The other day when I was out walking, I saw the scrap man struggling to lift an old washer into his pickup truck.
Since I am not a complete a**hole, I ran across the street, grabbed a side and helped him put it on top of the pile of other recyclables he’d collected.
He was completely surprised – he thought I was running over to hassle him. I don’t think anyone had ever helped him do this before.
Sometimes, we have to help our reps when they least expect it too. Like when it time for them to quit.
When should a sales rep quit his job?
- When he no longer wants to have a career in sales.
- When he wants to make more money than you will ever pay.
- When he needs to move on for career advancement.
- When he’s been labelled as “not a key player” or “not high potential” and has no ability to change this.
- When the company’s culture has outgrown him or vice versa.
- When he’d be better off in a different role, company or environment.
- When getting fired would significantly hurt his chances of employment elsewhere.
- When there’s a great opportunity elsewhere and he just needs a little push.
- When he’s grown complacent.
- When he and his manager don’t work well together.
There are many other good times for a sales rep to quit but that’s not what this post is about.
It’s about helping him to quit.
Here’s how to do it
First, it helps if you’ve been having regular 1-on-1s. If not , see this post for how to do them.
At least once a quarter, I like to focus the 1-on-1 on his career development, aspirations and personal goals. This 1-on-1 is good to have over coffee, lunch or even taking a walk. It helps to get away from the day to day work environment.
Ask questions like this:
- What do you like about this job?
- What don’t you like?
- How would you change it?
- What do you think about your compensation?
- Where do you want to be this year? Next year? In 5 years, if you could envision it?
- What does your <wife, girlfriend, mom, dad, friends, insert the appropriate person> think of your job?
You’re purpose is to get him comfortable thinking about and talking about his career over the long term.
After you’ve had a few of these conversations, you should have a much better idea of who he is and what he wants.
I’ve been surprised with these conversations.
Many reps, especially younger ones, were content in entry level roles. All they wanted to do was earn a decent living and do their job well.
A few wanted things I could never deliver. Usually this was a significant pay increase for doing the same job.
Some had expectations that were a total mismatch for the job:
- A “founding” employee wanted to recapture that “small startup feel” even though we’d grown to over 500 people. (I get it. I was there once too.)
- An inside sales rep wanted to work from home and to travel to do onsite sales calls. (It was time for him to look for a field sales role.)
- A rep who was about to be PIP’d demanded a raise. (He was delusional and ended up getting fired. )
The biggest surprise was for my reps. No matter what they told me, I would do my best to help them get there or to at least explore what getting there would require – without negative repercussions.
That’s the key ingredient here – helping the rep without without hurting his career.
Here are some specific examples
#1 The rep who wanted to prove to himself that he wasn’t a failure was allowed to work through his PIP successfully and remain on my sales team. Then, once he was off the PIP, I supported his transfer to our customer service team which was a much better match for his personality and skillset.
#2 The rep who wanted to complete complete his MBA under our college tuition program and then move out of sales. I allowed him to leave early every Wednesday so he could get to class on time and we covered for him so he could take time off during finals. After graduation, he stuck with us until he found a better job that required the MBA.
#3 The rep who didn’t know what he wanted. This is quite common with younger reps. He landed in a sales job and starting making decent money but wasn’t certain he waned to spend career in sales. Over two years, I helped him explore different options and coached him through an extensive interview process with an outside company. When he was offered a job in product management there, we were both thrilled.
In all three of the examples above, I “lost” a rep. When they quit, I had to recruit, hire and train a replacement which meant a loss of productivity that made a direct negative impact on my own commission.
Whatever.
Commissions come and go.
Doing the right thing makes an everlasting impression on you, your rep and the team.
I encourage you to help your reps quit too. It could be more rewarding than you anticipate.