The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

I bet when you read "Killing your KPI's", your first thought was this was going to be a blog about sales high performers, right?

Not really!

I'm literally telling you that you should KILL your KPI's. As in buried and dead. As in no longer around.  

Ok, that might be a little over the top, but I fear that if I don't push the envelope, you won't get my point about why you shouldn't be basing your sales success on just Key Performance Indicators.

Over time, organizations can begin to lose performance. It can start to feel like the organization is missing a beat, not hitting on all cylinders.  If it was your car, you'd take it into the garage and get a tune-up, but what do you when it's your sales team? 

How about a sales tune-up for your organization? 

A sales tune-up is the perfect way to assess your sales organization through a comprehensive, analytical sales diagnostic. It's a time to step back and assess your organization in a factual and objective manner. A sales diagnostic allows you to dive deep into your numbers, your processes, and your people and objectively determine what is working and what isn't.

Everyone is selling digital marketing today.

Everyone says they are an expert in digital advertising. 

From pure digital agencies to traditional media, from digital publishers to full-service advertising agencies, everyone is pushing digital marketing.  I'm honestly shocked that when I drop off my laundry that my dry cleaner doesn't offer me an awesome new digital marketing package.

Ok.  So, not everyone is selling digital, but it does feel that way.

As a sales manager, you and your staff are facing competition from every angle. You've always had to deal with your traditional competitors, but in the digital realm, you, now, have to compete with those plus every digital media & firm in your market and around the country. 

Is your staff ready?

Here are 3 tips that can help prepare your sales team for the reality of the digital marketing landscape:

The words "Role Play" immediately bring feelings of fear, dread, and anxiety for most salespeople. 

But why? 

That's easy. Most sales managers use role-playing as a form of punishment. We've all either done it or had it done to us.  

As a manager, we are often frustrated by a salesperson, team, or project when they fail to make the progress that we expect. We try all kinds of solutions: motivation, incentives and sometimes "threats," but when those don't work, what do we do? We summon the team for a meeting. A meeting where we ROLE-PLAY! That'll work! Right?

Well, it can, but only if we do it right! 

Turnover is a costly problem for sales organizations. On average, companies experience a 17.8% turnover each year, and the average cost to replace an employee is 1.5 - double the employee's annual salary. (And it's even higher for high-level employees like managers and those with specialized skills.)

Take a look at the high cost of turnover in the infographic below. What you find may surprise you!

$112,500 is in flames every single time that you lose a salesperson and have to hire a new one! 

Yes, over $112K! 

How do you figure that dollar amount? Easy. The average cost of turnover for an employee is 1.5 times annual compensation. So, if your salesperson is earning $75,000 per year when they leave, it will cost your organization $112,500.  

So, what if your top salesperson is making $150,000 per year? Then the cost of losing that sales rep and replacing them will cost your business $225,000! So, what is your turnover ratio? 10%, 25%, 50% per year? Then start adding up the cost of your turnover. 

How does that affect your EBITA? Cash Flow? Net Profit? 

A recent study from Bersin by Deloitte estimates the cost of turnover from 1.5 - 2.0 an employee's annual compensation. And a report from Maia Josebachvili, VP of People at Greenhouse, argued that retaining a salesperson for three years instead of two, along with better onboarding and management practices, yields a difference of $1.3 million in net value to the company over a three year period. 

$1.3 Million?!?! 

Yes, turnover is a big deal for your organization. A really big deal. 

So, how do you "fix" turnover? Well, it's simple, but not easy. It's a process that can take months and in some cases even years to slow your rate of turnover in your sales organization, but here are 5 ways that you can reduce turnover:

I have had the rare pleasure of being on both sides of the advertising desk, both as an advertising salesperson and sales manager, and as an ad buyer at a marketing agency.

For 15 years, I sold and managed for radio stations in Dallas and Chicago and loved every single minute of it. Radio was my career, my hobby, my passion. I never thought that I would ever leave radio. Then one day, an “advertising guy” called me and wanted to take me to breakfast.

I spent the next 6 years as the Vice President of Business Development for a mid-size full-service advertising agency in the suburbs of Chicagoland. The ad agency side has been an incredible adventure. I had direct access to clients and had become the consultant that I was trained to be in radio. I worked hand-in-hand with the client as we grew their businesses together. No longer was I an adversary, but truly a marketing partner. 

Here are some of the secrets that I've learned from being on the “other-side-of-the desk”: