I think my salesperson is suffering from performance anxiety.

Dear Aunty B, 

So I have a sales person who is great at sales, but she keeps telling me she is capable of so much more (and she won’t stay unless she gets more).

I set her a major project, she sent a rough outline after the due date and when I sent suggestions, nothing else was forthcoming. I asked why and she said she is too focused on sales to deal with it now.

I have sent her a list of tasks/projects that she could take on and said, “take your pick” (thinking the previous was the wrong task), but she said she can’t take on anything unless she is given a step-by-step outline of what is expected.

Is this serious performance anxiety? I really need extra work done, I know she’ll walk if I hire someone else to do it but can I build her confidence enough that she can? Will she ever feel capable of moving outside the comfort zone?

Honestly the talk is so different from the actions, I am confused! I believe in allowing staff to go, but I also believe the work set has to be done.

Thank you in advance,
Patient Boss

Dear Patient Boss,

The best sales people in the world know one thing: that they are best in the world at sales. And they are happy with that. They relish that. They focus their life on that. And why many of them can’t just be happy with that is one of the great bloody mysteries of the universe, just behind how they built the pyramids, although they might have solved that and I missed it while I was coaching sales people to be better at the job they have, rather than hanker after one they think they should have.

Because it is a horrible truth that while some sales people can evolve into other roles and be brilliant, many can’t.

Rather than solve that great mystery here I will explain the situation and tell you what I’d do.

First, realise that sales for great sales people will always come first, second and last.

No matter what project they are working on they are focused on sales. And of course, this is what makes them great! But it can be frustrating when they ask to work on more challenging projects and have no idea what to do.

Second, many of them also work in a very structured way. As you identify, they work in a step-by-step way, knowing exactly what they can do and what they can’t. Of course, they use their skills, flair and initiative to get those deals over the line, but their job is very structured with very structured goals: make your budget.

Starting a project from scratch, which you rightly point out can be outside their comfort zone, can require a lot of hand holding, which isn’t the point of giving them the project in the first place.

So here is what you must do. Look at your sales team. Often the sales team are neglected. While you build in career progression into other areas of the business you often have a few sales people and then pick one of them to be the boss. And that’s it. While they meet targets you are focusing on all the other people in the business.

So start there. Have a really good look at how you can take your sales team to the next level, the skills needed to do that, the structure required, the coaching needed and the technology to support them.

Then look at what you can provide your great salesperson with to take them to the next level, to challenge them but to keep them focus on what they excel at. Can they be given an official coaching role? Can they be put in charge of training the team? Can they be put in charge of developing new sales products? Or collateral? Can they work with marketing and build a bridge between those two departments that never work closely enough together.

What you must do is this: keep your great sales person even though it can be emotionally draining having to take on their need for a greater challenge while they seem incapable of admitting to or understanding their own weaknesses and limitations. Stay close to them and try and work out how you can provide challenging work that they can feel challenged by – and that they can do alongside being the best salesperson in the world!

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

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