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"Not achieving your target, doesn't make you a bad sales person." Do you agree? and why?

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Question added by Ghada Sameer , Project Manager and media executive , CQA
Date Posted: 2014/04/10
Sidrah Nadeem
by Sidrah Nadeem , Global Marketing Manager , Hill & Knowlton

Depends really. If competitors are doing better there is no excuse for performing any less than the projected sales. This makes you a bad salesman, poor planner and an incompetent member of the team. If however your region is doing badly due to economic or political reasons, a natural disaster or something unexpected, then one quarter should be enough to tweak your sales strategy.

IRPHAN GHANI
by IRPHAN GHANI , Senior Management , A

Yes, only to an extent that there is a learning form it and it helps in improving their performance.

zafar abbas minhas
by zafar abbas minhas , Freelance Writer , DAILY MASHRAQ

NOT INDEED, because achieving targets is no doubt a dream for every sales person but not getting it100% means many reasons, i.e area , customers behaviours change, lack of corporate tools , incentives, lack of planning, focusing on right customers, lack of proper visits to the customers, shortages of products portfolio, and many others,,,,, being sales person you have to fight for every given situation,, being desperate can hurt you and your carrier.  good luck

Deleted user
by Deleted user

Depends on the target. Is it reasonable, reachable? Is the target achievable by one person or requires a team effort?

Divyesh Patel
by Divyesh Patel , Assistant Professional Officer- Treasury , City Of Cape Town

I agree, not making your sales target does not make you a bad sales person. Its becoming more difficult to sell theses days purely because customers are becoming more aware of the products and service. They will purchase only if they need the service or products.

Abdel Fattah Ibrahim
by Abdel Fattah Ibrahim , CDT Director , Colgate Palmolive

Disagree; the good sales person should achieve her/his target

Once target set and/or accepted by sales person based on accurate forecast and required support it should be achieved  

Mohammad Tohamy Hussein Hussein
by Mohammad Tohamy Hussein Hussein , Chief Executive Officer & ERP Architect , Egyptian Software Group

That depends if the targets were streached targets and whether the assumptions made at target setting proven correct. I would say that a sales person should start to feel bad if he/she undeperformed his/her competiton for the given period.

Abdul Samad Nadeem Malik
by Abdul Samad Nadeem Malik , Business Support Officer , Thimar Al Jazirah - 3M ESPE

Yes i am agree because if you are facing globally crises it is veru difficult for you to achive your target.

as i saw2 years ago how globally crises effet on business. 

Amir Elsayed
by Amir Elsayed , Owner , Wizzora

In my personal opinion if you don't achieve your target then you are know equiped enough with the skills,knowledge and determination you need for the current era we live in.

 

More competitors, client knowledge, economy etc.. everything change fast and to the worse only who can adapt will live and succeed

Khatim Abbas Seed
by Khatim Abbas Seed , BUSINESS CONSULTANT , Google

In theory, yes.

In managerial practise, no! Not always.

 

It depends on the evaluation of the complete conduct & behavior of respective salesperson during the sales-cycle (or the specific sales-phase he or she is in charge of).

  1. There are many external causes for not achieving targets that go beyond the personal influence of a professional.
  2. Achieving targets as a success metric can be tangible (easily measured), but also intangible (a bit harder to measure).

 

Example:

What if a salesperson who's missing his targets is actually the best contributor to the company’s knowledge base when it comes to valuable self-analyzed lost sales case-studies, which leads to future sales success of him & others? He may "suck" individually, but how about his contribution to collective succes & team achievement?

 

Deleted user
by Deleted user

I agree to an extent and consistency matters...Looking at the broad picture, external factors could be at play, which is a consistent part of everyday life...

 

I have known situations where peoples performace were routinely sabotaged, so their sales performance was sub-par, not because they were bad sales people, but because of external factors..Eventually those people had to go somewhere where they could exploit their maximum potential and they did..some became very great sales people.

 

It depends on the situation and it could be used as a learning curve..we all stumble sometimes...no one is infallable...However, there are limits on whether if it is gross incompetence or just uncontrolled circumstances...

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