The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Top sales people work with their clients to drive organizational success. Sales Leaders should do the same with their top sellers. Treat them like you would a top/Key account, and they will want to thrive in your organization for many years to come.

Sales leaders play a pivotal role in driving success. Not only are they responsible for meeting revenue targets, but they are also charged with the task of managing, developing, and retaining top sales talent.

These past few years have been incredibly challenging for leaders worldwide.  As you take a look around your organization, have you noticed any of the following for your leadership team or your employees: 

• Exhaustion: Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that doesn't go away after time off.
• Decreased job satisfaction: A feeling of disillusionment and negative attitude towards work.
• Decreased motivation: Loss of drive, energy, and motivation to perform tasks.
• Increased absenteeism: Taking more time off work, frequently calling in sick.
• Decreased productivity: Decline in quality and quantity of work being produced.
• Decreased engagement: Lack of enthusiasm and investment in one's job and responsibilities.
• Increased cynicism: Negative outlook and mistrust towards one's employer, coworkers, and/or job duties.
• Health problems: Physical symptoms such as headaches, sleep disturbances, and digestive issues.

If so, you are not alone.  These are all symptoms of burnout.

You did it! You finally built a great sales team! They are destroying their budgets, the team challenges each other but gets along beautifully and they are a delight to manage. And then… someone quits. Maybe more than one. What happened?!

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of May 31, 2023, there were 9.8 million job openings across industries, and the number of people voluntarily quitting their jobs rose to 4 million.

In April 2023, LinkedIn reported a shocking 61% of American workers are considering leaving their jobs in 2023. This number is especially high among the younger generations, Millennials (66%) and Gen Z (72%).

Perhaps worse from a management standpoint, top sellers are being headhunted more than ever. One top seller I know said it was a bad week if they got less than three job offers. Competition for talent is fierce since the talent pool over the last few years has not fully recovered from COVID and “the Great Resignation.”

With those terrifying statistics in mind, let’s discuss ways to keep your top talent happy and wanting to be long-term employees.

Every sales manager has an onboarding procedure for new reps, beginning with day 1.

Do paperwork, have lunch with the boss, shadow some veteran salespeople, start building a prospect list, etc.

The first 30, 60, and 90 days of onboarding new sales reps are pretty standard. (Of course, we recommend that you follow the CSS Onboarding Checklist). 

However, what are your plans on Day 101 for your new sales reps?

In the fast-paced world of sales, where the name of the game is, well, selling, which involves sealing the deal, it seriously makes me cringe when I catch salespeople dropping their in-house lingo in front of clients.

Let's talk about three power-packed words that could seriously put a wrench in your plans when you're in front of potential clients. So, do yourself a favor and ditch these words when you're chatting up a client or a promising lead.

Sales meetings are more than just a routine; they have the potential to inspire, motivate, and educate your sales team.

A productive sales meeting introduces your team to new information, solutions, and opportunities, ultimately driving revenue. But a poorly executed one? It can demoralize and waste precious time and resources.

Have you ever met with a prospect for the first time and felt like the entire conversation was like pulling teeth?

Maybe they took a couple of calls or answered some urgent emails while you were waiting to ask your next question. Maybe you couldn’t meet in person, and you could sense they were distracted and not focused during the little time you had. 

In these situations, it's common to leave the appointment with little to no valuable information, no follow-up direction, and when you look at your notes it feels like a waste of your valuable time.

Not all first meetings go well, but you can prevent the train wreck first appointment with better pre-planning.

Leaders today are facing an ever-increasing number of complex scenarios that demand their attention. In the fast-paced world of business, the conveyor belt of challenges never stops moving, and no two situations are ever the same. 

But for effective leaders, this is just another day at the office. They possess the ability to quickly assess the situation and give themselves the right instructions for success. They are skilled at thinking on their feet and making split-second decisions that can make all the difference. These instructions that they give themselves are the Mindset, and combined with their Talents, or natural abilities, they have become superheroes of the business world. 

As a leader, when you grasp and harness your Top Talents, coupled with the appropriate Mindset - which can change through continuous learning and growth - you are empowered to steer the situation towards success with ease.

Think back to the last time you were truly moved by a story you heard. Maybe it was a heartwarming tale that tugged on your emotions. It could have been a story about overcoming impossible adversity. Maybe it was even a tragic tale of loss and redemption. Whatever the case may be, stories have a unique power to evoke emotion and connect us with others.

Most ideas are presented using data. While data has the potential to persuade people, stories have the power to move people.

Storytelling isn’t just limited to books and movies. It is a powerful and underutilized tool that can help you achieve your business goals. Whether you're trying to motivate your team, connect with prospects and customers, or win the close, try tapping into the power of storytelling.

Strong selection is about identifying an individual whose talents, skills, and experiences best align with what leads to excellence in your job role.

Much like looking for a round peg to go in a round hole, great hiring begins by examining the open position and considering which candidate is the best match for the company, the team, and the open position.

Hiring is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in a leadership position because, with the right people, you can do almost anything!  And with the wrong people… well, you know.  The fact is when you put the right people in the right roles, they thrive, and the organization grows.   

As Peter Ducker said, "If I have put a person in a job and he or she does not perform, I have made a mistake. I have no business blaming that person, no business complaining. I have made a mistake."