One in four of your sales reps are looking for a new opportunity at this very moment, according to a recent Salesforce study. What would happen if 25% of your sales force departed in the next year?
Obviously, there would be immediate impacts, such as lost opportunities, stalled deals and, depending on where the rep goes, even a lost customer or two.
The costs associated with lost customer revenue, as well as those for hiring, onboarding and training, all add up. Some studies have estimated these costs to be as high as $115,000 per rep!
Why are so many top sales performers planning to leave? If you ask most sales leaders, the initial answer you’ll hear is it’s all about compensation. Surprisingly, however, compensation is not as important as you might think.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) the reason most employees leave is:
- A toxic or hostile work environment (32.4% of employees)
- Poor company leadership (30.4%)
- Dissatisfaction with one’s manager or supervisor (27.7%)
The same study found that compensation is the primary driver of departure only 20.5% of the time.
The main drivers behind top sales performers leaving aren’t a lack of acceptable compensation; they’re invisible engagement gaps that sales managers fail to recognize, often until it’s too late.
Competitive compensation is important, but top sales performers know a good thing when they see it. If their work environment is positive and they receive the support and encouragement they need, it’s not worth a few extra dollars to move to a new company.
Fortunately, there are some simple steps we can take to monitor and increase the retention of our top sales performers.
Sales Team Engagement Gaps to Monitor
In my book, “The Unstoppable Sales Team,” I share several engagement gaps that can exist between top sales performers and leadership and shared methods to recognize and address them. Here are the three most important for you to embrace.
Avoid Commission Cynicism – Under constant pressure themselves, most sales managers have this misguided belief that commission, viewed as a bonus over and above regular compensation, is a sufficient reward to retain top sales performers. The idea that today’s top sales performers are purely money-motivated is misguided and outdated. Sellers, like most other employees, view autonomy in their day, meaningful professional development, being included in strategic decisions, and having a clear career path as far more valued today than just commission.
Release the Pressure Cooker – Selling in today’s market is stressful and requires significant effort, creativity and the ability to accept rejection consistently. Don’t think for one minute that the pressure you place on your top performers to consistently deliver results each month doesn’t impact their engagement. Instead, demonstrate understanding and trust in their judgement. Recognize that having a slow month for a top sales performer is punishment enough – they don’t need additional pressure from their manager.
Increase One-to-One Conversations – Sales leaders often spend their time holding weekly and monthly meetings with the sales team to review progress, opportunities and closed deals. Today’s sales professionals need one-on-one time, with attention to their specific needs, to maintain their engagement. There are three areas you should include in these conversations:
- Career Trajectory: What are the individual’s development opportunities, and how will they help them progress in their skills and career?
- Work-Life Check-in: How are they managing the workload? Where do they struggle, and what support can you provide?
- Recognition and Contribution: Showing individual as well as group appreciation and recognition for not only sales wins, but individual wins and contributions to the team.
Here’s something else you might consider: It’s possible your top sales performers might leave because of you.
If you want to protect your team and ensure you retain A-players, you need to be brutally honest with yourself. Use the following questions to reflect upon how you might improve your leadership:
Sales Leader Engagement Assessment:
- Are you contributing to the betterment of each person on your sales team?
- Do you provide regular feedback and coaching to help develop team members?
- When organizational chaos ensues, do you shield your sales team?
- Do you give all the credit for wins to your sales team (or blame individuals)?
If you answer “no” to any of these four questions, then you have some work to do.
Remember, as a sales leader, you are only as good as your team, and everyone on your team wants (and needs) your support to be successful.
In the next two months, each of your A-players will likely receive a call or email from a recruiter. Will the opportunity that recruiter shares be more or less appealing than what they have today? (Remember, recruiters and those attempting to hire away your A-players are trying to make a sale.)
Give yourself some reassurance and make it easy for your team to say no by using the steps above to address hidden engagement gaps. Your team, specifically you’re A-players, will thank you for it.
