Lee Salz is a Featured Columnist for The Business Journals.
Years ago, I was asked to conduct an assessment of a client’s sales team. The executive team was frustrated by the team’s performance, especially since the sales quotas were not met.
As part of the assessment exercise, I met with members of the sales team asking about annual quotas and how they were performing relative to it. Not one of the salespeople could tell me their quota.
After meeting with the sales team, I met with the company’s leadership team. They were able to tell me the quota for each salesperson and how they were performing relative to it. The leaders knew the quotas, but those to which quotas were assigned did not — and the executive team was shocked that the salespeople had no clue what their quotas were.
This wasn’t the first time (or the last time) that I had this type of experience with a client. Seeing this disconnect, I asked to see the sales compensation plan for the team. Within that plan was the root cause of the issue.