Hello M_Catalano:

Excellent advice so far.

We all have talent but we don't always have the talent demanded by the jobs we have.

The salesperson is in the wrong sales job and/or wrong career.

I'm all for coaching, mentoring, and training employees but sooner or later if job performance is still inadequate we need to find another job for the employee.

Is raising awareness of himself enough for him to make the connection between himself and what he needs in order to improve his sales skills? Even if the lightbulb goes on (or someone helps turn it on), he's going to need to want to change and work fairly hard on it. Personality profiles just really don't fit in this solution.

Good discussion.

My take-away on the conversation so far is this:

Individual development requires a balanced approach that includes feedback (about self and performance), skill building, coaching and continuous reinforcement.

It also requires a partnership and commitment from everyone involved...with particular emphasis on the individual's role in taking responsibility for their own progress.

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And finally, one of the outcomes may well be the recognition, on everyones' part, that a satisfactory path forward is not there.

Sometimes it is a task we can't master.
Sometimes it is a task we don't try to master.

And sometimes it is a task we can master, but saps our spirit and energy in doing so.

I hope our discussion starter (M_Catalano)hangs in there with his salesperson long enough to find out.

I think an underlying question is whether or not the talent needed to be good at interpersonal communication is something that can be learned, and if it can, does it ever really fit the bill? Some people want to be ballet dancers, but no matter how hard they train, they just weren't meant to be. If you watch American Idol auditions, that's a PERFECT example of how training doesn't necessarily mean you can really do what you've trained for. People who talk about how they've been training and taking lessons, etc... and they could herd cats with their singing. There are certain things that no matter how hard one wants it, it just aint gonna happen.

This makes me think of the book "Instant Rapport." I can't think of the author right now...