“It is easy to get good players, getting them to play together is the hard part.” Casey Stengel Dear Dr Adams, I have a problem with one of my employees that is distracting and now causing my other employees to become insecure and absorbed by gossip and rumor. Last year I hired a young man who presented a fine picture of an ambitious go-getter anxious to have a career in sales. My company sells musical accessories to music stores and discount houses in a major city. I have a lot of competition so we must be aggressive if we are to stay business. Here is my problem; this employee refuses to take direction from his boss who is my sales manger as well as a salesperson. When I speak to this young about his overly independent streak, he reminds me that he is the number one producer so what is my complaint? The young man is a natural sales representative, he brings in the orders, but he is a lone wolf. What do I do? I am afraid if I lean too hard on him, he will quit, and I know my competition will snap him up. If I don’t do something about it, my other sales representatives will resent it and believe he is being treated with special privileges, what should I do? Sleepless in New York City Dear Sleepless, A tough question. And not an uncommon one. Double standards don’t work. Your problem appears to be a “the tail wagging the dog” situation. An employee with a strong sense of purpose, a demanding personality with an aggressive approach to challenge will quickly move to the front of the pack. But not always without cost to your business, your other employees and management. Looking the other way at independent behavior or bestowing knighthood on a star producer may help today’s bottom line, but if left unchecked, will drive out other productive employees as they see their personal door to opportunity closed. In time your sales force will be populated with the least productive as they are the ones who hang in because they have no place to go. I don’t know how you pay your sales force if it is straight commission; your argument to control is weak. After all only if they succeed in selling your products do they make money. You have few rights to demand anything else. I hope you are aware that aggressive sales minded individuals gravitate to selling because of the feeling of independence and a pay package that rewards producers and discourages laggards. If this is your young man, you may have a gem amongst trash. Or he may be more bluster than with a strong sense of self-promotion. His demands to “self government” may present you with a wakeup call to rethink how you manage your sales force. First, dig in and find out some often overlooked daily details of your sales force. Start with an analysis of the sales figures over the past two years of each salesperson. What percent does each contribute to your total sales volume? What is the average size order of each person and the progress of each? Step back and look at how your sales people are performing. Perhaps you have a case of someone upsetting a nice comfortable cozy club that just gets by. Or is it a well functioning team that a self-serving egocentric hustler will disrupt and cause you to lose your team? Ask yourself, how is it, this junior member is out pacing his fellow competitors so soon. Do you demand enough from your staff? Or have you overtime hired the wrong people? Either way, your problem is presenting you a reason to review how you manage your sales force. Start with your part time sales manager. It is not a wise policy to have a manager sell as well as manage. Such arrangements usually happen when the CEO or owner gets too busy and hands off the task of running the sales operation. Usually the top producing sales person is assigned the task and allowed to keep his or her best customers. Can you see the undercurrents, instead of a team the sales boss is competing against his peddlers. Not a wise, but oft used arrangement. If you want to keep your employee and establish control, rethink the dual sales and sales management slot you created. If you have grown to a size you can absorb the overhead, move your part time manager back into sales- after all, you promoted the person because of selling, not management skills- and search for a full time sales manager and start the process of building a more professional sales team. Managing sales guys and gals is unlike any other type of management--it requires special talents and training. The days of little supervision, straight commission, and antiquated sales training consisting of handing a rookie catalog sheets, and a customer list topped off with the wish of good luck, have gone with the use of brown paper bags to figure a customer’s grocery bill. Let me know what happens. Copyright 2004 Dr. Paul E Adams, Professor Emeritus Business Administration Ramapo College of New Jersey Author “ Fail Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful.” Available Amazon.Com. If you have questions or comments- contact me: drfailproof@earthlink.net