As we approach the halfway point of the financial year, the pressure on revenue targets intensifies. You look at your sales figures, then at your team, and a difficult question begins to form: “Do I have the right people on the bus?”
This is the “Train or Replace” dilemma. It is perhaps the single most expensive and emotionally taxing decision a CEO or Sales Director faces. The stakes are incredibly high.
If you fire a salesperson who just needed better support or skills training, you lose months of intellectual property, incur significant sales recruitment costs, and leave a territory vacant. Conversely, if you keep a salesperson who lacks the fundamental DNA to succeed, you lose another six months of revenue opportunity and risk damaging your brand reputation.
Most leaders make this decision based on “gut feeling” or recent activity levels. This is a mistake. To fix underperformance, you need to stop guessing and start measuring. You need a forensic approach to diagnose whether the issue is a fixable skill gap or a fatal mindset gap.
The High Cost of Subjectivity
Why do so many organisations get the “Train or Replace” decision wrong? Because they conflate “activity” with “potential,” or “likability” with “competency.”
A salesperson who is hardworking and culturally aligned but consistently misses targets is often kept on too long because “they are trying.” A salesperson who is abrasive but hits their number is often kept despite the toxic impact on the culture. Both scenarios are failures of leadership.
To make an objective decision, you need objective data. You need to strip away the emotion and conduct a sales team assessment. An assessment provides the “MRI scan” of your sales function, allowing you to see beneath the surface behaviour to the underlying drivers of performance.
The Diagnostic Framework: Capability vs. DNA
A CV tells you what a salesperson has done in the past. An interview tells you how well they sell themselves. But only a robust sales team assessment tells you what they can do in your specific environment.
To solve the “Train or Replace” puzzle, you must measure two distinct areas of performance.
1. Sales Skills (The “Can”)
This measures technical competency. Does the salesperson understand the mechanics of the role?
- Hunting: Can they prospect effectively?
- Consultative Selling: Can they diagnose client needs?
- Closing: Do they know how to ask for the business?
- Negotiation: Can they protect margin?
2. Sales DNA (The “Will”)
This measures the internal operating system of the salesperson. These are often hidden weaknesses that neutralise their skills.
- Need for Approval: Does their need to be liked prevent them from asking tough questions or challenging a prospect?
- Resilience: How do they recover from rejection?
- Supportive Beliefs: Do they believe “price is the only thing that matters,” or do they believe in value?
Once you have this data, your underperforming team members will generally fall into one of two clear buckets.
Scenario A: The Gap is Skill (The Solution is Investment)
If your sales team assessment reveals that a rep has strong Sales DNA (they are resilient, ambitious, and take responsibility) but scores low on technical competencies like negotiation or consultative selling, you have a huge opportunity.
This person is a “diamond in the rough.” They have the engine to succeed but lack the navigation system. In this scenario, replacing them would be a strategic error. The root cause of their underperformance is likely a lack of development.
The solution here is targeted investment.
The Intervention: Sales Training and Coaching
You need to implement a structured curriculum to fill the specific skill gaps identified in the data.
- Targeted Sales Training: Generic training won’t work. If the data says they struggle with “Closing,” send them to specific closing workshops. For many of our clients, we find that immersive, face-to-face sales training in Brisbane is the most effective way to build these foundational skills rapidly.
- Ongoing Sales Coaching: Training is an event; coaching is a process. To ensure the new skills stick, your sales leadership must provide weekly coaching. This is where you reinforce the sales training concepts, role-play live deals, and ensure the “knowledge” becomes “action.”
When you apply professional sales training to a high-DNA salesperson, the ROI is often 10x higher than recruiting a new starter, and the results are faster.
Scenario B: The Gap is Mindset (The Solution is Replacement)
This is the harder reality. If the sales assessment reveals that a rep has low ambition, a low “Figure-it-out” factor, or a fatal DNA flaw (such as a crippling fear of rejection), no amount of training will fix the problem.
You cannot train “hunger.” You cannot train someone to not need approval.
In this scenario, investing in more sales training is actually a waste of resources. It is “enabling” the underperformance. You might see a temporary “training bump” in activity, but they will inevitably revert to their baseline because their internal DNA does not support high-performance selling.
The Intervention: Sales Recruitment
The kindest and most strategic move, for both the company and the individual, is to exit them from the role. They are likely in the wrong career or the wrong culture.
You must then begin a sales recruitment process. However, you should use the same assessment benchmarks to ensure you don’t hire the same problem again. By defining the “Ideal Sales DNA” for your role before you interview, you can filter candidates based on their probability of success, not just their interview polish.
The Leadership Challenge: Navigating the Transition
Managing this “Train or Replace” process is incredibly stressful for sales leaders. They are often too emotionally close to their team to be objective, or they fear the short-term revenue dip that comes with a vacancy.
This is where external support becomes vital.
- Executive Coaching helps the Sales Director or CEO navigate the strategic risk of restructuring the team. It provides a sounding board to weigh the short-term pain of sales recruitment against the long-term gain of a high-performance culture.
- Leadership Coaching is critical for the frontline sales managers who must execute these decisions. They need the skills to have the “turnaround” conversation with Scenario A employees and the “exit” conversation with Scenario B employees.
Supporting your leaders with leadership coaching ensures they execute this transition professionally, maintaining culture and morale among the high performers who remain.
Make the Decision Before Q3
We are approaching the critical second half of the financial year. You cannot afford to carry passengers. Every month you delay the “Train or Replace” decision is a month of missed quota that you cannot get back.
Whether the answer is to invest in sales training or to commence sales recruitment, the decision must be made now.
Don’t rely on gut feeling. Use a Sales Team Assessment to identify the root cause of underperformance.
Schedule a confidential consultation with Executive Consulting Group to start your diagnostic process today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate are sales assessments in predicting success?
High-quality sales assessments (specifically those measuring Sales DNA) are predictive. They don’t just measure personality; they measure sales-specific execution. Data shows that candidates recommended by these assessments are significantly more likely to hit quota than those hired based on gut feeling alone.
Can’t I just train a salesperson with “bad” DNA?
It is technically possible, but it takes years, not months. Most businesses do not have the time or margin to act as a therapist. It is far more commercially viable to hire for DNA and train for skill.
We need sales training in Brisbane. Do you deliver this on-site?
Yes. For “Scenario A” employees (High DNA/Low Skill), we offer bespoke, on-site sales training in Brisbane and across Australia. We find that face-to-face workshops combined with virtual reinforcement deliver the best behavioural change.
How long does a sales team assessment take?
The process is fast. The assessment itself takes a salesperson about 45 minutes to complete online. The analysis and debrief with your leadership team can happen within days. You can have the answers you need to make critical personnel decisions in less than a week.
Is it better to promote from within or use sales recruitment?
It depends on the gap. If you need fresh ideas or a specific contact network, sales recruitment is best. If you need to retain culture and have high-potential juniors, promotion is better. However, never promote a top salesperson to manager without assessing their leadership capability first.
What is the difference between sales capability and sales competence?
Sales Capability refers to the potential of the individual (what they could do with the right support). Sales Competence refers to their current demonstrated ability (what they are doing). An assessment reveals the gap between the two.
