How to Stop Other Companies From Stealing Your Best Salespeople
Hello, people. Welcome to the BBC Youtube channel. COVID-19 has made it harder to experience poaching, but in good times and bad, talented salespeople are always in demand.
BBC member, after your next sales meeting, you might want to start thinking about what you can do in order to avoid losing your salespeople. If you want more of this content, subscribe to the BBC Youtube channel and hit the notification bell.
Incentivize them with more than money
Let me go on record and explain that the money incentives don’t work if you are grossly underpaying your employees. Sure, it is important to pay them enough so they can support themselves and their families, but there is more to maintaining an employee than just money. Rewarding your employees with meaningful rewards is a good idea if they like what they do, which will keep them around.
If you do not know how to properly motivate your salespeople, you need to learn what motivates them. Different people have different preferences. Some like tangible rewards; others prefer intangible ones.
As an employee, I once won an award that was particular to me because he recognized me with a special reward – a beautiful sculpture. While the second and third placers each received lesser sculptures, mine was significantly larger, more wonderful and will always be remembered because of its special treatment. Merely winning the prize wasn’t enough though; I also received my dream trip and will never forget how much I like this boss so dearly.
Have you told a top performer to take a one-day leave from work because they deserve it? Work is always appreciated. A note from the CEO or higher-ranking manager can be great motivation for someone to stick around and do their job well. Sometimes paying an employee better isn’t enough of an incentive to make them want to stay with a company long-term.
It is not worth it to change how your salespeople are paid when they’re making so much money.
Unless your salespeople are working with a multi-million dollar company, they should be making at least $100 a day. Salespeople in service and retail positions should make between $100 to $200 a day according to the owner of Grow Financial Services who made it his priority to create a high-earning environment for his team of financial advisors.
Some employers view offering their salespeople high compensation as incentive to work harder. However, there is a different company owner which differs in opinion. The company says they are motivated by their fear of having workers too confident and thus costly.
If you want to keep your best salespeople, the answer is not necessarily more money. If you can help them get better deals and close more business, then you increase your chances of winning by a significant margin.
The role of a coach is to facilitate goals through encouragement, so that their clients or employees will be able to perform at their peak. Managers work on increasing team performance primarily by giving feedback.
You can maximize performance when you provide positive and constructive criticism from the perspective of the behaviors that are the most effective. Appropriate negative criticism is helpful in that it might help stop behaviors that are causing lost sales instead.
One way to offer negative feedback is to point out a behavior you noticed, and then ask the salesperson what they thought about it. If the salesperson still thinks this unsuccessful behavior is working, you can then ask: “Why didn’t your customer do (the behavior that you expected)? In a non-threatening way, you are challenging specific behaviors that should produce sales successes.
Another way to ensure the best performance from your sales team is for managers to remove obstacles that prevent them from being successful. Ask your salespeople what might cause them problems and change a process here or there so they can be more productive. You might find that a simple process change helps a salesperson to be more productive with their work.
For example, one manager found that a simplification of an order taker’s job function made it easier for the salesperson to get more customers with which to schedule appointments. The order taker’s job was expanded so that they would confirm the appointment of the salesperson. This resulted in the salesperson having more time to set up more appointments and fewer customers canceling or missing appointments because all appointments were now confirmed.
To earn their paycheck, good salespeople remain with the company when competitors ask them to leave. Your customers trust that your sales reps are committed, so can you?
In a tough competitive market, nobody wants to lose their best salesperson. A truly great salesperson is a rare find, only making up 10-15% of the workforce– so when you have them, it’s important you hold onto them. Not only can the loss of a salesperson cost an organization in efficiency, morale and the bottom line, but you’ll also lose an invaluable source of expertise and cause disruption within your team– if that person’s territory is left unattended for too long you may miss out on key sales deals and revenue.
Younger people in the workforce tend to be more productive and have better skills. As a result, retention is greater among younger people than it is for older employees.
Pay the right salaries
Though job satisfaction isn’t all about money, one of the biggest factors that influence whether a sales representative leaves a company is whether they feel like they are being adequately compensated for their work. Salespeople are ambitious and expect to be paid the right amount; if not, they may well leave.
Pay attention to the salary and bonus packages you’re offered. Are they high enough to be competitive in the market? What are competitors offering? Trends in the industry and consumer expectations are changing all the time.
Incentivize and reward well
People are more likely to work harder if they feel respected. With this in mind, your company can do what it takes to reward and recognize hard work by implementing a rewards and recognition program.
Recognizing your top performers is not only rewarding but it pays off tenfold with employee satisfaction. Recognizing your people is more than just a thank you, but it keeps morale high and manages to motivate them.
Offer promotion opportunities
Sales professionals want more than a job – they want a career, and are motivated by the potential for promotion. The demand for increased advancement and compensation is what leads most sales types to leave their current positions.
With 51% of workers leaving their job due to better opportunities coming along, it is necessary that you don’t make the same mistake: you need to help your top salespeople advance in their careers either through internal promotions or through allowing them to take on more responsibilities in their current role or they will likely leave.
Offer development opportunities
According to a study, 68% of employees value in-house training, and the most important workplace benefit is Organizing a number of different training sessions. Lead by setting up conferences and training days for these top performers. As one out of three employees say that uninspiring training was a major hurdle in their work day, making learning more fun will result in less barriers. Investing your time into getting it right will provide for a more engaged workforce.
Coach your top performers
If your top performers aren’t receiving the coaching they need to advance in their career, then how have they been getting better at their job? 84% of sales training is lost after 90 days – that means you waste $450K each and every year. Benchmark surveys examining the importance of coaching in improving performance show that it can help people get promoted, outperform expectations, and increase persistence. It would be a great investment if you did anything other than having your top performers come into meetings with you or listen to calls with them.
Make sure they have all the tools they need
The transition from an in-person sales operation to a remote one is leaving many sales representatives in the dust and, as a result, they’re feeling unaccomplished and unmotivated. From chatbots to video conferencing equipment, it’s important for companies to equip their employees with the right tools so they can be efficient.
Source the best talent with BMS performance
Whether you are looking to retain your sales staff or source new star hires, our team of expert recruitment consultants can advise you. Let’s talk about how we can kickstart your recruitment process; get in touch with us, or browse our blog for more insights on recruitment.
If you have great talent in your team, their talents can be quickly lost. It’s just the nature of the beast. To keep top talents while retaining them, it is important to offer satisfactory work and a sense of personal fulfillment.
These are some of the best paying sales jobs:
Real estate agent
Insurance sales
Financial services sales agent
Wholesale sales representative
Advertising sales representative
Medical sales
Travel agents
Pharmaceutical sales representative
Software sales rep
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