Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Consider passing along the leads that the other 10 have rejected to the new person. Just because one person failed to close the sale doesn't mean the lead is dead, just that the right offer hasn't been presented correctly. The new person may have new insights to selling, and letting them teach the others/gain respect using rejects can go far.

The question of a new salesperson taking away from existing salespeople occurs all to often. While we all know that a salesperson can only handle so many accounts and that every sales professional has a few accounts on his list that are only semi-active. It still creates heartburn.

Here are a few ways you can minimize this:
1) offer a plan where the existing salesforce gets a commission on accounts handed over to the new guy for a period of time (say 6 months). This gives them an opportunity to ramp up their other business. And, if they do so quickly, they may actually come out ahead on the deal.
2) set up a plan where any account that is not called on or service reguarly reverts back to a "house account". this removes the inactive ones from a seller's list and frees them up for new sales people.
3) give existing sellers the opportunity to protect a certain percentage of their account list from being passed on to the new guy. This gives them a chance to protect accounts wher they know something good is about to happen - and seperates the "wishful thinking" from reality.
4) assign new sales people to serve as apprentices to the existing sales person. Ask them to mentor the new guy and get paid for doing so...

Hope this helps. If you would like to explore this in greater detail, I would love to chat one on one with you.

Frank Hurtte