Recent headlines in the Wall Street Journal include: Clear Channel to cut US workforce by 7% (including sales) and Pfizer Plans to lay off up to 2,400 in Sales.  On the same page a story about Circuit City liquidating.

These types of headlines are commonplace in the Wall Street Journal as well as on other news outlets.  All types of companies are letting people go and laying people off. 

When companies start to cut their employees to reduce the workforce, the first place they often make cuts in is the sales and marketing departments.  As time goes on, and these same companies look at their bottom line and wonder how so much in lost earnings could have happened. 

I am sure Circuit City was wondering the same thing after they fired all their commission sales people and brought in hourly paid workers.  Now Circuit City’s only sales are due to the going-out-of-business sale currently in progress.

The Wall Street Journal articles talk about how Clear Channel and Pfizer plan to eliminate unproductive sales people.  But what percentage of the sales force does each company consider to be unproductive?  I am certainly in favor of eliminating anyone in a business who is unproductive.  If you keep unproductive employees you risk the well-being of the productive people as well as the entire company’s well-being. 

At the same time, cutting the sale force is a sure fire method to creating future disaster in your company.  Every business should be eliminating weak sales people.  But before you start letting sales people go, ask yourself a few questions: 

Do you have a very detailed, defined job description for every position in your sales department?

Do you have a well thought out sales plan?

Have your sales people, at all levels of sales experience, been properly trained from the time of coming on board with your company to within recent months?

Does your sales force understand what is expected of them?

Does your sales force have realistic, attainable goals both for prospecting and actual sales plus, if appropriate, repeat sales through account maintenance?

Is each member of your sales team reviewed on a regular basis?

Does your company hold regularly scheduled sales meetings?  Training meetings?   What is generally discussed at each sales meeting?  What are the subjects discussed at training meetings?  Are the meetings interactive?  Is there follow up after the meetings to fully integrate what was discussed?

Do you have a feedback system in place for effective communication with your sales force?

What has changed in the past few months within your company, with the sales force, your customers, the economy that can have an impact on how the sales team performs, overall and individually?

Is there a paper trail of daily sales activity?

Do you pay your sales people well?  Do you motivate them?  Do you give them incentives to meet their sales goals?

For those underperforming sales people, do you provide them with an outline of what they need to do in order to meet the company’s sales criteria and goals?  Do you give them a specific time period?  Do you provide support to help improve their productivity?

Is it a positive or a negative experience for a sales person who may be on the line and in jeopardy of losing their job?

These are just a few questions to consider.  There are more questions to consider about your sales team and sales, in general, based on your company’s situation and sales volume.

Once you’ve formulated answers to the above questions and if you have sales people that are not performing up to the standards set by your company, then and only then should someone be terminated.

After your company terminates the weaker sales people, those positions should be replaced by competent sales people. 

Sales are everything.  Nothing happens till something is sold.  If you want to stay in business you must sell your product or service on a consistent basis.  Never stop looking for sales no matter how good business may be.  Don’t give up when sales are bad.  Improve your sales force and marketing.  Don’t just downsize sales and marketing. 

You, the CEO, president or business owner, need to take responsibility.  You need to make the decision of who you’ll continue to employ and who will get layed off.  Don’t just cut people to cut people.  Tough decisions.  But think about the unintended consequences of your business decisions.  Make your sales force stronger in order for your company to survive and prosper.