Let us count the ways. There are probably more than you think.
By Phil Krone, President
Salesforce turnover is expensive in several ways, and we will discuss them. Keep in mind that perhaps the costliest is that turnover is a primary reason organizations fail to achieve their revenue goals for the year.
A rule of thumb among human resources professionals is that replacing any employee costs the equivalent of one year of that employee’s compensation. The costs include, to name a few, the job not being done before the replacement is hired, advertising the position, interviewing candidates, checking their backgrounds, and onboarding. But for salespeople the cost is even higher because there is a good chance you will lose the value of the opportunities in the sales pipeline that were developed by the person who left.
Why business developers leave is a critical question. In my opinion the biggest reason is that they have fallen short of what they hoped to earn on their base compensation plus bonus. Either their consultative selling skills aren’t up to par or their sales process is weak—or a combination of the two. These conditions can be addressed for a fraction of the turnover cost.
An expert in the field of providing assessments to qualify prospective employees tells me that nurses and salespeople have the highest levels of turnover.
So, there is a lot of turnover for business developers, the costs are quite high, and the solution to reducing or avoiding those costs is small by comparison.
Here is one way to address the problem: Before you hire the replacement or additional salesperson to eventually be trained by your company, send at least one person who knows the company, the offering, and the market through our FOCIS® Selling program. Our process draws intellectual capital from experts, and we help salespeople build their sales process. When new salespeople are hired, send them through our FOCIS® Selling program so that they will know how to implement and further strengthen your sales process. The odds of new hires being successful is greatly increased, and turnover virtually disappears. Plus, new hires will become cost effective much faster.
If those who took the training first want to retake the course along with the new hire, there is no charge.
Here is another point to consider: the prevalence of ADHD with salespeople is around 14 percent, which is twice that in the rest of the population. Over the years we have observed that folks with ADHD can be very productive salespeople. They are highly energetic, they enjoy meeting and getting to know and work with other people, and they are good at forming relationships. But without a strong sales process, or a manager who can help them stay focused, they typically fail. I would venture that a lot of people with ADHD are part of the turnover issue because they are not seeing the return they expected with the energy they are investing in their work. We have countless examples of our training turning folks with ADHD into top producers.
One example is the president of a manufacturing company who himself had great difficulty staying focused on sales opportunities. Once his consultative selling skills were increased and he had a process to structure his sales efforts, he became significantly more productive.
Over the years, prospects have told us that they want to take our FOCIS® Selling program but must first stabilize their sales team. Looking at this through a different lens, we believe that investing in creating a strong sales process (not a canned pitch) will help the people you hire become more productive faster and turnover will be greatly reduced. In other words, they will become stabilized more effectively by learning 1) truly productive sales skills and 2) developing a strong sales process readily customized for each prospect. They will become cost effective in less time, and they won’t be heading for the door.
Please call me directly at 847-447-0008 Extension 1 if you’d like to learn more or just email me at pkrone@productivestrategies.com. I’m looking forward to hearing about your challenges, your successes, and your opportunities.