The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

It’s often said that an organization’s most valuable resource is its people.

An increasing number of leaders are turning these words into action by investing in training and skill development for their workforce.

In fact, employee development is quickly becoming one of the biggest trends in the workplace for 2022. Companies who make it a cornerstone of their culture will be well positioned to hire and retain top talent in a competitive job market.

We believe that talent + training + tactics = performance, and today we are bringing you a recap of the most popular blog posts we've published in 2021 on all things talent.

Providing quality content that helps our clients and visitors improve their sales performance is a goal of ours, and we hope this blog has brought you insight, education, and tips to get you on the path to success.

We've searched for the most popular blog posts of 2021, and we've curated these lists that will publish each day this week to bring you some of the most informative content from the year.

Check out these top articles on talent from 2021 and let them kickstart your 2022 sales strategy.

It's more important than ever to engage with your sales team. Sales teams that are not engaged are much more likely to underperform, experience low budget attainment, and unwanted turnover.

Data shows that less than 30% of today's workforce is truly engaged. This is especially true for end-of-the-quarter and end of the year! According to HubSpot, if a seller is disengaged and underperforming, it costs 150% of their salary to replace them.

Here are a few causes of a low performing sales team and how sales leaders can help.

Your recruitment strategy pivots on how you effectively use and deploy different tactics (and mindsets) to reach ideal candidates.   

There's no question we're in a talent shortage, and if you're curious about some of the ways to reach candidates using social media, make sure you take a look at these insights on best practices.

If you have ever been part of hiring and training a new employee, you know how important it is to get it right. The company can only be as good as its employees, so each hire has the potential to raise the performance bar for the entire organization.

So, how does a company ensure that they get that right? We believe it’s a combination of both art and science.

To thrive, an organization needs to be able to attract, hire, and retain top talent.

Top talent are the people that are going to take the team to the next level. They’re the ones who instinctually want to be the best and are the best. They serve clients in a way that no other can. They uncover client needs, close and grow your key accounts, and solve problems in a way you wish everyone could.

In fact, superior talent is up to 8xs more productive than typical talent!

The idea that you should “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” dates back at least to Confucianism (551 BC) and has precedents in nearly every religion.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? Treat people with the same kindness and respect that you would want to be treated with yourself… and don’t do things to people that you wouldn’t want them to do to you.

Simple and true, this Golden Rule is one of those kindergarten lessons that guides us to interact better with others. 

Except when it doesn’t work.

Does your organization have a turnover problem? Do you worry that your top talent will leave for another opportunity?

It may be time to refocus on people development and revisit employee growth plans.

We all know that ongoing coaching, training and development are important and key factors in retaining employees long-term. According to LinkedIn, 94% of employees say they would stay in their role longer if their company invested in their professional development. Yet in another survey, nearly 59% of employees claim they had no workplace training and that most of their skills were self-taught.

Most companies scale back recruiting in response to a financial crisis. Did you know that but 1 of the 3 most effective responses is to hire top performers from the competition?

Companies looking to hire the best talent should pay attention to these recruiting trends we’ve seen in 2021 and what it means for future years.

Although lowering, unemployment rates are still much higher than we’ve seen in recent years. However, don’t let that fool you; as you can see, it’s still a very competitive job market out there.

Why? In part, because smart companies are examining their talent and prioritizing their top performers. When they know it’s time to let someone go, you can guarantee it’s not going to be their top people. However, while unemployment is higher, top talent is still scarce.

How can you structure your interview process to let top talent shine through? And beyond that, how can you change your traditional interviewing process to show top talent you have an adaptable, strong company culture?