When do you know, as a sales leader, that someone isn’t a good fit?

How long into a new sales hire’s tenure is the right time to end the relationship?

When will you know “It’s not me, it’s you!”

Yes…I know the classic line is the opposite, but in this case if you are giving them all you can to succeed and they still aren’t putting together enough of the puzzle pieces to show the right trajectory, when is it time?

The Right Time to End the Relationship

I remember in my second sales leadership role, about four months in, my boss – the VP of Sales – asked me “so when do you know if someone isn’t going to make it?”

Me, being me, I responded instantly with “by lunch on the first day of training.” This of course shocked him, he was expecting me to say a month, or two months in. Nope – halfway through the first day. It will be obvious they don’t have it.

How can I say that with confidence? If you have ever stood in front of a group of newly hired salespeople, then you will agree. On their first day, if someone is not excited, taking notes, being engaged, asking questions, responding to questions given to the group, they won’t make it.

I have had people who basically looked like they were struggling to stay awake. Keep in mind – the first day in a new job is potentially the most exciting, positive day in their career with the company. It only gets harder from there, and once they get on the sales floor – yes, it’s great to close deals, but the rejection and grind isn’t as fun and hope-filled as Day One.

Assessing Long-Term Potential

Now you could argue that maybe they were tired, or slow to get excited for the role. Again, shouldn’t they be the most optimistic and excited on day one, especially as a salesperson? (Now keep in mind…back then, I didn’t make them do the boring new hire paperwork the first half of the day…so their actions were based on actual training content.)

In your business when will you know if there is a good chance they will continue to grow and develop into the role, or when it’s time to pull the ejector seat cord?

What are the fair milestones they should hit early in their career with you? What are the mindset traits that you want to observe in action to tell you they are a good cultural fit? Do they stay open minded? Are they deeply curious about everything? Do they take feedback? Are they eager to actually get out there and sell? Do they have the level of technical aptitude that you need them to have?

The Spectrum of Evaluation

Now I know I can be a little extreme with my thoughts, and I would never fire someone after half a day of classroom training (want to, just wouldn’t…however I have had several people leave for lunch on day one to never return, and I was very okay with those individuals voting themselves off the island).

On the other end of the spectrum, I had a leader once declare that if we had to fire someone then it meant we failed them – either we failed in realizing we should not have hired them, or we didn’t do enough to give them all that they needed to succeed in the role. While that sounds good in theory, that puts a lot of pressure on the hiring process and the front-line managers.

I will say that the recruiting process that I build does a really good job at determining who someone really is, not just who they want to show you they are. The tough thing about hiring salespeople is that even if they can’t sell customers, they will always try hard to sell their expertise during the interview process.

So you have to build ways to cut through their salesyness to see what you are really going to get when they get hired on. There is nothing more frustrating than having a good sounding, eager candidate gets hired and turn out to be completely ineffective and unmotivated to succeed in their role.



Conclusion

So where is the happy, effective medium? You must determine that for your organization, sales process, cadences, conversations, price point, etc. When can you build out – objectively – the timeline for the baby bird to leave the nest and make it? When can you – again, objectively – tell that someone won’t make it? Hire slow, fire fast isn’t always the best, blanket advice. Again, you must determine what is right for your organization. But please don’t just wing it.