Almost 20 years ago, I was in the late stages of interviewing with a company and knew I was going to have a decision to make. I started to do my due diligence and heard something that made me want the job more than ever. A friend of mine that competed against this company told me about the VP of Sales working directly with his team on their personal lives. He made sure they had everything they needed to be successful at work. If one his sales people had to focus on a project for weeks, he made sure that person took a three or four day weekend to catch up with on much needed rest and family time when the project was over. He didn’t wait for the sales person to request it – he was proactive about it. He made sure they had their retirement funds set up properly; he introduced them to his suit tailor; and he even took them to get their physicals as a team every year. Man, I wanted that job. At the end, life took a different course for me, and I had to stop my interview process before it concluded. However, I always wondered what would’ve happened.
As you know, there is significant turnover in sales – much more than there is in other departments. Reducing your turnover will dramatically improve your chances of reaching your sales goals. If you get to know your sales people and you’re able to support them on a personal level throughout the many extremes of this rollercoaster career, your sales people will be committed to you and will think twice about leaving – regardless of the other offer. Another byproduct of this behavior will be the long line of the industry’s best talent lining up to work for you.
As a sales manager, how much do you know about the people on your team? What do you know about their families? What do they like to do? What motivates them? What scares them? Get to know these things about your sales people, proactively make sure they have what they need, and watch your turnover decrease to almost nothing and your sales fly.
