The Whipcracker
Tyler Winkler SECUREWORKS, Atlanta
By Betsy Cummings

(FORTUNE Small Business) – Two years ago Tyler Winkler, the new senior vice president of sales and business development for SecureWorks, greeted his sales team with this threat: "Make your numbers in three months or you're out."

That left the crew trembling. The Atlanta company, which sells software to stop hackers from breaching computer systems at banks, health-care firms, and utilities, had seen three CEOs come and go in as many years. The staff was demoralized. "I think everyone was scared out of their minds," says Jon Hilfiger, 28, a senior account executive.

Winkler, 38, motivated his team by unorthodox means. He publicly posted performance numbers for each of his salespeople, criticized them in front of the entire group, or demanded to know, when numbers dipped, if his team needed to go back to the basics of sales. "I don't think it's appropriate to be buddies with the salespeople," Winkler says with typical certainty. "I don't want them to think it's okay if they mess up because we're going to have a beer later."

Given Winkler's militancy, it's surprising that his salespeople have become a legion of loyalists. But they insist that they are better sellers because of him, and hard data back them up. Since his arrival the number of clients at SecureWorks has grown from 100 to 800. The sales team that Winkler initially whittled from six members to three has grown to 30. New orders at the now profitable company are growing at 200% to 300% a year, and the company says sales will hit $20 million for 2004, up from less than $1 million only three years ago.

Winkler didn't qualify for our Best Bosses competition. Unlike our winners, he's a manager, not an entrepreneur. And his hard-line tactics fly in the face of many of our Best Bosses' leadership strategies. Yet new research suggests that techniques like his may be particularly motivating to salespeople who are paid on commission. Researchers at Rice University and the University of Maryland found that a company's market performance influences employee attitudes more than squishy motivational tactics like employee empowerment, particularly if it boosts paychecks. At SecureWorks, sales-people definitely earn more than before. "They have commission checks in a month today that are bigger than what they used to make annually," says CEO Mike Cote.

Before Winkler arrived in 2002, SecureWorks was a weak regional player. Cote, its fourth CEO, recruited Winkler from his job as vice president of sales at SafeNet, a manufacturer of hardware and software for corporate network security in Belcamp, Md. At the time, SecureWorks was hemorrhaging $800,000 a month on only $1 million in sales. Winkler says he was "shocked" at the lack of accountability and sales processes in place. But he was drawn to the challenge of helping a small business grow, and a challenge it was. One woman at SecureWorks brought in $5,000 in sales per month, despite a quota of $50,000. "She was gone that afternoon," he says.

If that axing didn't send a message, then Winkler's actions over the next six months did. Every day the sales team met at 7 A.M. for two hours of training that involved role playing, sales strategies, and videotaping of mock sales calls. "I'd take notes on what someone did well and the stuff he needed to work on and go over it with him in front of the entire group," recalls Winkler. He told his salespeople they should start work at 7 A.M. rather than 9 A.M. and stay long past 7 P.M. Sales is a numbers game, Winkler says. The more pitches salespeople make, the more deals they'll close.

Winkler's relentless feedback didn't stop when the meetings adjourned. Don Sumner, 38, an account executive, says Winkler has handed him a three-page performance analysis more than once, after overhearing one of Sumner's phone pitches. "Dealing with someone who can be such an S.O.B. has made me more thick-skinned," says Sumner.

Winkler's approach is not for everyone. Tough love seems to work best for salespeople whose performance can be clearly measured. For others, workplace bullying can backfire. Glenn Stutzky, a clinical instructor at the school of social work at Michigan State University, says such tactics can cause in some people debilitating fear. Indeed, once a person experiences bullying or public humiliation in the workplace, there's a 70% chance he will end up leaving his job, says Gary Namie, Ph.D., director of the Workplace Bullying and Trauma Institute in Bellingham, Wash.

That said, Winkler not only has gotten results but has also won plenty of converts in salespeople such as senior account executive Mike Bayhi, 31, who now makes three to four times the annual salary he earned pre-Winkler. "I'm frustrated with him at least twice a week," Bayhi says. But in the same breath he adds, If Winkler left for another company, "I would go with him. Absolutely."