#1 Key to retaining recently hired sales reps and setting the stage for performance!

In the next 10 years, the majority of sales reps will be millennials. The tired, played out knocks on my generation (which I've found to be unfortunately accurate on the whole) are that we're fickle in the face of adversity, rejection, and easily distracted. Anyone who has experience in a sales role knows that these are elements of the job you encounter daily... hourly! I tend to roll my eyes when sales team leaders complain about this generational disposition; you're not going to rewire the millennial recruit who has been conditioned by a bunch of societal influences for 20+ years, so your job is to build a great strategy to make sure these new sales reps stick around and are ready to perform.

The #1 Key to keeping your newly hired sales reps is: ENSURE THEY SEE SUCCESS EARLY!

You may be reading this and be thinking: "But I remember this rep who didn't get results right off the bat and ended up being a great contributor long term." I know those people too, and have a ton of respect for their perseverance, but for everyone 1 of them I've seen 5 that don't see that early success, experience doubt which leads to insecurity which leads to shame which leads to a swift exit.

Here's the reality: there is no amount of cheerleading or tension or any sort of pep talk you can give a new sales rep that substitutes leading them to a meaningful win and getting real results on board early in their experience with your organization. For most sales roles, this means within the first couple weeks to a month. For longer sales-cycle positions - such as real estate or business to business software sales - this means in the first few months. Whatever the industry, you as the sales leader should have a feel for what that "golden window" of time to get your reports a real win is, and move heaven and earth to see that they do! Here are some actionable ways a sales team leader can ensure their team sees success early:

High Communication, High Facetime

• If you're a sales team lead, you need to be talking to your reports at minimum every other day in their first month. I've found that the most common mistake new sales reps make is that they waste a ton of time simply because they have so many options on how to spend it, and typically end up spinning their wheels - especially with prospecting. As any sales pro knows it's not just about being persuasive 1 on 1with a client, it's about sticking to your schedule, making calls when you're supposed to make them, gathering leads during prime prospecting hours, etc. As the team lead you need to get them scheduled out by the 1/2 day at minimum over the first couple weeks - yes, needs to be that specific - and then follow up each day or every other day to ensure they're getting results and course correct as needed. It kills me when I see companies where new reps get some blanket group training then talk to their manager once a week - this is a recipe for VERY high turnover in the sales world! Ideally, see them face to face - even if it's remote video calls - you'll get a much better pulse on how they're really doing and be able to help them solve/relate to the human elements of sales much better this way.

Give them an alley-oop!

• If you can get shoulder to shoulder and help your new sales rep close a sale - absolutely do it! Again, the key is to get them a win early - you can skill them up from a coaching standpoint once they secure this - so I recommend co-running as many sales meetings as possible during that "golden window" early on in the new sales rep's career as possible. Even if you handle 50% of the meeting, navigating the toughest part of the presentation or jumping in when you see an opportunity to handle an objection, this is a critical component of retention. This will do 2 things: they will learn a ton from watching you demonstrate excellence in the event (way more than you just giving them feedback on their typically weak skill set given their lack of experience - seriously, when have you observed a first time sales rep in their first 5 meetings or so and not thought "painful"), and will gain a ton of respect for you as a leader as someone who has shown they're willing to get in the foxhole to get their team member a win! Of course, ensure they get the credit for the sale and have them detail out what they learned while the event is still fresh. Stockpiling some pre-qualified leads to give them right out of the gate is a major retention play as well.

Surround them with high performing peers

• No matter how great a job you're doing as a leader - the advice your new reps get from their peers will mean exponentially more than any advice coming from you. There's an inherent distrust that new reps have with "corporate" people and supervisors - "Are they sugarcoating how hard this is?" "Does that objection handling technique actually work?" "Will I really be able to earn as much as they say I can earn?" - so don't even try to persuade them out of the natural doubt that comes between subordinate-supervisor early on in their career. Seriously, let it go. Instead, work behind the scenes to get high performing peers of the new sales reps to deliver the messages you feel they need to hear. I don't mean in some Orwellian-puppet master type of way. I simply mean organizing regular interaction between your stars and your new reps.
• You could do this by organizing weekly conference calls lead by these performers and giving them a short agenda of what to cover and what skill topic would be good to dive into; you could do this by asking one of them to reach out directly - "could you call Jimmy and share that win with him and how you got it? He was going through a similar challenge with a client and could really benefit from hearing your story"; you could do this by having an active group message board where peers shout out each other for everyone to see. Be strategic here - think about who would interact best with who and ensure they are having regular contact! There's no greater comfort for a new rep than hearing: "I've been right where you're at, and here's how I got success."

Of course, there's a bunch more that goes into retaining your new sales reps, but getting early sales wins, in my experience, is the biggest difference maker in keeping them around. It also preps them to see themselves as performers, and replaces the "can I do this?" voice with the "I got a win, I need to keep the momentum going!" voice. Great sales team leaders understand this, prepare for this weeks before their new reps start, and are intensely focused on it until all of their new reps are across the line.