(Updated January 5, 2018.

(‘Sales Burnout, How Sales Managers Can Deal With Sales Burnout’ has been a favorite topic for Sales Management Workshop. The show notes for this podcast have been updated to provide additional information found in the original podcast.)

As managers, we’ve all seen it. A consistent producer has fallen off. Their production is not on par with past results. Today we are going to talk about the what and why of burnout for your salespeople.

How To Deal With Salesperson Burnout

It’s one of the most challenging tasks a sale manager faces. What do you do when a productive salesperson starts to decline?

It’s not as if they can’t perform. The saleThey have consistently been a top performer in the past. Now, for some reason, it’s not happening. It could be burnout. Burnout, what a term, what a concept. Let me give you a couple of definitions before I go much further.

Why Talk About Sales Burnout

I decided to discuss this topic here because a similar situation came up with one of my clients in a coaching session. Let me share some of what we discussed.

With one of their salespeople, the top producer, her numbers were not the issue. She was a closer. She was a dependable contributor who had been with the company for three years. Her production was falling.

She hadn’t yet slipped to the bottom of the board, but, to my client’s credit, he noticed something was ‘different.’ He wanted to know what to do.

How Do You Define Burnout?

Burnout is a psychological term. I am updating the definition in the podcast to one from “Psychology Today.” This is how they defined it:

“Burnout is not a simple result of long hours. The cynicism, depression, and lethargy of burnout can occur when you’re not in control of how you carry out your job when Burnout is a psychological term. I am updating the definition in the podcast to one from “Psychology Today.” This is how they defined it:

“Burnout is not a simple result of long hours. The cynicism, depression, and lethargy of burnout can occur when you’re not in control of how you carry out your job when you’re working toward goals that don’t resonate with you, and when you lack social support.”

“If you don’t tailor your responsibilities to match your true calling, or at least take a break once in a while, you could face a mountain of mental and physical health problems.”

Let’s say that you have a salesperson who has been a productive and treasured part of your sales team. Now they seem to just go through the motions. It’s disturbing, to say the least. Their production has fallen, and the numbers you’ve counted on aren’t coming in.

The second definition I want to give you is ‘lethargy.’ Lethargy is defined as a state of being lazy, sluggish, or indifferent. Could this be the same as burnout? In some cases, yes. They’ve lost interest in the job, and their performance is suffering. Something else has seized their attention.

The attention that they once gave to the quality of their work has disappeared. Take no action, and they will never come back, and you could lose them forever. Your numbers go down, and you’re back to square one, trying to replace a member of the team.

You go back into that cycle of recruiting, interviewing, training. Then you’ll wait months to see if the new person can get to the level where their performance is equal to what you lost.

For some organizations that’s ok. They’re built to be in a constant hiring mode.

Is your sales team maintained by constantly running through salespeople? Are you always in the hiring mode? If so, you can probably skip this edition of sales management workshop.

If your organization is interested in the added value of a long-term employee, then this might be helpful.

Find The Cause

I am not a psychologist. Nor do I play one in this post.

It’s important to find what caused the problem before you look at the issue itself. Have you ever heard; “Don’t treat the symptoms, treat the cause.”

If all you do is confront and badger them about production, you’re missing the point. The lack of production is likely the result of a bigger problem.

Problems like this can result from events in their life taking priority over the job. Several things can cause this:

• Problems in their personal life
• A problem with someone in the company
• They feel like they are not being recognized or appreciated in their current role
• Maybe they have adopted a new outlook on life and no longer want to invest the time

Is It Job Related?

If they feel unappreciated or undervalued, that could be a management problem. What are you doing to make them feel that way? Was it your intent? If it was, why? If it wasn’t, you need to take a healthy look at how you are conducting yourself. Maybe it’s time to work on your one-on-one. Work on building your relationship with each of your salespeople.

Were they passed over for a promotion? Did something go wrong with a client? Did they not receive something they felt they deserved?

Could they have a conflict with someone in the organization? Is that conflict zapping their resolve and causing them to question why they’re there? This is a big one. Can you fix it?

Some of you are reading this and thinking. “This sounds like their problem, they need to learn how to deal with stuff.” “Most of these situations only exist in their heads.”

You’re right, but their perception is their reality, and as a manager that’s the reality you must deal with.

Is It Related To Events At Home?

If they are having problems at home or in their personal life, the only thing you can do is listen. That’s if they want to talk.

You can’t do much about their personal problems. As managers, we’re not trained for that. Remember, listening to someone goes a long way.

What You Can And Can’t Control

At a basic level, you can divide sales burnout into two categories:

• Controllable
• Uncontrollable

• Problem with something that happened to a client
• Not feeling valued by the company
• Issues with another department or co-worker
• Trouble visualizing a future with the company

• Problems at Home
• Problems with a spouse
• Illness
• Money issues

The Fix

The fix for a burnt out salesperson isn’t easy. In some cases, you may not be able to fix the problem at all. If you value them as a team member, you have to try. I divide the fix into three steps:

1. Decide
2. Listen
3. Take Action

Decide

The first decision you must make is, do you want them on your team? If the answer is no, you’ve already made the decision to move on. This means doing nothing, knowing that you will probably lose this person. You now need to prepare for that.

If you want them on your team, you have made the decision to move to step two.

Listen

This could take place during a formal or informal coaching session. In the session:

1. What are the business implications as they stand?
2. Let them know that you value their contributions to the organization
3. Ask what you can do to help them resolve the issue

Your goal is to talk with them in a very relaxed manner and try to uncover any issues. To start the meeting make sure you stress their value to the organization. Start off with something like:

“Thanks for meeting with me today. I didn’t want to take you out of the field, but you’ve been a treasured member of the team. You’ve proven you can get the job done. Lately, your production has fallen off, and I wanted to know what I could do to help you get back on track.”

That’s a good start. You told them they have value to the team. You showed your concern. You ended with an open-ended question, so they didn’t feel boxed in.

Take Action

What are you going to do? In reality, you are still left with three choices:

1. You recognize the business implications as they stand
2. Let them know that you value their contributions to the organization
3. Ask what you can do to help them resolve the issue

Working With Them

If you have made the decision to work with them, try giving them a new challenge. Providing a new problem gives them something else to work on and think about. If you can provide the right challenge, it could get them going again.

Start by asking more questions. Questions like “where they would like to be in a year, or five years from now?” If they have lost interest, it could be because they don’t see a future. Offer to work with them on a plan to achieve their objective. If they say they don’t know, explore different options with them.

If they are one of your top salespeople, how can you expand their role? Would they like to move into a management role in the future? If you choose this path, you are adding more to your plate. You can’t just set them loose, you have to outline, manage, and coach them on their new role.

• Try having them spend an hour or so each week mentoring one of your new salespeople.
• Have them feel more appreciated by helping with sales training?
• Have them assist in planning and conducting sales meetings.

Allow them to share their passion with the rest of the team and share the knowledge they possess. While this will help the team, it ’s also a chance for them to evaluate each other. It may well get them excited again. The objective is always to find ways to get them re-engaged.

Take Them Back To The Basics

When we lose our drive, or if we have something else on our minds, we all need to re-focus. You can help them with this by taking them back to the basics.

Even though they may be an experienced producer, manage them like a ‘newbie’. You want to help them establish an overall ‘rhythm’: rhythm for developing new business, making their calls, presenting and closing.

That’s what you might do with a new salesperson, and now you will do it with your experienced rep. Take them back to the basics.

This means managing their activity. For a while, you may want to phone them every couple of days. See how things are going and discuss their recent activities. Have you heard the expression, ’Don’t expect what you don’t inspect?’

Go with them on some of their calls to observe. Take the opportunity to coach.
Perform a deep dive into their sales reports each week. Have them take you through the activities associated with each sales activity.

In your one-on-one coaching sessions, have them establish daily and weekly goals for themselves. Work with them because they need to take ownership of the goals. If you create goals for them, they mean nothing. They will agree yet in most cases, nothing will happen.

Taking your old pro back to the basics is a great way to help them get back to where they were.

I wish I could say that this works 100 % of the time. But it doesn’t always work because sometimes they’re too far-gone. The key is to catch it early and give it your best shot.

Conclusion

So what happened to the salesperson that my client was dealing with? It turns out that she was upset with the company. When one of her accounts was given to another salesperson, she felt ‘passed over.’ This happened when the territories became realigned.

During a coaching session, my client came to the realization that he was, in fact, the cause of the problem and not the rep.

As a leader, you have to make a lot of decisions. Some of those decisions can have a significant effect on people. You have to take that factor into account.

You don’t need the blessing of each of your employees before making a decision. You do need to understand the effect your choices have on others.

Maintaining a cohesive work environment is essential. A leader doesn’t make changes without knowing the consequences. A leader must communicate with everyone involved.

He didn’t think it was that big a deal because the new territory could produce the same revenue for her eventually. He could be right. More importantly, her perception was that she had lost something. Her impression was that she was being short-changed in the deal.

While the territory could produce the same revenue over time, her personal income took a hit. So did the company’s credibility. With her.

Better planning and communication skills could have avoided this whole situation. She eventually went to work for one of his competitors.

When you notice someone starting to slip, don’t wait. Talk to them immediately and see if you can get to the heart of the problem before it’s too late.

Affiliate Links To Books I Recommend

(The links below are my affiliate link to Amazon.  I will receive a small commission when you purchase an item using this link. Thanks.)

Manager’s Guide to Effective Coaching

by Marshall Cook

Every manager knows their job is to make others successful. Effective Coaching teaches you practices you can use immediately to engender employee commitment and help employees gain the skills necessary to sustain and grow any type of organization. This is a book for every manager that wants to achieve.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t

by Jim Collins

This is an excellent read for any manager. The author and his research team identified companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. It profiles why some companies make the leap and others don’t.

The Secret: What Great Leaders Know — And Do (Third Edition)

By Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller

Ken Blanchard is one of the best business authors you can find. This is one of my favorite books, The “Secret.” The attempt to answer a question most mangers ask. What do I need to do to be a great leader?

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