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Fire, Hire, and Repeat: Is There a Better Way to Improve Sales Performance?

Written by: Michael Cannon

Article Overview: Fire-hire-repeat is a classic management tactic and a major drain on productivity and profits. The time and money spent seeking out, interviewing, and training new hires alone should be enough to dissuade anyone from this tactic as their primary route to improve sales effectiveness – but the “body wars” are all too frequently considered the best way to improve sales. There is a better alternative. It is the sales and marketing system, not the sales team, that is most often responsible for the disconnect between sales goals and sales results. And addressing the breakdowns in the underlying system is a more cost-effective, less risky way to improve results and break the vicious cycle of fire, hire, and repeat.

Fire, Hire, and Repeat: Is There a Better Way to Improve Sales Performance?

You know the drill – it’s classic material for a Dilbert comic. The executive team is frustrated that Sales is not meeting expectations. To fix the problem, a significant portion of the sales team is fired, a new team is hired and the company winds up back where it started 6-12 months later.

The spotlight then shifts to sales management, and in comes a fresh squad, which triggers another round of fire-and-hire through the sales ranks.

When that doesn’t work, the CEO fires the VP of Sales and hires the “right person.” This change starts yet another round of fire-and-hire across the sales team.

The CEO may go through several Sales VPs before the Board fires the CEO to get the “right person” at the helm, and the cycle starts over again.

This fire, hire, and repeat syndrome is all too familiar for most business warriors. Those who witness “the body wars” also know that throwing people at the problem rarely produces the expected results, and it is always expensive.

This is because the people are not the problem. The system that supports – or fails to support – the sales team is the problem. Fix the system and most of the people will do just fine. You can then easily identify and cull the few salespeople and managers that really need to go.

Let’s take a quick look at why the fire-and-hire exercise fails most of the time – and why management (and the Board of Directors) continues to use this questionable approach to improving sales performance. Then we will review a superior alternative, a systems approach for increasing sales performance.

**Why the Fire-and-Hire Exercise Fails**

Most fire-and-hire exercises explode in management’s face because hope is not a strategy! That’s right – hope is not a strategy! Think about it – statistically speaking, there’s a 50% chance that the person being hired will be as good as, or worse than, the one being fired. This fire-and-hire exercise is founded on the hope that the new hire will be better than the last hire. And at 50% odds, it’s a risky bet.

It’s also an expensive bet. How much does it cost to fire a person – including severance and unemployment insurance? How much does it cost to hire a new person – including recruitment cost and bonuses? How about training costs? What about the lost-opportunity cost of having the managers tied up in interviews and training rather than driving sales opportunities? How many months does it take for new hires to become profitable? Fire, hire, and repeat syndrome is a major drain on productivity and profit, and it has a negative impact on any company’s ability to stay competitive.

**The Fatal Attraction**

So why does management continue to throw bodies at the problem? The results are questionable, and the costs are high! What logic drives this cycle?

Well, it’s politically astute, and it’s easy. No one has to spend serious time thinking about how to solve the hard problems – such as, “What is the real reason Sales is not performing to expectations?”

And the answer comes prefabricated: “The problem is not the company, the market, the products, or the marketing. It’s the sales team. We just need better salespeople.” This explanation may save the VP of Sales’ or Marketing’s or the CEO’s job for another year, but it rarely fixes the problem.

Alternatively, management or the Board may use the fire-and-hire technique because it’s “the way we’ve always done it.” They may not be aware of an alternative, thinking-outside-the-box strategy for increasing sales performance.

**A Better Way**

Most sales teams are not successful because the system or sales infrastructure they need is not in place. A glaring example of what’s missing is captured best by this quote:

“80 to 90 percent of marketing collateral is considered useless by sales.”
Proceedings of the Customer Message Management Forums, published by
the American Marketing Association (2002 and 2003).

How can management realistically expect Sales to be successful with collateral that doesn’t work?

Use the checklist below to make sure your sales teams have the support, and tools, they need to be successful. Creating the sales infrastructure required to support a high-performing sales team is not easy. But it’s far less risky, costly, and time-consuming than the constant call to fire, hire and repeat.

**Sales Infrastructure Checklist**

Several components make up this system:
• It includes having the appropriate positions, like inside versus outside sales or farmers versus hunters, plus the associated job descriptions and compensation plans defined and aligned with company objectives and market requirements.
• It includes a hiring process that identifies competent salespeople, which means it needs to include a structured interview process and profiling or testing for the right skills, aptitude, and personality.
• It includes a formal sales process or a set of best practices that is used to create leads, meetings, buying events, and orders.
• It includes reports that track the sales activities, goals, and processes, and that distinguishes sales pipeline from sales forecast.
• It ensures that the management team is effective in terms of providing coaching, accountability, and recognition.
• It includes the providing of training in the areas of product and sales enablement, as well as traditional sales skills training.
• It includes collateral and sales tools that are synchronized and that support the key steps in the sales processes.
• And, of course, it includes high-quality messaging that is used across all the customer touch points, collateral, and sales tools.

Experience has shown that focusing on the creation of a solid sales support infrastructure, as defined above, is essential to achieving and exceeding revenue, marketshare, and profit targets. And, great messaging – specifically great sales messaging – is one of the most critical components for building a successful sales support infrastructure.

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Article Tags: sales, sales messaging



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