Sales Manager PIP — job-description-based Template

Most generic PIP templates ask the manager to invent everything: the concerns, the goals, the standards, the support plan. That invitation to invent is exactly where PIPs go wrong — the rationale ends up subjective, the goals aren't legally defensible, and the employee can plausibly argue the bar was set up to be unreachable. This template inverts the pattern. Every performance concern and every SMART improvement goal is anchored to a named essential function of the sales manager job description (team quota attainment, % of team hitting plan, ramp time for new hires, attrition, forecast accuracy). The manager edits to fit the specific employee; the structural defensibility is already there. Manager PIPs are unusual because the concerns are about leadership outcomes (team performance, accurate forecasts) rather than individual production. The template scaffolds 1:1 quality, pipeline-review rigor, and forecast-accuracy reviews as the support plan. Includes the EEO-defensible job-description-driven framework, at-will preservation, ADA reasonable-accommodation invitation, FMLA carve-out, receipt-not-agreement acknowledgment block, and a built-in disclaimer + limitation-of-liability page.