The Essential Key to Reducing Sales Team Turnover

Not only does it mean that you’re continually trying to fill gaps and stretch your existing team over a larger area, but it is also a constant distraction for management. Instead of focusing on expansion and growth and brainstorming new ways to reach customers, sales leaders are left playing defense, always concerned about the possibility of losing crucial team members at the worst possible time.

It’s no secret that turnover is a major problem in the world of sales, and there is no shortage of advice on how best to deal with it. But in order to find lasting solutions to the turnover problem, you need to understand its root causes. Only then can you develop the kind of long-term strategy that will allow you to grow a reliable team.

Why Do They Leave?

The problem of turnover is not new, but it is getting worse. The Millennials are now the largest generation, and they came of age during a very different economy than their predecessors. Millennials entered the workforce during the Great Recession, and the gig economy it gave rise to and tend to view jobs in a more short-term light.

But turnover is not just a product of changing attitudes toward work. It has also been incentivized by businesses that don’t take the time to identify and nurture talent. High turnover rates are the logical endpoint of a world where labor is seen as being disposable.

For example, some of the biggest factors driving turnover are actually on the management side:

• Poor hiring choices
• Insufficient training
• Insufficient compensation
• Lack of personal investment
• No clear path for career advancement

You may not be able to change how younger workers think about their jobs, but addressing these problems can create concrete incentives for Millennials salespeople to stick around.

How to Get them to Stay

If this is the case, how can sales personnel be incentivized to commit to a single company for the long term? While every business should take steps to build up loyalty and give employees reason to feel they have skin in the game, the essential key to reducing turnover is transforming the way you hire.

Low-level sales positions are often posted on online job boards and popular forum sites. These ads inevitably attract individuals without much experience who may simply be looking for a way to pay rent. If they are unable to prove their worth within a few weeks, they are let go, and a new crop of unskilled workers are hired.

While talented salespeople can come up through this system, it is far more efficient to get help hiring the best candidate by working with sales recruiters who have large networks of sales professionals with proven track records and deep knowledge of the industries they work in.

Sales recruitment agencies understand that successful salespeople have the right mix of personality qualities, soft skills, and hard-won experience, and can help you hire on a team of individuals who, having already cut their teeth, will be able to start putting numbers up from day one.

When you work with sales recruiters, you don’t need to stress about leaving positions empty for long periods of time while you look for the perfect candidate: because they keep extensive databases with contact information for tens of thousands of sales representatives who have been screened, they can quickly help you fill positions with qualified individuals.

High turnover rates are expensive, demoralizing, and can make it hard for you to get the most out of your existing sales team. The good news is that if you are serious about reducing turnover, there are concrete steps you can take to build a more loyal sales force and reduce your reliance on low-quality, high-turnover applicants.

Working with a recruitment agency that specializes in sales is the best way to make a difference in your turnover rates immediately, so if you’re tired of scrambling to fill sales positions every quarter, find a recruiter in your area today.