This week’s SOUNDManagement is a copy of a response to a question I received via email from a station sales manager recently.   

Question

            “I’ve lost my top billing salesman. I’ve dispersed his accounts among the 3 sales people who remain.  I have not found a replacement yet and need to re-do projections for the 2nd quarter and beyond.  If I do not replace this person, or even if I get a new hire within 4-6 weeks, how much of his projected billing can the sales department expect to reach?  75%?  85%?.”

             “A certain line of thought here is that we ought to be able to recover or reach his goals simply by absorbing his accounts and working them, along with working our own lists.  My feeling is that it’s unwise to expect the original stations’ goals to be reached when we’re dealing with one less person on staff.”

Answer

            I’m afraid you might not like my answer. I’ll answer like a station owner.

Unfortunately, staff turn-over is a fact of life we must always be prepared for. We need to always have a recruit in the wings, or better still a "farm team" or raw recruit in training who can fill unexpected vacancies when we realign our accounts.

            Station owners can not afford to loose the race because we blew a cylinder. It’s management’s job to keep us running on all eight cylinders at all times, or to have spare parts on hand.

            In reality, the potential dollars in your market do not change because your internal circumstances changed.

            Winston Churchill probably said it best when he said "Sometimes it’s not enough to do our best, sometimes we must do what is required."

            Even if the existing staff was able to pick up the slack left by the unexpected departure, what about the new business those people won’t be pursuing while they are cherry-picking your entitlement business?

            Sorry, (name withheld), but your owners have made commitments to their employees, to the bank and other creditors based upon your market potential. They rely upon us sales-types to realize that potential no matter what happens. You must put a plan in place to see that the station captures it’s full potential.

P.S. I can tell you that I have consistently been able to replace a senior with two intermediates or three juniors and DOUBLE the productivity of their lists. That’s not because the seniors were doing a poor job, but rather because more feet on the street always  equals more sales.  

P.P.S. Did you conduct an exit interview to uncover what you might be able to do to prevent future desertions?