Sales Leaders: How to Keep Your Top Reps in 2022
If there’s one thing 2021 taught us about the job market, it’s this: Things move quickly, and companies that aren’t ready are getting left behind.
This year is shaping up to be even more of the same. Right out of the gate, it’s going to be harder and more expensive to retain top sales reps, unless you know the keys to keeping your talent satisfied and successful.
To give you the edge, Prolifiq’s own Eddie Hanson (President) had an enlightening talk with our brilliant friends over at JB Sales: John Barrows (CEO) and James Buckley (Director Of Business Development & Partner Manager). The topic: maintaining a strong core team while everyone else is losing theirs.
3 Lessons for Building a Successful – and Stable – Sales Team
These three discussions will help you pinpoint a few key areas to improve upon and build off of as you gear up for 2022.
1. How to Hire and Retain Top Sales Reps in A Competitive Job Market
It’s no secret that today’s job market is transforming in a major way, one not seen in generations. In sales – a field traditionally marked by higher-than-average turnover – employees will move around even more in search of higher rewards.
As Eddie points out, whereas reps would previously move from one organization to another for 10% increases in compensation, they’re now getting 20-30% more when they switch. To make sure you make smart hires, you need to do a bit of vetting, says Eddie: “It’s really important to validate what they actually want out of their career. Are they looking for career growth, or are they just looking for a salary?”
As far as decisions around your hiring practices, Eddie advises caution. Many sales reps will evaluate where they’re at at the end of this quarter and early in Q1. This could lead to what Eddie predicts a “mass exodus” at the end of next quarter.
Listen to what Eddie thinks the smart move will be and when you should make it.
2. Happy Reps = Happy Customers. Here’s Why
Keeping your salespeople happy isn’t just about them (even though that’s more than good enough).
As the panel points out, happy sales reps are far more likely to keep your customers happy, too. This means a higher lifetime value, increased referral opportunities, and more overall revenue.
To that end, there are three questions Eddie says you should ask each rep at the end of Q4 (or before you would traditionally realign territory and/or transition reps) that will improve your overall customer experience.
Check the clip for those questions (and, as a bonus, to see what pisses Eddie off as a buyer and a seller).
3. Why You Need to Revisit Your Company’s Core Values
“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Those words of wisdom come from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, a classic tome that John uses to help formulate his vision for himself personally and professionally.
Those core values should guide not just how you live, but how you decide and hire as a leader. Why? Because values drive vision, and vision helps people feel like they are a part of something more. As John says in the clip, “If people don’t believe in a bigger vision, you’ll never get them to do more than just their job.”
But having vision and core values and permeating them throughout the organization are two different things. Figuring out how to do the latter will be even more critical due to the mass exodus that Eddie sees coming.
Watch the full webinar to see how Prolifiq provides a template any organization can follow to put vision and value at the focus of everything they do – and retain top sales reps as a result.
Sales reps are the lifeblood of your team. If you find stars and keep them happy, they’ll perform at the highest levels for you.
Want to see how account planning and relationship mapping can take your team-building efforts even further by giving your reps the best tools in the field? Check out a demo and get 2022 off to the best possible start!