Hiring freeze? Unleash your existing sales assets

During a ‘hiring freeze’, your company stops recruiting new staff. But sales targets are rarely reduced during this period so how can you make sure that your company continues to thrive, asks Martin Goodwill?

There are two problems you may encounter during a hiring freeze. You wish you’d recruited quicker for a vacancy. Or you re-think getting rid of underperforming staff, as they won't be replaced soon. 

Studies have shown that:

• Poor performers deliver 48% less than average performers
• Average performers deliver 48% less than top performers
• Top performers deliver over 100% more than poor performers
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Why do I have poor performers?

You planned to recruit excellent performers into your business – and now you’re stuck with several poor ones. That wasn’t part of the plan! Your recruit may have a fantastic track record of being a superstar but this isn’t enough. You need your sales recruit to perform successfully in your business. The problem is, the salesforce you are left with during the hiring freeze, still has to hit your targets. So, what do you do? Most people consider one of three things:

• Crack the whip
• Focus on getting more from your top performers
• Bring sales forwards from next year

Instead, you require a different approach. You need to find out:

• What makes your top people so successful?
• Where are there gaps between top and poor performers?
• What can you do to reduce those gaps?
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Let’s be honest: it's unlikely that your poor performers will ever be top performers. But if you improve their performance by 10 - 20%, it will make a huge dent in your target. 

How do I do this?

Your sales numbers tell you who’s performing well but do they tell you why? You need to understand what it is about your top performers that sets them apart from the rest. How do they jump at opportunities? Please your clients? Close sales quickly? And most importantly: why can’t everyone else do it?

By using assessments you can find out what makes your top performers so great, why your poor performers are less effective and how to improve your least successful performers. Choose the right assessment partner to enable you to provide individual (rather than ‘sheep dip’) development to improve your sales figures in the middle of a hiring freeze. And what's more, the same benchmark will help you recruit better when the freeze is lifted! 

For more information please go to Great People Inside