isn't 100% indicator of success. You could spend 45 minutes building rapport and then 5 minutes doing your proposal and then 35 minutes trying to close the objection. You're not gonna close the deal because you sat there talking about the Green Bay Packers. The homeowner is like, yeah, they were really nice, but like, I didn't see the value. I mean, like, they got to see the value. So you got to put your time in the presentation. So then you say, hey, show me how you do the proposal. Actually, I'm going to take the iPad away. Walk me through your introduction to the owner page. You can talk about the company story and make them fall in love with the story. Okay, now the compare contractor page. What are the 3 points that you like to talk about the most? Okay, then you're going to talk about the communication page. What do you say about the company cam process? Do you say the words visual work order? Do you say the words that we keep you in the loop, that there's communication? Okay, show me how you talk about this upgrade. Okay, next page is going to be your frequently asked questions. How do you ask them about that page? Okay, then you talk about the upgrade. Which upgrade do you usually talk about? How do you talk about it? Okay, then like look at how they do the price presentation. Do they know the order roughly? And then how I ask my business. So that's turning effort into knowledge. Like, have you turned knowledge into a skill? Then I would go look at this. There are a lot of people who don't have this. Like she's talking about hail hits, she's talking about holes. So she's creating the problem, right? She's diagnosing the problem. She's up there. It looks like a steep as all heck roof. So I'm glad to see she's up there. She's measuring the bike boots. She's not doing much of a ground job. You know what I mean? Like I would be talking about like, how are we gonna protect these bushes? Like people care more about how you're gonna protect their home than they care about the roof. Like what are we gonna do to protect the air conditioner? Like how are we gonna protect the deck? There's more that could be done, but this is actually pretty good. By the way, I went and looked at her second set of pictures. And looks like she's one of those people who follows the process sometimes, but not all the time. Because look at the second set. This is the kind of person who only wipes their butt half the time. Do you follow the process sometimes or all the time? Does the airline pilot get to check the flight fuel sometimes or all the time? Here's— so 2 out of 3, 2 out of 3 she's missing. So when I look at this, I go, okay, well, how do we communicate those photos? And then we get into our proposal. We have everything systemized with the proposal. And then the last, like ideally, You get most of the objections out of the way upfront in your proposal and you're demonstrating a need. So then you're going to get objections, circumstances of business sell us. So that's the question I would pose back to you is diagnosing where this person is struggling because you love her, right? Like you said, she's great. We really like this person as a person. She's just not succeeding. And we, you know, we're like recruiting is hard. So how do we diagnose her problem and potentially get her there? It's hard to turn a 4 into an 8 when it comes to salespeople. You can turn an 8 into a 10. You can turn a 6 into an 8, but you can't get a 4 to become a 10. It just doesn't happen. Diagnose and prescribe. Results come from effort, knowledge, and skills. Is there the effort? Do they have the knowledge? Have they turned the knowledge into a skill? That's why I make them do the presentation without the proposal. Like, you have to be able to present as if the page isn't there. The proposal is there for the customer to see, not for you. You don't need the proposal. Proposal's there so the customer gets 2 points of information into their head, visual and verbal. If your salespeople can't present without the iPad as if it was still in front of them, you are not done training.
