Why Salespeople quit?
Why Salespeople Quit?
Over time, the rejection and the pressure to perform can lead to burnout, a common condition that spreads like wildfire if left unchecked.
According to LinkedIn, sales rep turnover is about 34% per year.
Yes, professionals working in sales can make well into the six figures and are among the most popular positions companies seek to fill. But retention tends to be low with the pressure to meet numbers, lack of adequate training, and inevitable rejection.
71% of companies take six months or longer to onboard new sales reps, and at a third of all companies, it takes nine months or more. And there is a minimum 20% annual turnover in Sales and it's up to 34% if you include both voluntary + involuntary according to Bridge Group research.
What's happening here?
“A modest amount of turnover is reasonable, expected, and can be healthy”
A modest amount of turnover is reasonable, expected, and can be healthy. Every company has poor performers, and it's a good idea to bring new people with fresh ideas, different perspectives, capabilities, and attitude that prevents stagnation. Turnover rates near 35% can be expensive, requiring the costs of wasted training and investment and acquiring a replacement.
Here are the top four reasons why salespeople quit and what to do about them:
1. Salespeople don't have coaches and mentors.
New salespeople, and especially millennials, need influential coaches and mentors to find long-term success. When they're left on their own without adequate support, they're likely to hit a roadblock after a period of initial success.
Sales leaders spend only 20% of their time helping their team close deals. If your sales leaders are "too busy" to help, nobody wins. Make supporting your team a top priority. Give them best practices, be available for questions, ask how things are going, and offer advice. Set up a mentorship program, pairing veteran sellers with recruits. The initial time investment will motivate and inspire newer reps to commit and persevere, even through the rough patches.
According to the Deloitte and CEB studies above, millennials cite a lack of professional development, coaching, and mentorship as top reasons why they transition out of companies.
Retention requires continuous feedback so they can have insights, and an Individual Development Plan (career path with a clear skills-building plan) so they can aspire.
“Millennials cite a lack of professional development, coaching, and mentorship as top reasons why they transition out of companies.”
2. Salespeople Don't Have The Latest Sales Tools.
Young salespeople are typically tech-savvy and eager to embrace modern sales technology. When they don't have the latest tools and advanced platforms, that can hurt morale and impede productivity.
Many salespeople - particularly younger ones - conduct business on mobile devices, but it can be impossible to access the content they need to close deals on their smartphone or tablet. In fact, according to a CSO Insights survey, 88% of sales professionals are unable to find or bring up critical sales material on their smartphones, and 60% of sales organizations report a longer sales cycle due to a lack of proper tools. This hurts the sales professional's long-term productivity and success. Companies that want to set their sales team up for success should move away from general-purpose tools and invest in more modern sales-specific tools and platforms.
That's where a modern CRM comes in. It lets teams shorten the sales cycle by bringing every touchpoint into one place. That visibility enables a data-driven approach, with easy-to-read analytics that reveals what works and what doesn't.
But also Sales enablement and engagement platform that helps companies to offer content to support the sales process (a video, a whitepaper) and then track which content is consumed: how and when, with real-time viewing stats and alerts so the salespeople can connect with the prospect as they are in the process of consuming the content. This dramatically increases the quality of engagement.
In sales, every minute counts, so increasing efficiency or shaving even a few moments off a task is key to your salespeople feeling like they have the support and tools necessary to perform. If your salespeople don't have the right tools to do their jobs or streamline their non-selling tasks, it can be an early indicator that burnout is inevitable.
It's tempting to try to cut costs here but don't. Automating, as many of your salespeople's processes as possible, will ensure that they meet deadlines, follow up with every lead appropriately, and close more deals in a shorter amount of time.
“If your salespeople don’t have the right tools to do their jobs or streamline their non-selling tasks, it can be an early indicator that burnout is inevitable.”
3. Salespeople don't understand that data and insights are their secret weapons.
Salespeople need to embrace advanced analytics that can give them an edge.
Today, there are more people involved in the buying process than in the past. Buyers are typically more sophisticated since they can conduct research online before they ever respond to an offer. According to a study from CEB, the average B2B buyer is at least 57% through a purchase decision before ever connecting with a salesperson. This means sellers need to engage with prospects very differently - selling in a way that maps to the buyer's journey and expectations. Give young sellers data that help them identify, target, and interact with the right context at the right time. Sales Engagement Platforms allow sellers to track genuine customer interactions across channels, giving them the insights they need to accelerate sales cycles.
A data-driven sales team can save your organization time, energy, and money - resources that your company likely doesn't have to waste. Data in sales can also align your sales team and streamline your sales process to maximize revenue and business impact.
“Data in sales can also align your sales team and streamline your sales process to maximize revenue and business impact.”
4. Salespeople don't have a playbook.
Salespeople need to ramp up rapidly and have a clear playbook to navigate prospects and the selling process. Our clients find that the critical components to a sales playbook are:
Buyer personas
These are the generally three to six profiles of prospects your company sells to. Included should be their customer journey, meta program profile, and safety/belonging/mattering trigger.
Sample messages for each persona
Providing sample email messages and scripts for outreach, follow up, nurturing, and revival is the key. When a salesperson sees how to communicate with a particular persona most effectively, they can edit and send the message. This saves them hours each week and keeps them focused on what they do best: prospect, nurture, and close. LinkedIn, for example, has a Perfect Pitch Library, a library of videos of actual prospect interactions from a video call.
Tools and resources per sales stage
New salespeople need to have quick and precise access to tools and resources (such as content) to move prospects through the sales process swiftly. Guiding the sales process with content helps both newer and experienced reps reduce the sales cycle based on their top reps' best practices.
Industry fluency
Millennials struggle to understand the industry that the prospect works. For example, if selling into financial services and having no background there, have industry executive summaries, critical pains in the industry, key trends and buzzwords, internal case studies, and use cases. This helps the prospect have the experience of "same as" and supports the salesperson to build both rapid rapport and to do reference selling to get fast credibility with the prospect. Also, it's vital to note that inside selling and field selling are converging. Insiders are now expecting to get out into the field, and field reps are doing more video conferences and "inside" work than ever before. Both need to learn new tools and techniques.
“The critical components to a sales playbook are: Buyer Personas, Sample messages for each persona, Tools & resources per sales stage.”
Conclusion
Taking appropriate, timely actions and acknowledging external market changes that may affect your company growth and product competitiveness is essential. Employees need to work for a leadership that is transparent and supportive. Your salespeople will support you in good and bad times as long as you are honest, straightforward, and treat everyone with respect and integrity. Good leaders influence controllable turnover by doing everything possible to retain top performers and anyone with high potential.
Turnover is primarily due to the incompetence of sales leadership and poor company decisions. Any organization that value human dignity, respect its employee, and treat them right will experience excellent talent retention and favorable market reputation.
How is your sales force doing?
“Any organization that value human dignity, respect its employee, and treat them right will experience excellent talent retention and favorable market reputation.”
