111 What’s the point in hiring top talent if they’re not going to stay at your company? This question is rhetorical, of course. The en- tire purpose of filling your Talent Bank, se- lecting the best hires, and developing their professional skillsets is to keep top perform- ers on your team. Yet the average annu- al turnover rate in sales is a painful 17.8%. That’s a little under a fifth of a company’s sales force in constant rotation. For many or- ganizations, the turnover rate is much high- er. Retention, it seems, has plenty of room for improvement. That’s precisely why the last article in our series focuses on-what makes top talent want to stay and what can chase your best performers away. We’ve centered this se- ries on a survey we conducted with some of the best sales talent in the market today. By understanding their perspective, you’ll gain powerful insights into what retention really means to your sales team. THE SELLER’S PERSPECTIVE ON RETENTION Insights from Top Talent about What Makes Them Leave a Company and What Inspires Them to Stay Generating Long-Term Satisfaction When considering what makes a salesper- son want to stay with a company, you may be tempted to simply answer with, “job satisfac- tion” and leave it at that. But satisfaction is subjective, and what’s more, you need to be concerned with sustained satisfaction over the long term. What does that actually look like for a high-energy, high-impact job like sales? Do You Know What They Want and Need? It’s important to start by providing for their needs professionally. This may seem obvious, but it requires a good bit of nuance. Almost all of the respondents listed some variation on clear communication, confidence in the company and its future, respect from their peers, and a manager who they can trust. If you’ve read the first three articles in this se- ries, you won’t be surprised by the emphasis on personalized management and feedback rather than being treated as a commodity.