4 ways sales managers can retain top sales talent more easily

Good sales people can be hard to find . . . and even harder to keep! In many industries, there are more vacancies than genuinely qualified candidates. So, how can you succeed at recruiting, and holding on to, the best sales talent?

Here are four best practices to help you keep your top performers...

1). Figure out how you’re doing right now

To start, use a simple rule-of-thumb formula called a 'Hire Value' or HV score. Each new hire receives one point for each year of contribution at their entry position, two points for each year at a promoted position, and three points for each year at a secondary promoted position.

So for instance, three years as a business development representative (3) plus one year as an inside sales rep (2) plus one year as a territory rep (3) would yield a total HV of 8.

Use this formula on all the new hires (present and departed) you’ve generated over the past three to five years to see how you are doing. Passing HV grades are three points after three years and five after five, as an average across all the hires.

This accounts for turnover, which will of course lower your average across the group. If you are not achieving these averages, the odds are high there is a flaw in your hiring process, your on-boarding process, or both.

The best practices that follow will help you fix that.

2). Hire for trajectory

Translation: No more trying to fill your positions with people who have several years of success doing the exact same thing for which you are recruiting. If you’re doing that right now and see no problem with it, ask yourself this question:

“Why would a successful rep with a good pipeline, comfortable at his existing company, making X pounds, decide to switch to start all over again with a new and unknown company, and no pipeline, to make the same X pounds?”

This is a great way to hire a problem waiting to happen. Applicants will spin all kinds of great tales about past success and why they are leaving. How much of that can you verify?

Usually not much. Look at your HV scores, do an honest self-assessment, and I believe you will have to admit that what you’re doing now is not consistently locating winners. Yes – this is the hiring process most sales leaders follow. But it’s not the right process. So let your competitors continue to hire problems waiting to happen. You and your organisation must change course.

Hiring for trajectory means using the HV model described before as a tool for evaluating candidates. It means looking for candidates who have a demonstrated record of success at a position junior to the one you are recruiting. You are looking for someone who shows all of the signs of being a “sales athlete” – but who has not yet contributed at the level you are hiring for.

You are looking for someone with potential, someone who will accept, and be motivated by, the challenge to grow into a new and more demanding role that is one step above their current success level.

Great football managers often talk about this concept in their recruiting process. They talk about looking for an individual who is fast, strong, and has a great work ethic – not someone who has already hit their peak.

They talk about looking for people who will be willing to learn their system, people who may not yet have demonstrated to the world their ability to defend, create opportunities or score.

These accomplishments connect to specific skills the coaches are confident they can teach the person. What the managers are typically looking for is the right profile for growth within the system, not a player who is already one of the best in the country.

When you combine the athletic skills brought to the table with the job skills the manager is confident they can teach, the result is a winning team – and, sometimes, a future star!

3). Understand your four roles

The approach I’ve just outlined works in football because the hiring manager – the manager – understands the job description to provide:

• Supervision
• Training
• Coaching
• Mentoring

. . . to the right player … and to make this commitment evident, through action. All parties realise that without supervision, training, coaching, and mentoring, the recruit’s likelihood of success is dismal. ?

Now, let’s take this same approach and apply it to sales – because effective sales leaders understand that they have the same four jobs.

Let’s say I have an open telesales position. I interview internal business development representatives and telesales reps who have demonstrated success at selling over the phone … but for a smaller dollar value, less complex product/service mix, and/or a shorter selling cycle. You get the picture.

The candidates who make the initial cut all show evidence of the raw “sales athlete” behaviours I want (i.e. high call volume, the ability to identify and connect with decision makers) – just not the specific skills they will need to succeed in this new job.

Based upon others who have succeeded in this position, I’ve determined that the top five skills necessary for success within this role are: prospecting, qualifying, control of the sales cycle, time management, and the ability to close.

When I apply the “Willing and Able Matrix” analysis from the book The Success Cadence (which I highly recommend), I notice which candidates have some level of skill in each of these five ability areas.

I also know that whoever I end up hiring will need immediate training, supervision, coaching, and mentoring from me as part of the onboarding process that ensures a successful application of these abilities to our market. But ability is only half of the picture.

What I also need to see before I make a job offer to any one of these people is clear evidence of their willingness to do what it takes to succeed within this role. That means I am searching for objective proof of things like the right work ethic, the capacity to be a self-starter, a personal desire to win, coachability, and so on. Personal references and role-playing can go a long way here.

If I can be confident that both willingness and ability are within the candidate, and the person has shown a reasonable sales IQ, then there’s a good chance we can both make this work. Making a move to a new company now makes sense for both parties.

Yes, we are asking the candidate to leave a job where they are well known, well liked, and face a few unknowns. But we are also offering them a path to make more money, lay the groundwork for income growth down the road, and take advantage of the opportunity of continued career growth in future years.

For both you and the candidate, there’s a much better chance of long-term success.

I realise this hiring approach is not for everyone. It’s only for sales leaders who are willing to take the responsibility to train, supervise heavily during the first 90 days, and coach and mentor as needed thereafter. This may be different than what you do now.?

These are the four roles that truly effective sales leaders play. These leaders are a minority. Most team leaders opt not to take a hands-on approach with the new hire until they build up a pipeline, at which point they throw on their Superman cape and “help” the salesperson close the deal.

This does not set the new hire up for future growth.

4). Make sure the light goes on

Regardless of how much experience a new sales hire possesses, they need to be trained, supervised, coached and mentored days or so to ensure that the “light comes on” during the first 90 days.

That moment when the light comes on will be easy for you to recognise. It’s the moment both you and the new hire are confident that this was not a mistake. It’s the moment the new hire gets, at a visceral level, exactly what it takes to build a pipeline and close deals at your company.

Many seemingly great hires quit and go elsewhere when they don’t see the light come on at some point in the first 90 days. If you are serious about securing and retaining great talent, you will hire people who are both willing and able to grow into the position, and you will fullfill all four of your jobs as a sales leader during this critical early period to ensure that they do grow.

In conclusion...

Make and fulfill your commitments to the four sales leadership roles and your competitors, not you, will be the ones worrying ab out how to replace half of their new hires each year!

Tom Mallens is training director at Birmingham-based Sandler Training, Heart of England*.

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*He's also somewhat obsessed with exercise. You can get his book 'The Lean & Mean for Life Formula' on how middle-aged men can lose 10kg and within 90 days >>>?here .