Why your best sales people maybe leaving you
I have been recruiting for clients sales team members for 13 years or more and there is the one constant I see and hear from great candidates.
As an employer you have a belief why your employees leave. The belief comes from your model of the world. These filters create biases, unconscious ones.
These biases can get in the way of really seeing and hearing why your people leave. You may ask them the simple question “so why are you leaving?” and you will receive the answer they believe you may want to hear which will also provide them a more positive exit. Remember the saying “ don‘t burn your bridges”.
This happened late last year to a client of ours. The recent new sales person resigned all of a sudden. The reason explained initially was there were differences between the sales person and owner that were better checked now than later. Amazingly the owner did not request further information. I prodded him to do so. When he did the response was more business related re the difference in strategy and approach to the market.
Something smelt bad. So I investigated further with the recent new sales person.
The owner was a micro manager. He was checking in twice a day with the sales person. Now this sales person was a proven sales person, great sales mind and skills sets (we knew this from our online sales candidate evaluations). His reference supported his experience. He simply did not like the way the owner was managing him. Did the exiting sales person want to share this with the owner – no, because, well, “ you never burn your bridges”. Does the owner need to know about his management style – does he want to know?
The questions we lead with will be determined by our unconscious biases. If we only want to hear what we want to hear we will structure the questions around this.
So here is the constant I hear.
· My manager was not there to support me.
· I am looking for a new challenge.
· The company was not interested in my input.
· I felt I was just another employee.
So if you want your best sales people to stay, and let’s face it you should, then what are you prepared to do now?
Hint.
Create a safe space for a conversation – you want them to feel safe being vulnerable. Do you know how to do this effectively?
Sit down with them immediately and ask the following questions and listen, really listen.
You do not need to reply, solve, suggest, defend, just listen.
So what would you like to achieve this year?
And what about in 3 years time, what would you like to be doing?
What would you like from the company to support you?
What’s really important to you being part of the organisation?
What would you like to see change?
What feedback, honest feedback, could you provide me as a leader?
So if they felt safe to share the answers you need to ponder and come back to them – with an agreed time frame.
Make sure you follow thru.
PS. Check their CV first and see if there was a pattern in the duration of employment and the reason for leaving – that is if your interviews captured this information originally and you have it on file.