Rich Delaney & I are offering a Webinar on October 10th on best sales management techniques entitled Top Sales Management Blunders (And How to Recover!).  One part that I had included in the Webinar but had to eliminate due to time constraints had to do with the mistakes managers make when giving employee appraisals.

Some managers wait until appraisal time to ‘spring’ items on the unsuspecting sales rep or employee, when an appraisal should simply be placing a period at the end of a sentence.  If you find your employees dread appraisals because they never know what you might say, you’re not alone.  Here are the Top 5 Mistakes a manager can make when appraising the individual sales person: 

Mistake #1: Waiting For The Performance Appraisal To Give Feedback
This is the biggie, and all too common. It's where a manager fails to give someone adequate feedback on their performance during the year, and then dumps it on them in the performance appraisal meeting.

Unfortunately, the feedback is almost always negative, so the employee ends up sitting there in shock -- at best, wondering why his or her manager didn't say something sooner; at worst, feeling unjustly victimized.

And you have to wonder -- how can a manager expect an employee to do the right things, the right way, if the manager hasn't provided any guidance or feedback all year?

The solution: make it a habit to tell your employees if they've done a good or poor job, and if it's a poor job, explain how they can do things better in the future.

There should be no surprises in the performance appraisal!

Mistake #2: Overemphasizing Recent Performances
It's all too human to remember, and give greater weight, to recent events rather than earlier events. However, this can lead to an inaccurate and unfair assessment when it comes to reviewing an employee's performance.

To avoid overemphasizing an employee's recent work, take note -- and ideally take notes -- of the employee's work throughout the year. We do this at Synthesis by having Monday Morning Sales Meetings where I ask for the same three reports each week:  Prospect List, Sales Funnel and Next Week’s Itinerary.  I keep these on file – 6 weeks at a time, cycling out the oldest but using that time frame to spot any trends or pitfalls.  Our consistency throughout the year lends itself to instant feedback and also allows me to build a history on the sales rep’s performance.

Mistake #3: Being Too Positive Or Negative
Some managers feel uncomfortable giving negative feedback and consequently, can omit to give employees the constructive criticism they need to improve. And then there are other managers who are instinctively too negative, leaving the employee wondering if they can do anything right!

While, as a manager appraising someone's performance you should give your honest opinion, you also want your employee to understand and appreciate what you're saying.

So instead of being too positive or negative -- which can result in the employee not believing what you say -- think about the impact on the employee you want, and communicate your feedback accordingly.

Mistake #4: Being Critical Without Being Constructive
Following up from Mistake #3, some managers can be too critical and neglect to provide any constructive advice on how an employee can improve.

This doesn't help the employee or the manager. Even if your criticisms all have merit, if you don't explain how the employee can improve, he or she is likely to miss the validity of what's being said and simply think he or she is being victimized. Not to mention the fact that his or her performance won't actually improve.

So if you need to be critical, be constructive too!

Mistake #5: Talking Not Listening
The final big mistake that managers make in performance appraisals is doing too much talking and not enough listening.

These meetings are supposed to be interactive -- where the manager doesn't simply relay his or her own appraisal of the employee's performance during the year, but also listens to the employee's viewpoint.

If, for example, you have criticized the individual's performance, it's not only fair, but important, to get the employee's response as to why he or she may have underperformed.

Moreover, a key objective of the performance appraisal is to agree on goals for the following year. How can there be true agreement and commitment to such goals, if you don't learn the employee's point of view?

As you've probably gathered, you can avoid these five mistakes -- it just takes a little effort. It's certainly worth it, if you think employee satisfaction, productivity and performance are important!