3 Ways to Stop Sales Turnover Bleeding
Turnover. Employee churn. Mass Exodus. No matter how you phrase it, the idea of needing to regularly replenish your sales staff with new talent is probably something that haunts your nightmares.
After all, high employee turnover is always bad news. Especially when your sales staff is involved.
Sales staff turnover doesn’t just cause you to lose money due to the costs of searching for new talent and onboarding a new salesperson. Employee turnover can cause you to lose sales opportunities, lose credibility with other employees, and even cause you to lose some of your existing customers.
Ouch.
So how do you kick this company-killer to the curb? How do you keep your best salespeople from quitting?
I’ve got a few ideas from my years of experience in the field—and hopefully, they’ll help you get your sales staff retention back on track.
Tip #1: Provide Both Corporate & Individual Growth
Talented salespeople are inherently competitive. It’s a part of who they are, and it’s what drives them to exceed quotas and deliver stellar results for your company.
This competitive nature also means that your sales employees are constantly looking for growth opportunities—both in their job and in their individual capabilities.
Because of this, providing solid growth opportunities for your sales employees is an absolute must. Do you know what their long-term career goals are? Are you providing training so they can improve valuable skills?
If you want to keep top talent around, providing opportunities for advancement within your company and enabling other types of professional and personal growth are one of your best options for keeping employees engaged and loyal to your cause.
Tip #2: Deliver on Something That Actually Matters
Top sales professionals want to work for more than just a paycheck. They want to make an impact.
For some individuals (especially Millennials), this means that the product or service they’re selling actually makes a difference—it helps other companies accomplish their goals or the company has some other positive impact on the world at large. For others, the primary drive comes from knowing they’re able to have a meaningful influence on the success of your company.
When your sales team feels like they’re working on something that actually matters, they’ll be far more motivated to do their best work, even when things get difficult.
It might be worth asking yourself: how does my company provide meaning to the community as a whole? Do my sales employees feel like they’re making a difference?
Adjusting your managerial style and company standards to ensure positive responses to these questions can have a huge impact on slashing your employee turnover rates for good.
Tip #3: Care for Your Employees — They Deserve It!
Caring for your sales employees means much more than simply providing a competitive compensation package. It means that making your sales team feel valued and appreciated is an integral part of your company culture.
Yes, benefits and compensation packages are important. But many professionals now view company culture as being even more important than salary. They want to work in a positive team environment. They want to feel respected.
At the end of the day, one of the best things you can do to fight sales staff turnover is to genuinely care for your employees. Offer real praise. Be a coach, not a critic. Help remove their roadblocks to sales success.
When you demonstrate real care for your sales employees, they’ll feel like part of the team, which helps them be better motivated for challenging tasks. They’ll be happy at work—and you’ll have created a quality culture that nurtures their success.
Conclusion
When you follow these guidelines, you’ll be much better equipped to keep your employees happy and ensure that they stick around for the long haul.
But enough from me. What steps have you taken to kick sales staff turnover to the curb? Any tips that I might have missed?
Be sure to let me know about your knowledge and experiences in the comments below. I look forward to seeing what you have to say!
