There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…
Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…
Sales Performance Review Template
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Sales Performance Review Template – Top question from Google
How do you write a Sales Performance Review?
To write a fair and balanced sales performance review you should:
- Hold performance reviews on a monthly basis
- Use a sales performance review template to ensure consistency, record actions and ensure accountability
- Wherever possible base the review on data and not opinions
- Tie sales performance into coaching, salary and career progression
- Link sales performance to encourage the development of new sales skills
Fill out the form to the right and download our Sales Performance review template.
You can customise this to your unique situation and start driving sales performance within the hour.
Why Sales Performance Reviews are Important
Many companies and sales managers overlook the importance of regular and structured sales performance reviews with their sales reps. Sometimes they know how important these meetings are, but they slip from the diary because of other pressures within the business.
More often than not, employees are reduced to an annual performance review, that does little to evaluate performance, let alone drive professional growth.
There are a myriad of reasons you should make time for these meetings, probably none more so that employee retention. The cost of finding and hiring good sales people is rising so it surely makes sense to do everything we can to retain our people after this investment.
The pandemic, lockdowns and working from home have all served to make sales people rethink their lifestyle and life goals. Statistics show in 2021, 48 million people quit their jobs, 41% of the global workforce are considering quitting their jobs and 46% are considering relocating in the next 12 months.
Those companies and sales managers who are slow to realign their management and work processes are sure to struggle to keep their best salespeople.
Improving Sales Performance
Performance reviews and 121’s are a crucial part of not only an employees progression, but also there wellness. Professional selling can be stressful and mental wellbeing is hugely important.
They are a great way to ensure the company’s goals as well as those of the individual are being met and ensuring the employees career path is being recognised.
If a sales professional is having any challenges in their work or personal life, a performance review is their opportunity to discuss this with their sales manager.
A performance review should be a safe place for the sales rep to discuss there wants needs, what they are good at and what needs worked on. Far from an anxiety causing and scary meeting with the boss, they should be a place where they have someone they can speak to in confidence.
As a manager, you want to know that your employees are people you can trust. In turn, they need to feel the same from you and 121’s are a great way to do that.
Setting sales goals, discussing what they really want from the job and where they want to go, are a crucial part of their position. If the employee feels recognised and heard, they will then be more inclined to thrive in their position and work to their best ability.
Sales Managers should hold Performance Reviews at least quarterly, but ideally they should be held every month so that you, as the sales manager, can manage the sales reps role, their expectations, and get the most out of them.
What should I discuss in a Sales Performance Review?
Modern selling now has so many different roles it’s difficult to provide a one size fits all formula for everyone in sales. For example, the performance review for an SDR will be very different to that of an account manager. We would strongly encourage you to develop specific reviews and key metrics based on the different roles in sales.
The Performance Review process should be kept fairly informal – it’s not a disciplinary meeting, it’s a safe space for your employee to be open and honest. Your Sales Rep should be comfortable to ask questions in a private setting and air any problems they may have.
At Klozers our Sales Management philosophy is built around the four high value areas of sales, namely:
Finding – what are we consistently and proactively doing to find new sales prospects and opportunities?
Klozing – when we find new deals are we following our sales process and maximising the opportunity?
Growing – are we actively locking in new accounts and growing the revenue from them?
Developing – what are we personally doing to stretch, grow, learn and push ourselves?
Combine these with your Vision and Core Values and by focussing on these four areas, it’s simply impossible not to sell more.
Your Sales Representatives should come away feeling motivated and energised. A 121 is a great way to build and maintain strong relationships with your sales team. Feedback should always be provided especially when the staff member is voicing performance problems of things they may be struggling with.
Constructive feedback is never a bad thing, but employee performance only ever increases by praise and recognition of all the good things that they have achieved.
If they have been working hard throughout the month and this is the only time you have to catch up with them, then this is their only chance to hear praise and praise which will make them feel good and work harder.
If the Sales Professional never hears from there manager and is never told when they are doing a good job, they can sometimes feel paranoid and not appreciated – no one wants their sales team to feel like that.
Road Map & Career Path
A crucial part of the performance review process is about driving professional growth, setting career goals within the company: where do they want to go in this job? How can they get there?
Can they gain experience in different departments? Is there additional training they can do to get them there quicker?
Having clearly defined learning paths is much easier than most companies think and providing every employee with simple milestones they can follow to progress is essential.
A Sales Professional should be treated as a person growing withing the company, not just a number. So, discussing different career paths is a great way to show the sales professional just how far they could potentially go.
121’s for Salespeople Working Remotely
If you have sales preps who are working remotely, then a 121 is equally important as performance reviews. Whilst working from home has improved the work life balance of many Sales Professionals, helped them be more productive and cost effective, for many, it can be isolating and lonely.
Many salespeople are “people people”. They thrive around other human beings which is one of the reasons they love being in sales. Working from home for many has been a real culture change and a shock to most salespeople.
Sales Reps are sometimes reluctant to speak up and ask questions in a group setting, or if there is no rapport with the sales manager. Every sales professional needs to feel comfortable in the workplace – even though they are at home.
For new employees 121’s and team meeting are also great ice breakers and a way to get to know your colleagues. This way, they will feel more comfortable coming to you when they need help or have a problem. Start off with get to know me sessions.
These are very much informal compared to a performance review and a great way for you both to get to know each other. Discuss likes and dislikes, hobbies and interest, what they enjoy doing in their spare time. Keeping this on a personal level to begin with will make the staff member feel very much at ease and most likely they will feel appreciated that you have taken the time to get to know them.
Following up Sales Performance Reviews
Many sales managers are managers and not leaders. The best sales managers work hard to support their sales teams, versus those that are directing their salespeople and following spreadsheets.
Often the difference between a manager and a leader is simply the things they do for the salespeople. What may seem insignificant and unimportant to the manager can be the opposite to salespeople. The best managers are people focussed first and work focussed second.
With that said, there is no doubt how difficult this can be with the constant pressure to meet or exceed sales targets.
As a sales manager you must ensure you follow up on any of the actions you have discussed in the Performance Review. A record of the meeting should always be documented to provide the sales reps with a record of everything that was discussed.
This also provides a road map of what they are going to work towards, until the next performance review and helps hold them and the sales manager accountable.
This is a great way to monitor progress as it gives both the sales manager and the sales professional the opportunity to look over previous goals and discuss where they are in relation to the agreed targets and what needs to be worked on.
Sales Managers are arguably the most important part of any sales team. They set the bar in terms of employee performance and what is acceptable, and what is not. Great sales teams need great sales managers – invest in your sales management now.
Share this page
Author Bio
Iain Swanston has spent over 30 years in B2B sales selling, training and leading teams both domestically and internationally. In addition he serves as an Associate at Strathclyde University Business School where he has delivered the sales content for the Masters in Entrepreneurship since 2015.
