84 M ediaWorks is a company in New Zealand that operates radio stations, free-to-air television, and digital properties across nearly every market, large and small, in the coun- try. They became a client of The Center for Sales Strategy in early 2017. The have about 175 sales- people employed in their various properties. A big challenge the company faced was turnover among the sales team, especially among new salespeople in that first year. In May of 2017, the company was experiencing a turnover rate of 35% among all the sales staff. A closer look at the numbers revealed that nearly 60% of the new salespeople did not remain in their jobs in the first year. If you apply a bit of math to these numbers, the true cost of problem looks like this: • 60 salespeople turning over per year at an av- erage salary of $50,000 = $3,000,000 • This number is actually worse when you apply the standard “1 ½ times annual salary” to the turnover calculation: $4,500,000 • None of this takes into account the potential revenue lost, on average about $120,000 per salesperson in for those successful in the first year. 120,000 X 60 = $7,200,00. But most sell something in their relatively short tenure so if you cut that number in half it is still $3,600,000 • If you add $4.5 and $3.6 you get $8,100,000. Now, that is real money. By the way, high turnover among the sales team is not a problem unique to MediaWorks. We see this often, and it serves as a sort of “inter- nal bleeding” for companies, causing them to miss their net operating income goals because these expenses are typically not on a budget line and neither is the projected lost revenue line ac- counted for in the revenue projections. How MediaWorks Dealt with the Problem We worked with the executives and managers to attack the problem on multiple fronts: Totally revamping the company’s recruitment and selection process. • The Online Sales Talent Interview is used to get an early read on the talent for every sales candidate considered for hire and only rec- ommended candidates make it to the sales teams. According to Rhys Nimmo, Sales Capa- bility Development Manager, “The tendency was to hire anybody whom they liked and had a background with some media experience.” That has changed now. • Managers and Executives from all markets went through the online Talent Focused Man- agement courses and attended the live pro- gram. This allowed them to reshape their re- cruitment and selection approach as well as developmental plans for the new hires. • The CSS Talent Analysts helped the compa- ny rewrite recruitment advertising and other processes to attract those who have the natu- ral behaviors to be successful in a media sales role. Retention Case Study How to Save $8.1 Million Dollars