The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

It’s a fact that everyone wants the “best of the best” talent at their organization. Much attention, effort, and investment of significant time and money is given to finding and recruiting high performers.

Sadly, what often follows is the common scenario in which business leaders hire people they believe in and then sit back to see what they can do. However, growing and retaining strong talent requires leaders who can develop their people, not just manage them.

According to the World Economic Forum, by 2025, Gen Z will account for one-third of the workforce.

As a group, they are the most technologically savvy ever to hit the workforce. Many have definite opinions on what they expect from their companies and managers and are not afraid to express those opinions.

They have specific expectations of what their work life will look like, and unlike other generations, they are not afraid to hop to a new job or quit even if they don’t have another job lined up. In fact, according to ResumeLab, 83% of Gen Z employees consider themselves job hoppers, and 75% would leave a job even if they didn’t have another one waiting.

Undoubtedly, the newest generation to hit the workforce has a lot to offer your organization, so what are the secrets to retaining your Gen Z workforce?

The role you play as a leader in the retention of your salespeople has a huge impact on your business. The more you develop yourself as a leader, the greater influence you have on keeping the team you built in place.

This is important because when your salespeople stay, your organization has the ability to retain customers and maintain a loyal customer base, which leads to your success.

When you have effective leadership practices in place, you can create an environment that fosters a positive work environment, building strong relationships and helping to develop a customer-minded approach. With this attitude, your people will be more willing to stay and give their best every day.

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.

Few things in business these days are more important than finding, and retaining, the right talent.

Without talent, companies can quickly lose their competitive edge. But while most companies are focusing heavily on the recruitment side of the equation, many are ignoring the equally important job of retention. All the while the job market continues to become more competitive, and employees have increasingly specific preferences and expectations around how they want to work.

One of the easiest and best recruitment strategies might just be retention.