No Poaching!

No Poaching!

You’re a Sales Leader (remember, if you've read my posts you will know that I detest the use of the word ‘manager’ for a leadership role), and one of your reps discovers another rep calling into his/her account. This is one of those time eternal dilemmas – territory, and who owns it. So what do you do?

There are many points here that are worthy of discussion. But what I want to focus on is the leadership role in this scenario. As Sales Leaders part of your job is to take care of your people. Sometimes that means making unpopular decisions both in their favor and against them. Remember, leadership is not a popularity contest. Now when you assign a territory to a rep you have tasked him/her with the responsibility of generating a certain amount of revenue (and preferably, exceeding that amount). Reps are very territorial, and a Sales Leader should be too. So when one of your reps encounters another rep poaching in his/her assigned territory, there is only one question to be answered first. Whose territory is it? To me, every other action stems from the answer to that question. And if there is no clear answer, the leadership team has failed their customers and their reps. I know there may be some sales leaders would disagree with me here but if you give a territory to someone then you should protect that territory for them, too. And for the rep, you should be working your entire account set. If you can’t, you need to let your leadership know about it.

So, let’s take a look at this. Why did another rep call into someone else’s account? Was it just an honest mistake or was it intentional? An oversight is easy to deal with, but an intentional encroachment is a different animal. Why would a rep intentionally call into an account that is not theirs? To me, there is no excuse for that. If a lead comes to you for an account that is not yours, it needs to be passed on to the right rep. Who knows, depending upon the situation, you may find yourself getting part of the deal. It’s not unheard of. But passing it on is the right thing to do and I don’t want reps that lack integrity representing me or my company.

Again, some of you may disagree with me here. But you assigned account to your reps and gave them the belief that they owned it. They shouldn't have to worry about poachers. And you, as a Sales Leader, need to back your reps. After all, you put them there. And as far as poaching goes, it doesn’t matter what the level of activity your rep has in an account, it’s still his/hers until you change it. If they are not adequately covering their waterfront, find out why and take appropriate action. You assigned the rep that account set and you should expect that they are doing what they can to cover it thoroughly and aggressively.

But there are other reasons why honoring the territory given to a rep is important. Assuming that rep is adequately covering that account, when someone else calls into that account they will not know the dynamics that are already in play. Many accounts have many internal customers that have different needs. So the rep that is calling on that account will likely know what is going on and what the dynamics are. When someone else calls into that account, for whatever motive/reason, it is very doubtful that they will understand what the moving parts are and may, in fact, derail a strategy that is already in play. Having two or more reps trying to sell the same thing into the same account just makes your company look disjointed, at best.

And this is where the leadership comes in. As a Sales Leader (or any type of leader) you are paid the big bucks to LEAD. But many, in my experience both directly and through observation, don’t. A Sales Leader is there, in large part (in my view), to make his/her reps successful. Part of that is done by assigning boundaries and setting expectations.  And if a Sales Leader doesn’t step in quickly and decisively to resolve issues like this, the problem(s) will soon take on a life of their own, and time that could be spent furthering revenue growth will be spent on non-productive activities like territorial disputes.

As I have said in other posts, too, leadership is not a popularity contest. Do what is right for your people. They will respect you for it. And if your rep(s) aren't covering their accounts adequately, deal with that too. Perhaps the account is too big or perhaps you have the wrong rep in the job. Do what leaders are paid to do. LEAD. Make a decision and resolve the issue. And when another rep encroaches upon your rep’s territory, take action. I don’t mean to be vengeful, I mean deal with the issue so that all involved can move on and be productive. After all, that is what you hired them to do, isn't it?