Being promoted to regional sales manager at EMC was, to Greg Alexander, a huge honor. But, as he put it, he was "totally unprepared for that promotion." When he joined the organization, he was told sales results were poor, but he welcomed the challenge. If sales results had been terrific, at best maybe he could sustain them. But Alexander figured that his dynamic leadership style and success in sales would inspire and motivate poor performers, so his results would shine.
Within a couple of weeks he was disheartened. He looked for reasons or credible excuses for why his region had performed poorly. “Maybe my predecessor was a terrible leader,” Alexander mused. “Or maybe the recent hurricanes killed sales for a couple of months.” Not so. Others in Sales told him, “You inherited weak people so you’ll have to be a super leader, or maybe you'll have to replace a lot of reps… or both.” Knowing he was expected to dramatically improve sales in his region, Alexander initially faltered.
“I started firing the lowest performers," he said, "but I mis-hired 75% of their replacements. I was a bull in a china shop, working 100 hours per week and getting nowhere. I was on the verge of burnout.”
"The region I inherited was 13th of 15 regions in sales volume. After Topgrading for only a year, we shot up to #1."
- Greg Alexander, Regional Sales Manager, EMC
(Later Founder and Managing Director of Sales Benchmark Index)