Is it the rep, or the territory?

New managers usually start with "what's wrong with these reps?" Start with "what exactly did I inherit?" instead, and go down the list below in order.

TERRITORY: Could a good rep make this number here? Account quality, installed base, the quota, the comp plan, the competitive situation, who has had the territory before. If three people failed in the same territory, start with the territory. If the answer here is no, nothing you do with the rep is going to matter. CUSTOMERS: Do customers choose them? Forget meeting count. Five real customer conversations beat fifteen calendar entries. The weird rep who skips internal meetings but has customers calling her may be doing more selling than the polished one with perfect CRM hygiene. PIPELINE: What exists because they're here? Separate inherited and renewal business from what they created. Ask where the pipeline came from, how old it is, whether it's moving, and what customer evidence makes it real. A seller can look fine today and leave nothing behind for next year.

CRAFT: Can they sell? Prospect, discover, understand the customer, qualify, get to power, create urgency, get through procurement, close. This is the split between can't do it and isn't doing it. One you coach. The other you manage.

WILL: Are they still trying to win? Energy, ownership, follow-through, coachability. A rep who has decided the year is over stops doing the things that would have saved it. Usually the activity drops first, and the pipeline follows.

Good rep, bad situation. Fix the situation: the territory, the number, or the plan.

Good rep, skill gap. Coach them. Name the skill and work it, one deal at a time.

Capable rep, effort gap. Manage them. Expectations in writing, with dates.

Wrong rep, reasonable situation. Start the process. If they're the wrong rep, six more months won't fix it.

They're fine. Leave them alone. Don't invent a management problem because they don't love one-on-ones. Figure out what visibility you need and let them sell.

The point is to avoid six months of coaching a territory problem, or six months of blaming a territory because you don't want to deal with a rep problem. Figure out which one you've got.

Don't decide who's good and who's bad in your first few weeks. Sit with each rep and go through five real deals, and listen to how they talk about the customer. You can run each one through Deal Check while you're at it.

Same rep, different room. In calibration you propose, the room probes, and the rating moves if you can't hold it. The managers across the table haven't seen your rep's year, so all they can test is your case. Adjectives get picked apart. Receipts survive.

RECEIPTS: Can you name three things they delivered this year, each with a number on it?

If you can't, the room hears "had a good year," and that loses to anyone who brought a spreadsheet. Before the room: Write the three, each with its number, before you write anything else.

OWNERSHIP: For the biggest one, can you say what wouldn't have happened without them?

The first question in any room is how much of the outcome belongs to them, and how much to the team, the partner or the market. Before the room: Write one sentence that starts "Without them, ..."

SCOPE: Can you explain why that was work at their level, not strong execution a level down?

"Strong execution" is how a room politely says no to a promotion case. Before the room: Write what made it their-level work: the teams they moved, the ambiguity, the missing playbook, the decision nobody else would make.

HOW: For every leadership principle you'll cite, do you have one specific example?

The room is going to ask for the example. Two principles you can back beat six adjectives. Before the room: Cut every principle you can't attach an example to.

NEXT: Can you name the harder thing you'd hand them next year, and why?

"Future VP" won't get you far. Potential is evidence, not a feeling. Before the room: Name next year's harder assignment and what they've already done that says they can carry it.

Then check yourself before the room does. How much of your judgment comes from the last sixty days? Would you say the same thing if they weren't in your meetings every week? Take away their biggest win, then their worst month, and see if the year still reads the same. Are you judging impact, or whether they communicate the way you do? And if a reorg, a manager change or a territory change got in their way, say it before somebody else does.

Have Mark play the calibration room

This used to be Talent Review Check (OLR prep). Old links land here.