In such a competitive market, nobody wants to lose their best seller from the team. A truly great sales person is a rare find, only making up 10-15% of the workforce– so when you have them, it’s important that you hold onto them. Not only can the loss of a sales person cost an organisation when it comes to efficiency, morale and the bottom line, but you’ll also lose an invaluable source of expertise and cause disruption within your team. If that person’s territory goes unattended for too long, you may even miss out on key sales deals and revenue targets.
With the voluntary turnover rate for sales people standing at a relatively high 15%, it’s important that you do all you can to ensure that top talent isn’t bleeding out of your team. After all, given that only 8% of sales people score 80% of sales deals, they’ll be taking a large chunk of business with them when they go.
Here are some tips for preventing that.
Pay the right salaries
Though job satisfaction isn’t all about money, one of the biggest factors that influences whether a sales representative leaves a company is whether they feel that they’re being adequately compensated for their work. Sales people are ambitious and expect to be paid the right amount: if you’re not paying them enough, they may well leave.
To combat this, take a look at your salary and bonus packages. Are they high enough? What about when compared to your competitors? What’s happening in the market? Employee benefits are becoming much more popular: are you keeping up with the latest trends and expectations?
Incentivise and reward well
77% of employees say that they would work harder if they felt better recognised by their employer, whilst 42% consider a rewards and recognition programme to be a major factor when seeking employment. It’s for good reason: working in sales is hard, so recognise their hard work by acknowledging and rewarding it!
Whether it’s by giving awards for top performers or best effort, or by acknowledging the people who have hit their sales targets this month, it pays off a hundredfold in employee satisfaction. Your top sales people are putting in a lot of work and expect recognition for it; acknowledge it, and you’ll help motivate them, as well as the rest of the team. A simple thank you can go a long way!
Offer promotion opportunities
Sales people are inherently ambitious- and top-level sales people are even more so, as they’re at the top of their game and have the drive to succeed. They want more than just a job: they want a career that will allow them to progress onto ever-larger accounts, territories and management opportunities, and our index shows that career progression is the number one reason that sales talent leaves.
With 51% of workers leaving their job due to a better opportunity coming along, it’s important you don’t make the same mistake: you need to help your top sales people advance in their careers- either through internal promotions or allowing them to take on more responsibilities in their current role or you will very likely lose them.
Offer development opportunities
Sales people want to keep learning and improving, and 68% of employees say that training and development is the most important workplace policy to have in place. Organise conferences and training days tailored to your top sales people, take learner needs into consideration, and make workplace training more fun especially as one out of every three employees say that uninspiring training is a barrier to them learning. Investing the time to get it right will result in a more engaged top-level workforce.
Coach your top performers
If they’re not getting coached, then how are your top performers going to feel that they’re getting the time and attention they need to get better at their job and progress to a higher level? 84% of sales training content is lost after 90 days, unless it’s backed up by regular coaching. When you consider that no other productivity investment improves the performance of your sales reps like regular coaching, it seems absurd not to spend time with your top performers to do just that. Listen to their calls, attend meetings with them, and conduct regular feedback sessions so you know where they want to improve and how you can help them do just that.
Make sure they have all the tools they need
Technology is changing rapidly- and making sales people’s jobs ever easier and more efficient as it does. Sales representatives spend an average of 64% of their time on non-sales-related jobs such as administration, so make it as easy for them as possible to do their work efficiently by equipping them with the right tools and training they need to do the job, whether it’s CRM, a company car or video conferencing software.
Source the best talent with BMS Performance
Whether you’re looking to retain your key sales staff or source new star hires, our team of expert recruitment consultants can advise you. Let’s talk about how we can kick-start your sales recruitment process; get in touch with us, or browse our blog for more insights.
