from a corporate standpoint:
They are making their numbers
They actually are being a TEAM, (you know, the thing that companies waste so much money on building because sales is so competitive?)
The likelihood of either of the company’s top performers is reduced because they depend on each other.
As a manager, I would wonder why she’s not trying to have the other pairs team up in the same way and have the teams be the basis for the competition instead.
Anytime a manager is doing something destructive in order to “help the employee be stronger in X area”, I usually call bullshit. If she’s just concerned about her numbers, let her trade you all the low performers.
Also when I had a job similar to theirs, I had a coworker–on an ENTIRELY SEPARATE TEAM–whom I got along well with and who sat in the next cubicle. We never did it on as consistent a basis as L & G do, but if one of us had a client and thought the other was better suited to closing the deal (which usually meant I had a racist white client or he had a racist black client), we’d swap off. We never bothered splitting bonuses, because, like L & G, we got paid for the balance of what we brought in, not off any individual sale, and we each felt the other was equally likely to do the favor in return. Nobody cared as long as we kept our productivity numbers up.
The setup with our sales teams is that each sales exec has an associate to do their paperwork and such in the office while the exec is out in the field. One of of our execs is having his associate go out and do presentations instead of staying in the office as his job role calls for. They have been the top sales team in the region all year. However, management has found out about their arrangement and is putting a stop to it because they are not each doing the job they are supposed to be doing. It also isn’t fair to the other execs since their territories aren’t close enough to where the associates work for them to use them in the same way.
I realize it’s not exactly the same thing, but that is the perspective I’m coming from.
Coming from the POV of a sales person (not currently on commision, but I have been in the past) I would be annoyed seeing the ‘unfair advantage’ but it’s perfectly legit, based on your summary of it.
Coming from a supervisory POV (which I have been far too much in my life) I think your coworker is an idiot. It’s better for the bottom line for the two of them to work together. If you separate them, you are sure of having two annoyed/disgruntled employees who are not half as good alone as they are together. It is not in the best interest of the company for them to be split at this time. Obviously, in the future, there is a possible issue, but who is to say that the one will still be there when the other retires or that the one won’t retire if the other leaves? In all honesty, I say it’s a great arrangement, and if I were in management there, I would use them as a training tool to get the other sales people teamed up the same way, aces in their places and all that
The line that Galadriel is trying to sell is, basically, that Gimli and Legolas are hindering their own professional development by working together as a team.
Even if we accept this bollocks as valid, this is their professional development she’s talking about. Get their opinion.
Actually, I suspect that all Skald has to do is, next time Galadriel brings this up, blithly suggest all of them have a meeting to discuss it – probably better if you suggest bringing in her immediate superior. She’ll likely backpedal enough if she thinks her conniving might come to light that the issue will drop for a while.
I am a Telemarketer myself so I know full well how important it is to minimize you weaknesses whilst focusing on your strengths. Gimli and Legolas are obviously a formidable team and an asset to your company and if they are separated, chances are that you’ll be stuck with two decent sellers instead.
What would Galadriel know anyway? She was pretty useless in the books.
If I were a manager at your company and the other salespeople came to me with complaints about Legolas and Gimli’s practices, I would respond that perhaps their hypercompetitive type-A asses would be better served finding ways to compensate for their own weaknesses rather than tattling on others for doing their jobs too well. (I’d put it a mite more professionally, of course, but the message would come across.) They’re salespeople. They sell well. As long as they’re abiding by the law, business ethics, and company policy – and it sounds as if they are – then who cares what anyone else has to say about it?
Provided Legolas was my direct report, I’d have a sit-down with him to make sure he understands that Gimli won’t always be there (I suspect he’s aware), and work with him to ensure that he has a plan for his own development that will allow him to survive without his partner when that day comes. Beyond that, I’d leave well enough alone. I can’t say Galadriel’s actions surprise me, though. In my experience, typical corporate management doesn’t just fix what isn’t broken…they go around looking for things that work well, smash them with fucking sledgehammers, take few whacks at the shards with a ball-peen just for good measure, then jump around, point, and yell “LOOKY WHAT I DID!!!”
They then receive large bonuses and expensed vacations. Go team.
They’re doing well together and producing well for the company. I agree, Legolas needs a game plan for when Gimli retires, but Galadriel needs to back off.
Anyone who even thinks of breaking up a sales team that is managing to perform in this economy needs to have their head examined. Tell Galadriel to go fuck herself sideways with a porcupine.
I agree with the consensus here, this is a good arrangement for the company. If Galadriel is the type to be persuaded by popular business books, this type of partnering is advocated by Marcus Buckingham in Now, Discover Your Strengths.
Another point to ponder…the customers are probably used to the status quo. They probably like having a Techno-Wizard and a Friendly Talker Guy available to service their accounts. Change that, and they may perceive that something valuable has been taken from them…and maybe they listen to some Hobbits…or Orcs…to consider alternative suppliers. Unsatisfied customers taking their business elsewhere would make Galadriel [del]look like poo[/del] lose favor with the King.
you’re right. galadriel sounds like she’s never been a real salesperson and is now trying to ‘manage’. sales managers like t is are t e Ballrogs of the sales world.
It’s working well for the company, Legolas is learning from Gimli - not only the technical side but the personal side - and is demonstrating that he knows how to compensate for his weaknesses, so it’s none of Galadriel’s business.
The only major concern here is whether or not your bosses see the metrics generated by these two and consider increasing the expectations for the sales staff across the board.
I used to be part of an Equidemocratic Triangle. Three of us, in theory doing the same job; people were very surprised that none of us was the boss. We had a manager but he was intelligent enough to stay off our backs. Whenever a new task arrived, we distributed it ourselves. One of the criteria for this distribution was who was stronger/weaker at it and how was our workload: if we had a low workload, the new task went to whomever was weakest, tutored by whomever was strongest, as training. If the workload was high (the usual state), it went to the strongest person. Go to a meeting? Rick, as he enjoyed meetings while Dora and me didn’t. Talk with the admins of a legacy system? Dora, as she’d been working with them for over ten years. Translate something to Spanish? Well, gee, the other two didn’t speak Spanish!
Isn’t the whole point of having a team the fact that it gives you the ability to use each person’s strengths? In normal football, the defenders, middles, goalie and forwards all have different skills… isn’t it that way in American football?
Unsurprisingly, I agree with the consensus. I think Galadriel’s too focused on “fairness” and missing the fact that A. it works and B. it doesn’t hurt anyone (since performance pay isn’t relative).
Your best bet might be to point out that it’s entirely fair in that anyone in the sales staff is free to team up - or not - just like these guys are.
