Avoiding Sales Manager Abuse

From the mail room, I received this email from a sales student who is feeling abused by their sales manager. 

Last year my company fired a sales rep in a connecting territory.  After they terminated this individual, my manager asked me to cover the existing accounts and do some business development in the region.  Being the team player I am, I agreed to help out.  The work essentially doubled the size of my territory.  While I didn’t do much new business, I did a great job of stabilizing the existing relationships of the twenty accounts in the territory.  One year later, my manager informs me that they have hired a new rep in the area.  They are taking those accounts back and would like my assistance in the training and transitioning of this business.  I am a little disappointed in how this was handled.  What are your thoughts? ~ J.C. Hartford, CT

1. Clearly communicate expectations: This salesperson took on an added burden at the request of her manager.  At no point did her manager articulate what was going to be expected of them in future or how long this arrangement was going to go on.  A great sales manager would have clarified the situation, defined the expectations, and articulated the time frame for this territorial change.  If there was no plan in the first place, then the sales manager has an obligation to develop and define one with the sales rep before putting them in the territory.
2. Recognize and compensate for exceptional performance: This commitment doubled the geographic territory, increased the workload of the sales rep, there was little upside commission, and saved the company money.  Where’s the appreciation and the gratitude.  Kudos to the sales rep for not asking “what’s in it for me?”; but, shame on the manager and the company for not showing gratitude for the effort and the commitment.  Technically covering open territories are the sales manager’s problem; so this sales rep did the manager a big favor, as well.
3. Test your plan before you execute it: This manager simply made a move to eliminate a position and, without much other consideration, simply plugged another sales rep in to cover the territory.  This was likely not a very well thought out plan.  It would have been a much better situation for all if the manager had developed their strategy, shared it, created some incentives for the parties involved, and then put it into play.  Instead, this manager simply made his moves without a lot of consideration for its impact on those involved.  Not my style of management.

Sales management is more strategic, thoughtful, and organized than simply moving people around.  This was simply an example of bad sale management.  I would love the opportunity to share this experience with the offending party to, hopefully, avoid a repeat of these mistakes.