Bad Apples

Bad Apples

One bad apple really can spoil the whole bunch. We all know one–that perpetually unhappy sales person who isn’t happy unless they are complaining about something. Some people just process information differently than others, and sometimes that can come out as verbal questioning, often in front of others. I see this a lot in sales people. This is more of a need to really understand something before he/she can really, sink their teeth (pardon the pun) into the new situation, rule, policy, etc. But what about those who take this further. These are the ones that no matter what direction the company is going in, they seem to have a need to complain about it, or worse, tear down those who are embracing the new process and showing signs of success. What do we do about those sales people?

As a sales person, you certainly have the right to occasionally be unhappy or question directives; however, you do not have the right to spread that unhappiness around, negatively impacting your fellow sales people. In fact, any time you interrupt your fellow sales team members to gripe, complain, or just plain whine, you are costing them the opportunity to do their job well and you are impacting their ability to earn.

As a sales manager, if you have one of these bad apples, who insists on impacting the rest of your team–no matter how much they sell, you need to remove them immediately! This can be done with 1 coaching/warning session, and then if it doesn’t stop, they are telling you that they want to “take their excellence elsewhere” and it is your job as the sales leader to invite them to do just that right now before you end up with an entire bunch of rotten apples. The rest of your team is counting on you!

If you are worried that your sales will suffer because this person leaves, in my experience, it is quite the opposite. Those who have had to bear the brunt of this person’s negativity will rise to the top without the weight of that negativity pulling them down. The key is to remove that bad apple before it starts to spread to the good fruit because if you wait to long, well, you know what happens.

Kimberly Mackey, REALTOR®, is the founder of New Homes Solutions, Inc., and has been called a rising star in the Homebuilder World for her reputation as someone with real world SOLUTIONS in a competitive and rapidly changing sales environment–SOLUTIONS like “50 Sales per Year before Any Walk-in Traffic”. She is a published author of many Sales and Leadership articles and a keynote speaker with over a decade and a half of experience as an executive in the residential home building and real estate industry. She has experience working with Builders and Developers of all sizes –from the local/regional companies to the publicly traded nationals. She also works with Brokers from across the country and is the architect and director of the highly successful Preferred Builder Partnership program with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group, where she has increased new home builder sales by over 200%.

For more information, or to book Kimberly for your next event, visitwww.NewHomesSolutions.com, or visit Mackey at LinkedIn,www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlymackey; Twitter, www.twitter.com/KimberlyDMackey; and Facebook, www.facebook.com/NewHomesSolutions.

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