Radio Sales Café

I dont know whether anyone can give me any suggestions of how to deal with an ongoing situation I have with an employee.  This employee has worked for us for around 8 years.  Started as a Part Time Announcer then progressed to our Afternoon Announcer.  I advertised for a Sales Person about 3 years ago and he expressed that he would be interested in selling part time.  He has a Painting Business and a Market Garden that he does before and after his work time here.  My problem is that although he assured us when we employed him as a sales person that his other business would not interfere, it appears it is.  Current situation:  His air shift starts at 2:00pm, he very often arrives either 5 minutes before his airshift so really doesnt have time to do any sales, sometimes comes in at 1:30pm which he thinks if ample time to sell.  He also has not concept of the fact that we should be selling in advance and not right up to the day the commercial should run!!!! Therefore giving very little time to write good copy that the client deserves.  I have now spoke to him on many occasions and have now run out of ideas.  I told him last time that he at least should spend an hour selling on the telephone.  He did it for a couple of days then back to his old ways.  I have a meeting with him this afternoon.  Any suggestions?  I need help please?  I dont want to get too heavy handed as he might leave  on bad terms and then as we are a small town try and influence some clients not to advertise with us as he is friends with them.  No win situation!!!  Thanks really appreciate your input.

You have two choices.... one is to make a list of things and beat him over the head with it. That is fine if you want to kill his moral or fire him. Other than that he will just put his back up. I suggest that there are minimum expectations of any sales employee. This is because of what is needed in terms of consideration to the customer as well as consideration to Traffic, Production and of course "the station" for allowing the rep USE of the customer (client list). In our company, our emplo0yee manual addresses this in terms of Paid Time Off, but it is every bit as true for all types of instances that keep sales people from customers: Because of the nature of the sales end of the business, there are certain minimum standards that must be met for customer service and sales. Just getting a signed contract is no guarantee that the minimum service standards for collection and retention of a given account will be met. Therefore, sales people who have used all of their paid time off will be docked for additional days off based upon the following formula: Commission earned in the month where the time was taken off (sales minus collections over 90 days times Commission 20% (charge back)) divided by the number of business days in the month (business days being Monday through Friday). That amount will be deducted from the next paycheck. If it is indeed a small town and he has influence and you are afriad of losing this man, then the power has shifted and you need to get it back. This is not easy, but the way we do this is to make sure we are in constant communication with his customer base. Remember that the accounts belong to the STATIONS and not to the rep. AND if you are basing income on "relationship selling", then when you lose a relationship you lose money. rather, keep him focussed on results selling. The only way I can see this working out for you is if you SET and keep minimum employment standards that are all across the board (all employees) and you enforce them. Other than that you are only talking. Best of luck!

i have managed a state of the art studio in Nairobi for over 8 years and i used to have an engineer who used to behave exactly like that. For sure no one is indispensable! I know you value, this worker but again you can get him or her an able assistant, because from the way you are putting it, he has a painting business , market garden and a presenter so this is a multi-skilled business man.Get a co -presenter. He should be in the studio an hour before going on air and share with you what he intends to air .Its painful and i know it, but you have to be firm and professional. Give some one else a chance.Visit your nearest university and ask for three interns to and out of the three you will get a better employee, and for this one put him in night-shift or consider giving him commission on his work. Also conduct ratings from the audience and for sure they will be low and face him with facts.

Sam, nairobi Kenya

Shelia, years ago I was a racehorse jockey (before I ate my way out of the saddle). One day a horse ran off with me, much to my embarrassment. When I brought him back the trainer gave me some great advice. He said, "Son, you're the boss, not the hoss." If this person will not play by your rules, he is undermining your authority with your whole team and you must do something Some options to consider:
1) pull all sales from him
2) let him keep 2- 3 accounts. If he does what you want with these, then gradually allow him the opportunity to "earn" more accounts.

Make sure you have outlined in exact terms what is expected of this employee. Statements like "you need to spend more time selling" aren't exact and leave room for intrepretation. Exact standards, like "you need to be here 1 hour before your air shift" and "you need to sell x amount of advertisng this month". If you have laid out exact standards and your employee doesn't meet them, he has made his choice. This doesn't have to be confrontational. Every employee needs exact performance guidelines that they are expected to meet. Set goals, set time lines, and set policy. If it is not followed, you have to replace the employee. I wish you luck. I know this can be difficult.

Thanks everyone for your advise. I did have another meeting with this employee and set out what I wanted exactly from him, both sales and on the air. I didn't beat around the bush. So now it is up to him - if he goes back to his usual working habits then it will be bye bye unfortunately. Again thanks everyone.