Firing an Underperforming Solar Setter or Closer: What to Check Before You Do

The Tension: Underperforming, or Just Not Ramped Yet

Average sales-rep tenure across all roles is about 18 months, and reps generally do not reach peak performance until 2 to 3 years into a role, according to Xactly’s sales turnover research. That is an uncomfortable number to sit with when a first-year setter is missing targets, because it means a rep cut for underperformance in month eight is, statistically, being judged against a standard they were not yet supposed to have reached (Xactly). The honest first question before any firing conversation is not whether they are hitting the number, it is whether they are hitting the number a rep at their tenure should reasonably be hitting.

What Firing Too Fast, or Too Slow, Costs the Team

Both directions of this decision carry a real, measured cost. A 5-percentage-point increase in sales-rep attrition raises total selling costs by 4 to 6%. A wider swing, from 5% attrition to 25%, is associated with a cost-to-sell increase above 50% and a 20% revenue drop, per Forbes-reported analysis cited by Xactly. Firing a rep who was still inside a normal ramp window throws away the recruiting and onboarding cost already spent and restarts that same clock with a new hire. Keeping a rep who is genuinely, persistently underperforming past their peers does the opposite kind of damage, tying up an appointment slot and a commission structure that could be funding someone who converts it.

What to Check Before You Pull the Trigger

This is a judgment call, not a formula, and no sourced external study prescribes a step-by-step process for a commission-only 1099 sales role the way HR guidance often does for salaried employees. What a sales manager can reasonably check: is this rep’s output being compared against same-tenure peers, not the team average, is the rep getting a fair appointment or lead flow to work, since a setter with an empty calendar is a different problem than one with a full calendar and no bookings, and has the rep received the structured coaching, ride-alongs, and feedback a ramping rep needs, or have they been left to figure it out alone. A rep failing all three checks is a different conversation than one failing only the raw numbers.

The 1099 Status Changes How This Conversation Goes

Setters and closers are typically paid as 1099 independent contractors on a per-watt commission basis, not as W2 employees (Everstage), which changes both the mechanics and the framing of ending the relationship. There is generally no unemployment-insurance claim process the way there would be for a W2 termination, but there is a real, related risk worth naming: a termination process that looks like a company disciplining or managing an employee, rather than simply ending a contractor engagement, can itself become evidence in a worker-classification dispute. How the conversation is documented matters for reasons beyond the immediate decision.

Document It Either Way

Whichever direction the decision goes, write down the specific, tenure-adjusted comparison that drove it, not just the raw miss. A documented record showing a rep was compared fairly against their own ramp stage, given real appointment flow, and given the coaching a ramping rep needs protects the decision if it is ever questioned later, and it is the same discipline that makes the next hire’s onboarding better regardless of how this one ends.

Sources

The external data in this article draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.

• Xactly, sales turnover statistics
• Everstage, solar sales commission structure

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