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December 17, 2014
Sales Turnover: Are You Prepared for When it Happens?
By: Josh Horstmann
The end of the selling year brings turnover. You will have reps and sales managers leave your organization. Some will be voluntary, while others were on a plan and didn’t make it. As you look forward into next year, you need a plan to fill positions. Waiting for the notice is the wrong approach. Our research shows it takes over 60 days from sourcing to have someone start. That does not include training and ramp time. Q1 is here and you are already going to be behind.
Turnover in your team is like death and taxes. It’s going to happen. You need to accept it and plan for it to happen at any time. One way to help soften the blow is to have a virtual bench. A virtual bench is defined as:
A prospect list of potential candidates you haven’t hired, but are actively communicating with.
If you have one in place, great; it’s time to start using it. If not, it’s time to get an alternative plan in place. There is no time to delay. Here are four key success factors to focus on now.
Next Step
Once you have the individual hired, you can turn your attention to onboarding and coaching. That is the next step in the talent process. If you want additional hiring best practices, download our 8th Annual Research Report. This gives additional insight into how to hire, onboard and coach your team.
You will have openings in the next few weeks. Set yourself up for success next year. Plan for it now. Don’t get stuck with a revenue target and no one to assign it to.
Josh specializes in helping clients solve demanding sales and marketing challenges through aligning functional strategies within an organization. He has worked with clients in manufacturing, ecommerce, software, financial services and technology sectors.
Recently he helped transform an international services company ‘go to market’ strategy, which included assessing talent, re-organizing the sales force, increasing team productivity, reducing the cost of sale and aligning the marketing and sales strategies.
Josh continues to provide thought leadership to his clients advising them on how to build inside sales teams, develop compensation programs, share best practices on social selling, transform sales organizations, drive demand generation programs and acquire and cultivate talent. Along with this he helps organizations align functional strategies.
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