The Tipping Point for Tenure in Your Sales Job…

(originally posted on https://www.growthlineconsulting.com/blog)

18% of the workforce changes jobs each year, and when you look at millennials, that number jumps to 42%, according to a recent Jobvite survey. Regardless of whether someone is a millennial or not, the first thing that I look for when reviewing resumes for sales positions, for both individual contributors and leadership roles, is to see if they have an established track record of sustained success in a position or company, which can’t happen without meaningful tenure.

The tenure that I typically look for, particularly for a B2B sales role, is four years. Four years at the same company. This could be in the same role, or ideally with a promotion in there somewhere. If you’ve had a couple shorter stints prior to your four-year successful stint, great, that’s not a problem – I would assume you learned a lot from your experiences and it led to your success at the longer stint. If the job hopping happens over and over (also known as “Forrest Gump Resume Syndrome”) without sustained success, the trend becomes problematic.

I break down my four-year target as follows:

1. If the tenure is less than 18 months than something has gone wrong. Certainly, there are valid explanations for leaving within a short timeframe and I’ve heard them all; i.e. “just made a mistake with the wrong company”, “unexpected layoffs”, “the boss that hired me left” etc. This type of tenure is not a fatal in terms of the interview process as many millennials may not know what to look for to avoid companies that may be unstable. Just make sure you have a valid explanation that checks out.
2. If you’ve past the 18-month mark but haven’t made it to four years, why are you looking? I consider two years to be the magic point of being truly ramped in a role from an industry and training standpoint, and would expect a mature pipeline from which a sales rep should be hitting numbers. Is this pipeline being abandoned?
3. If you’ve made it over four years and we’re talking about your next opportunity, I’ll certainly still want to have a good understanding of why you are looking, but regardless of the response I will also have a comfort level that your four-year tenure indicates that you were and are a valued employee.

I can look at organizations that I’ve run over the years, and by and large if you’ve been on the team for 4 years+, you are at a minimum a steady middle of the road performer (sales teams need these contributors by the way), and possibly a high achieving top performer. It’s really rare to find bottom feeders with that kind of tenure, as they’ve either been managed out or moved on (job hopped) due to not making quota and started the same cycle over at the next gig.

Be patient. Be productive. You'll get noticed.