High employee turnover among your sales team can be toxic to your whole business. And unfortunately, it’s an issue that affects a huge number of organisations. There are a number of factors that can be at the root of this problem and, more often than not, they’re linked to sales performance management.
Here are 3 of the most common causes you may need to address;
1. Over-the-top expectations
Sales, by nature, is a high-pressure area to work in and no one ever applied to a sales job expecting an easy ride. However, when your sales team has over-the-top quotas and expectations hanging over their heads, it should be no surprise that people start jumping ship.
Quotas should always be challenging in a way that gets the most from your team. But they should never be impossible.
As a starting point, analyse your sales targets and compare them against your team’s output. From there, you can set targets that will still get great work from your sales team, without sacrificing (vital) morale.
2. Uncompetitive compensation
Compensation is obviously a major factor in sales performance management. With salary and commission being such a fundamental part of sales work, perfectly competent sales managers can be at risk of missing the forest for the trees in this area.
Obviously, the ever-changing landscape of your industry will mean that simply offering higher basic wages or commission is not always an option. But this is never an excuse for poor compensation that isn’t as good or better than what your sales staff can get elsewhere.
Be sure to assess how you’re compensating your staff regularly, both in terms of salary and commission, and various benefits and frills.
3. Poor training
Your bright new prospects won’t last long if they’re not given adequate training. A hardcore sink-or-swim method of sales performance management can make some salespeople thrive, but they will always be the minority. For the rest of your team, this will only cause stress and more errors, leading to a negative snowball effect.
Be sure to invest in thorough, personalised training to get the best results from your team members. More importantly, remind them that they are an asset; worthy of investment and long-term personal development.