Masterful Reprimands – The Best Sales Management Training
February 26th, 2010
As effective as Masterful Praisings are in reinforcing good behavior, reprimands are as effective at curtailing bad behavior.
We call em, you guessed it…”Masterful Reprimands”.
Although they are basically concept, just on opposite ends of the spectrum, there are big differences in the approach.
For your “veteran” salespeople, this tactic is particularly effective in changing ingrained bad habits and behaviors. How many of these guys have you got?
My guess is quite a few. Old dog, new tricks, seen it all before…you know the kind.
For your newer or new salespeople, this should be used sparingly due to the fact that most mistakes made by new salespeople are made due to lack of experience, knowledge or familiarity of policies and procedures…or just plain naiveté.
If the salesperson has been doing their job for some time and they know how to do it well and they make a mistake, be quick to respond. As fast as you are with Masterful Praising, be just as fast for Masterful Reprimands.
- As soon as you learn of the mistake, call or visit the salesperson personally
- Confirm the facts – ask the salesperson about the situation and listen to them tell the entire story. Ask questions to create understanding
- Look them right in the eye and tell them what they did wrong.
- Tell them how you feel about it: “This makes me extremely upset because…”
- Let what you say to them sink in – pause for effect. Let it hurt. The longer you pause, the better.
- Look them clearly in the eye and tell them how competent they are. Tell the salesperson the only reason you’re so upset with them is because you have so much respect for them. Tell them: “this is so unlike you”
Do it right after the mistake. This tells the salesperson that you are on top of things and that they will not get away with sloppiness.
Unlike masterful-praisings, NEVER miss a reprimand. This sets the tone; you are not going to miss a thing. By missing a masterful-reprimand, you lose respect and control – it undermines your ability to lead because it says to them that mistakes WILL be tolerated. This sends the wrong message and creates more work for you down the line. Do it now. Yes its hard – it really stinks to do it – but don’t delay. And don’t miss any masterful-reprimands.
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Post a comment and tell me how do you tell your reprimand in your sales people.
Filed under: Leading by ralphburns
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Good points except there are few considerations:
1. No one ever does anything \"wrong\". Struggle with that as no one needs to feel like they are being judged. It does not work.
2. Assumes that there is respect for the manager for them to play the \"disappointed\" card. If there is no respect, disappointed will not fly.
I agree with the decisive and timely and direct. Not enough managers head down that path and are tentative, at best, when they do.
Dave,
Good points – “wrong” may not be the right word in all cases, but there are plenty of times where sales reps knwo the right thing to do and do the wrong thing anyway. “Incorrect” may be a better way to refer to it, although this is assuming that they know how to do the thing, but do something else.
For example, I just had a senior sales rep of mine miss an important teleconference with the brand new VP of Sales. He knew he screwed up, but had to reprimand him regardless. He knew the right thing to do, but chose not to by not reminding himself to attend. He screwed up – reprimand delivered.
I agree that the reprimand is only effective if you’ve established trust and respect with them in the first place, but thats a whole other series of posts!!! Thanks for the comment!
A good point that you mention is also key to The One Minute Manager book. Praise the person, reprimand the behaviour. Give them a high self image to live up to.
Also I would make sure that you don\’t do it when/where others can see/hear what\’s going on. If the person feels you are humiliating them in front of others you may actually demotivate them.
–
Cheers
Mark
RealLifeSelling
Mark – great point – always do it in private, no matter what. Ive never seen a case where you should do it in public, ever. However, you can do the Masterful Praising in public, but only if they like to be praised publicly.