This story appears in my book, The Sales Leader’s Playbook:
I remember one young lady in a sales position who really did not like sales, which is probably why she had not obtained quota the previous six months. She did not enjoy prospecting and found that, regardless of the reports the previous manager had her complete, she very rarely prospected. She also did not deal with rejection well.
When I asked her if she would be willing to practice twice a week on role-playing prospecting and sales presentations, she said, “I would, but I would not like it. I don’t think it would help me anyway.” I appreciated her honesty, which just confirmed what I was going to do next. When I asked her how she liked her job, she responded that she liked the company, but did not like the feeling that she was going to get fired any day due to her performance. Based on my known history of turning over non-performers, her feelings were not unfounded. However, I thought she was a good employee doing the wrong job. Instead, I told her that I wanted to place her in a position she could succeed in and not have to feel like a failure everyday.
So, I moved her to customer service. It paid less money, but she enjoyed doing customer service, and she was good at it. Initially, she was very upset and disappointed because she felt like she was demoted. In truth, I did not demote her although she did take a pay cut. Instead, I took her from a position she was failing in and moved her to a position that she enjoyed, which matched her attributes and skill set, to ensure her success.
Six months later during a one-on-one meeting, she told me that although she was initially hurt and disappointed when I moved her to the customer service position, she was happier than she had ever been and enjoyed coming to work everyday!
