Your Sales Staff May Be Vulnerable
As you know, the recession has taken its toll on workers. Those who remain employed are openly unhappy about things. A recent study found that 71% of employees intend to find a new job when the market turns around. Sales people are no exception.
Of all the job categories, sales reps are under the most pressure to perform in this tough environment; the mantra has been work harder and make more sales calls. To make it worse, many commissioned sales people have taken significant pay cuts---I know some reps that have seen their income cut by 50% or more. Candidly, it is likely your sales reps are very angry and will consider changing jobs soon.
In response, here is what I recommend:
- Wake up and smell the coffee. Anticipate turnover and prepare for it.
- Spend some quality one-on-one time with your sales staff to access their vulnerability.
- Investigate and/or revise employee retention strategies; this could include a personal development plan for each rep. Find out what they want and need.
- Consider the creation of long term incentives. Investigate golden handcuffs to keep them.
- Invest in training your sales staff to help them get ready for recovery.
- Time to review your succession plans including sales management.
- Consider upgrading your sales staff with better reps. The upside of this market downturn is the great inventory of available quality reps who need jobs.
Finally, hug your sales reps daily. They need love too.
John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.
Source: CNN 2009