Staff turnover: a year to get up to speed.

50% turnover

Research by the consultancy found that sales staff turnover in the named account and enterprise segments is relatively low at 10%. It’s a different picture in the mid-market and channel sales organisations, where turnover can hit 50%.

‘Overall, one in four reps is new to their company this year, indicating problems with both account continuity, and hiring and training expenses,’ IDC’s Sales Advisory Practice program director, Lee Levitt tells ModernSelling.com.

Not just money

‘So what keeps a salesperson?’ asks Levitt. ‘It’s not only money, and perhaps not even primarily money. While the average named account rep makes $150k, the range of pay is broad, from $125k to more than $330k, with little direct correlation between overall company performance and individual pay (We’re talking US here – Ed). There is always another company offering more money.’

According to Levitt, three factors emerge from conversations with salespeople, managers, coaches and trainers from the industry:

• recognition;
• autonomy and empowerment; and
• management

Recognition

Levitt suggests sellers want to be recognized for their efforts on a regular basis. ‘It’s not about the money; it’s about the respect of their peers for a job well done. They also want to be recognised as a source of valuable information regarding what’s really going on in the market, and in many, perhaps most cases, they feel that their input is either undervalued or ignored.’

Empowerment

He says that sales people also need to feel empowered to do their jobs in a professional manner. ‘They define empowerment as the ability to operate autonomously with regard to commitments and discounts, within a specific set of pre-defined guidelines.’

Management

Levitt also recognises that a salesperson’s local management plays a key role, both in delivering recognition and empowerment, and in providing the feedback and coaching that helps the sales person to excel.

But we must recognise that salespeople will eventually anyway, Levitt warns.

When they leave

He urges organisations to plan for their departure:

• ensure your sales people are actually using the sales force automation system to capture account intelligence, not just as a glorified contact manager – insist they follow the account planning process regularly and comprehensively;
• for larger accounts, provide multiple appropriate points of contact to manage the relationship – the budding role of sales engagement project manager is an ideal one to support continuity, as project managers tend to be more stable than account managers; and
• work on developing a tightening the company-to-company partnership so that the faces seen most often by the client are not the only ones that represent your company.

Lee Levitt can be reached via www.science-of-selling.com

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