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Yesterday, my friend called me to complain that her company was now asking her to log her calls at her accounts directly from inside the office she was visiting. What? Now keep in mind this is a rep who's above her quota, but they're making all the reps follow this plan. ALL THE REPS! And guess what? This is happening at a lot of company's in the medical field! Company's are trying to use sabermetrics to improve performance. Hello! This isn't frigging baseball, you morons, it's sales.
"We need to keep track of reps and how they're managing their time!", said her confused CEO. And the marketing manager had the audacity to tell her that this is exactly what he said.
I'm sorry but this does not work. All you get is a bunch of reps driving around to please management and the same people who don't perform will continue to under perform, and your peak performers will continue to do the same. In fact, all the reps below quota, will probably become Uber or Lyft drivers to supplement their income. And why not make extra cash, if you're driving around all day to check a management box. They'll have to buy extra bottles of water at Costco and install air fresheners in their vehicle to please their new passengers. However the only difference is that management won't be able to judge performance based on their activities. Because every rep's activity will look the same!
I understand that management is trying to control even the tiniest aspects of performance, but this isn't a physical sport. It's sales!!!! I studied econometrics and statistics while at university, but activity does not lead to more sales. For years, I thought the opposite. At Cintas we tracked activity liked no other company in our industry. But honestly, it didn't lead to better reps or more volume. Instead reps simply lied on their reports. Once, I figured this out, my focus was on training them to make the best use of that activity and not focus on the activity itself. And I was very successful.
Here's a good analogy. If you're playing any sport, and I mean any sport. Basketball, football, soccer, or baseball. There are some people who no matter how many reps they get, will just not get any better. They can kick a soccer ball a hundred times at a goal but if they don't focus on improving their technique, or if they don't have the physical tools, they'll never get better. NEVER!
Shaq would take hundreds of free throws a day, but he never changed his shooting style, so no matter how much he practiced he still sucked at free throws. Same theory here; you can track activity all day long, but if your reps technique is terrible, they'll never make quota. NEVER!
Think about what really matters...and if I have to explain it, you've got more problems than I do.
SFTD
