Advice from AllBusiness.com's Sales Advisor Keith Rosen.

Keith Rosen: When a salesperson fails, whose fault is it?

Well folks, I hate to break the news to you but avalanches roll downhill. It starts from the top and trickles downward. It’s always our fault. Now, if you don’t have full buy-in from this now or maybe you feel you are accountable, let’s do a quick check, make sure that you’re not a victim of any of these limiting excuses and these are some of the excuses I hear, the excuses managers use to justify why their salespeople fail.

“Well I just got promoted and inherited my team. I didn’t hire these people!” “We don’t have the time for sales coaching or training, we have deals to close.” “Hey, this is normal in my industry, turnover is just something we have to deal with.” Well here’s one of my favorites, “If they fail, then they simply weren’t cut out for this position.” How about that for accountability, folks? Or, “Hey, if they needed help, they should come to me. We would have helped them out. That’s their responsibility, after all, I can’t read their minds.” “They’re salespeople, my salespeople are independent contractors so if they need help, they should really get it on their own.” And finally, “I am coaching them, Keith, they’re just not getting it!”

And as I’ve shared with you before, “Oh really? Are you really coaching them? Or are you just hanging out your shingle and deciding that you’re a coach that day?”