No matter what business or industry you’re in, retaining top sales talent or talent in general is always an on-going challenge. Investing a lot of time and resources to find, groom and mature top talent only to see them leave is an ongoing concern for many. This is especially true for the small business owner. This topic caused me many sleepless nights when I was in business. I needed more sales people on the floor to handle the growth of the business. I needed good delivery people who know what the phrase “on time” means. If I wanted to grow, I no longer could be the best sales person and delivery person in the company. I needed to find good talent and committment to get me to the next level. Does this sound familiar?
Finding good people can be difficult. But to keep good people, you have to set yourself apart as a company and as a leader. It isn’t all about what the employee does for the company, you have to provide value to the employee in order to keep them. “Value” is preceived differently by different people, so you’ll also have to get to know them a little bit to understand what really motivates them.
- Lay out the vision and career path for our employee. Don’t be a “go-nowhere” job.
- Take the time to understand what they were looking for in a long-term position and in a place of work.
- Offer solid compensation and benefits packages.
- Provide ongoing mentorship and training.
- Beware of burnout. Recognize the signs and talk to your people when you sense something is wrong, rather than making assumptions, getting frustrated and putting them on a performance plan.
- Give recognition.
In most businesses, sales is a very vital component. Having top-flight sales people not only impact revenues but they impact your customers. Customers like continuity and working with the same people over and over again.
Lay out the vision! Mapping out the vision and syncing it to the employees’ roles will help you established credibility, loyalty and make them feel like they work for a solid company with growth opportunity. Now it may sound like I think it’s all about the employee — but I assure you, doing these things will not only save you time and money, it will help you grow your business. And it’ll probably make you look forward to going to work a little more every day too.
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