According to LinkedIn, the average turnover rate for a B2B salesperson in the U.S. is around 35%. This kind of turnover is extremely costly for any company, especially if they lose top performers to poaching competitors. So, in such a tumultuous job market, what can your company do to increase retention and keep your salesforce strong?
As one of Selling Power’s 50 Best Companies to Sell For and a company with a statistically high retention rate, we’d like to share what we think are the top 4 things salespeople are looking for in a company.
Pay and benefits are at the top of the list for the reasons salespeople quit their jobs. According to an article published by LinkedIn, 89% of salespeople leave sales organizations due to inadequate compensation. Compensation issues arise from a variety of areas, including:
If a company is not compensating top performers with a competitive pay and benefits structure, it risks losing top-performing salespeople to the competition. Therefore, it’s vital for sales leaders to show flexibility and willingness to address employee concerns, which requires listening to employees and the occasional matching of a competitive offer.
Another reason why salespeople may be unhappy is because their company fosters a toxic sales culture. This could mean that salespeople are experiencing unrealistic quotas, lack of recognition, no path for upward mobility, or just unsupportive sales leadership in general.
A great sales culture requires leadership that understands how to bring a team together and celebrate individual successes. Additionally, the sales culture needs an appealing sales strategy to rally the sales force around.
At Proliant, the basis of our thriving sales culture is authenticity, and this carries over to a successful sales strategy. Our sales team pushes one another to learn more about the industry and to sell... sell...sell! But we also instill a sense of family, so we all get to know each other very well and encourage each other to succeed. It’s all about a balance between good-spirited competition and support.
Salespeople also often express dissatisfaction with their work if they have a negative onboarding experience.
Onboarding should be an immersive experience, including HR resources to review benefits and overall company culture. At Proliant, we start the process with our sales leaders guiding new hires through the various tools and resources we offer. From there, we provide hands-on training by sales leaders with years of real-world experience.
Initial training focuses on our proprietary sales methodology and real-life context. We’ve found that offering a bit of flexibility and embedding great habits ensures success for everyone. Also, follow-up training is critical for salespeople to feel as if they are growing in their roles while also supplementing core training from their initial onboarding.
Many salespeople experience inadequate training and coaching, which leads to difficulty fulfilling expectations for the company and individual goals. Ongoing training is vital for sales professionals to grow in their roles and to show that leadership is invested in their success.
At Proliant, we focus our ongoing training efforts for our sales teams on the development and maintenance of solid meeting generation skills, roundtable progress discussion, and weekly training with rotating topics. Each individual is encouraged to lead discussions and share where they have found success in their areas. We believe our ongoing training is successful because we enable individuals to show their expertise while also providing opportunities to learn from experienced leadership. Each team member has a connection with sales leaders and their own voice. Wins are celebrated and used to shine a light on possible improvements that could universally benefit the team, and losses are treated similarly.
Proliant has been listed on Selling Power’s 50 Best Companies to Sell For, and we have low turnover with high Glassdoor reviews because we focus on success and growth for each person on our sales team. We believe that focusing on the individual is vital to an excellent sales strategy, but it’s also an excellent recruitment ethos. We understand the importance of empathy and flexibility as new challenges arise, but most importantly, showing appreciation and celebrating success. The elements mentioned in this blog are essential for attracting sales talent, but they all boil down to one thing: listening to your people.
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