failing salesperson

How quickly can you determine why a salesperson is failing? 

Dinger loves to play catch with his ball.  He has seven of them but loves his white ball the most.  When we’re out playing catch and I point to a ball and say, “there it is” or “right there” or “get it” he just can’t seem to find it!  Dinger has good listening skills but his ability to see the obvious isn’t very good.

Such was the case earlier this week when a surprised client wanted an explanation for why one of their salespeople, who does not perform very well, scored well on his evaluation.  “How can someone who is not my top performer score better than someone who is my top performer?”

That sounded like a challenge so I said, “Let’s go!”