I recently had the chance to speak with a seasoned sales manager at a conference—someone who has truly been in the trenches for over two decades. Starting as a direct sales rep, he climbed the ranks to a first-line manager and later a second-level sales leader. Naturally, our conversation turned to what it takes to build a world-class sales team from the perspective of a first-line sales manager.
The Challenge of Building High-Performance Teams
We resonated over the complexities of sales leadership. Despite years of experience, he admitted there’s no cookie-cutter template for building a high-performance (HIPO) sales team, especially when transitioning across organizations. Sales is inherently a probabilistic, people-oriented function, unlike the more deterministic processes in Engineering, HR, or Finance. Factors like hiring, enablement, opportunity management, and coaching are nuanced, each requiring significant investment in time, effort, and dollars.
Salespeople may appear similar on the surface, but their abilities, performance drivers, and potential are not always directly observable. As a result, like many first-line managers, he found himself gravitating towards the top reps on his team, who often handled the largest deals. This approach helped him meet quarterly targets but wasn’t a sustainable strategy. Lower-performing reps often received minimal support, leading to persistent underperformance and inevitable turnover.
The Struggle to Address Underperformance
During our conversation, he looked away thoughtfully and mentioned he had two reps he knew he needed to call, yet hadn’t reached out. He admitted he wasn’t sure what to say. Letting them go would only add more work, from difficult layoff discussions to recruiting replacements—a process that would pull him away from immediate goals and still not guarantee improved team performance.
Data from other sales leaders supports his struggle: recruiting, training, and ramping a sales rep can take six months and cost up to $500,000. For him, the path of least resistance was to carry the under-performing reps forward each quarter, acknowledging the adverse effect this had on his team and the organization.
The Path Forward for Front-line Managers
This scenario highlights a common challenge among front-line managers who are not lacking in will but often in the skills needed to transform dark-horses into high-performing stars. Every sales rep deserves a fair shot at becoming a top performer, and managers require both tools and training to cultivate this potential.
By developing better coaching strategies and a nuanced approach to team support, sales leaders can foster a more balanced and sustainable model, ensuring all team members have the opportunity to succeed.
