Our top-producing sales representative is incredibly loyal and embodies all of our core values, but we recently promoted him to the VP of Sales seat on our Accountability Chart, and he is failing miserably at managing the team. He hates the administration and metrics. How do we move him back to a pure selling seat without destroying his motivation?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Promoting your best sales producer to a leadership seat is a classic mistake. Being a great individual contributor requires an entirely different skill set than managing a team. When a top performer fails in a management seat, it is almost always a Right Person, Wrong Seat situation where the individual fits your core values but simply does not GWC™ the leadership role.

You must act quickly to resolve this before the rest of your sales team suffers from a lack of effective leadership. Start by having an honest, objective conversation with him. Frame the discussion around GWC™. Ask him if he truly wants the administration, reporting, and coaching responsibilities of the VP seat, or if he misses the thrill of closing deals. In many cases, the individual is secretly relieved to have this conversation because they are struggling and unhappy.

Redesign your Accountability Chart to create a clear, high-status, highly compensated individual contributor seat for him, such as Enterprise Sales Director. This allows him to focus on what he does best while freeing up the VP of Sales seat for a true manager who GWC™s leadership and accountability. Resolving this quickly protects your revenue, restores team morale, and demonstrates to potential buyers that you have the right people in the right seats.