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December 27, 2017
10 Causes of High Sales Rep Turnover
By:
By now you know some of the sales people that won’t be with you next year. But, which of your A-Players are planning to leave after they get their bonus? This post gives you some factors that may predict the loss of reps. Included is a tool that helps pinpoint your root cause of turnover.
$25 Million a year!
Is this a problem to resolve? Think about boosting your company’s bottom line by $10M a year. Here’s a sales rep turnover tool to calculate the impact for your company:
See this aid for determining your mishire cost.
So, what’s the problem?
According to Gallup research, the top five predictors of turnover (in general) are:
These also relate to Sales Rep turnover. Below, I describe three areas commonly causing high turnover.
Poor Hiring
Sales success is 50% talent and 50% performance conditions. Hiring someone with the wrong talent will quickly remove 50% of the equation. Poor hiring could be caused by a bad process or a bad profile (or both). If this cause is suspected, it is often resolved by outsourcing recruiting. That may not be the best option. Dig into these questions to be sure:
Process issues:
Profile issues:
Poor Onboarding
When a candidate is hired, they need to be onboarded to full productivity. The usual goal is to get a Sales Rep to full productivity with a trial by fire approach. This will not develop employee loyalty. Instead, the new hire may be thinking this new company is not as good as they thought. A solid onboarding program can be used during hiring as a way to attract great talent. However, these promises can backfire if the first couple months do not live up to those promises. The onboarding program can be a primary cause of rep turnover.
Insufficient Marketing-Provided Leads
Sales Reps depend on a continual flow of quality leads to work as opportunities. They find leads themselves through prospecting. The Marketing department is also supposed to provide leads. Unfortunately, many marketing organizations confuse demand generation with providing leads. They lack a lead nurturing program. The leads they do provide are not quality. Over time, Sales Reps ignore leads from Marketing because quantity and quality is low. Sales Reps leave when no support for leads comes from Marketing. This is usually coupled with increased quotas year after year. Some questions to determine if this is a root cause:
Call to Action
Click here for a tool that lists 10 potential root causes of high Sales Rep turnover. In reality, it is usually a combination of causes that contribute. But, you need to start somewhere. Get the tool and start looking for the symptoms by asking the questions. Find the cause that is the most likely and start resolving that one first. Then work on the other causes in priority order – the tool helps prioritize them. And then imagine the kudos being thrown your way for saving millions of dollars!
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