Because it takes time and money to get new salespeople up-to-speed and because buyers want stability, most of our clients want their sales force to stay over the long term.
While the desired length of time is unique to each business model, less than twelve months seems universally unacceptable and three-to-ten years of tenure appears to be an attractive range for sales leaders.
It Starts with Hiring Right
If you did your homework as a sales manager and hired well, your new hire will have the right interpersonal, motivational and intellectual competencies to thrive on the job and in your corporate culture. But your job as team leader is not yet over.
Know Why Top Talent Leaves
It is as much your responsibility to keep "A" players on the team and successful as it is to select them in the first place. That means that you have to keep an eye on the top three reasons that most salespeople leave:
- Greater opportunities for advancement, learning, promotion and commissions
- Easier sales situations with more differentiated solutions or in less competitive sales environments
- Better cultural fit regarding how things actually get done in the organization
Make On-Boarding Count
Even though your new hires may be well schooled in complex, solution and value selling, they are not familiar with your organization, with their co-workers, with your products/services, and with your customers. Help ease their transition to their new job by practicing six sales on-boarding tips and identifying the six early warning signs that you need to take action.
Read about the 6 Onboarding Best Practices and Warning Signs
Take New Employee Orientation Health Check
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
One of the most important sales leadership decisions is who to hire and when.
How do you know when to grow, expand, hire, develop or fire? There are so many variables to consider...not least of which is determining what it will take to recoup any investment.
Typically sales managers wait to add a new salesperson until the current level of sales justifies the added expense. Some use a cost-to-sales ratio. Others just wait until they land a big deal to add more headcount. Unfortunately many of these strategies can backfire for different reasons. So how should you determine the best size and configuration of your sales force?
Thankfully, professionals who specialize in sales force effectiveness have come up with 4 proven guidelines to help with this challenging decision.
- Watch for indications that the size of your sales force is skewed, either up or down.
While it may seem obvious, you need to pay attention to early warning signs. Are your salespeople complaining that they don't have enough opportunities? Are they being ignored by their customers? Is too much time spent on non-revenue producing sales activities? And what about your competition...are they downsizing?
These are all clues that you may need to decrease the size of your own sales team.
Conversely, are your salespeople complaining about their travel or workload? Are competitors ramping up their sales teams? Do you hear from customers that they are dissatisfied with their level of service? Are your salespeople only re-actively taking orders with little time to prospect and fill the pipeline with target accounts?
These are signs that your sales team is understaffed.
Read the Remaining 3 Tips For Growing and Shrinking Your Sales Force
About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
