What's the hardest question or decision that you've had to make as an entrepreneur? For me, it was whether or not to invest more in someone who wasn't performing or do I cut my losses midway through the year and maybe I can recoup some of that time and effort?

When you consider that we are half way through the year, it's do or don't time.

And when you consider the importance of sales at this pivotal time, it only makes it a harder decision.

Unless you ask the 3 questions I share in this video.

I was reminded of the toughest decision I've had to make recently after I got off the phone with one business owner who's trying to determine that exact same answer. And really, the question you have to sometimes ask is do I have the right people in the right seats to begin with?

Now, before you can answer that question, there's a couple more questions that you need the answer to.

Ask yourself these 3 questions

First, is the hiring criteria that you're using, objective, measurable, repeatable, and specific to the role and in this case, sales? If it's not, are you setting up that new hire to fail?

Second, did you onboard your new hires consistently so that they knew who to talk to and about what? Or did you give them a few days of product training, gave them a list and said okay, start calling?

Then thirdly, have you given them the coaching that they need in order to feel confident that they can and will do what they know to and learned in training when it matters?

How many times have you invested in training and then six months later didn't see any changes? That's because of the forgetting curve. Yes, training is necessary so that they know what to do but just as necessary is coaching so that they can practice actually doing it in a real world situation without the risk, and shift their mindset to do the things that maybe they might not be comfortable with.

The bottom line is your team's ability to improve depends on your training and coaching effectiveness, and your commitment as an organization to make changes.

But here comes the real question. What's the ROI? Because when you're trying to decide whether or not to keep someone or invest, or make the decision to cut your losses, that's the thing you need to know.

Data analysis of over 1.8 million sales professionals after a year of coaching and training show that they averaged an increase of 18% in their abilities. But does an increase in abilities guarantee an increase in revenue? It kind of does.

Let's say for example, that you see a 10% improvement in the abilities of your team and that leads to a 2% increase in close rates. How much more revenue would a 2% increase in your close rates mean for you? 25%? 35%? Is that worth it?

Okay, well then let's balance that out against the cost of a failed sales hire. When you consider that cost being advertising, hiring, onboarding, training, the loss of expected revenue, it can easily cause you two to three times their base salary to replace them. Now is it worth it?

Take the next step

There is a process that you can use to objectively and scientifically evaluate the answer to that question. Click here to see how your team compares to your competition and maybe where you can improve.