Latest / Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth / 72: Top 8 reasons why great sales people leave

Transcript

72: Top 8 reasons why great sales people leave · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Top sales talent very rarely is on the market and looking for a job.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: So when they do want to leave, what is it that gets them to leave their current situation?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Find out the top eight reasons in this episode.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bite-sized sales podcast, where we believe that you don't need to take time out of the field or off the phones, stuck in a classroom, in order to get great sales and sales leadership training, and that taking bite-sized steps each day to get better at your craft is the best way to improve your results.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Andrew Monahan, and I'm using my 20 plus years in B2B sales to bring you simple, actionable ideas that you can use every day to help you get better.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to the tip for today, this episode is sponsored by Sales Bluebird.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us don't have time to keep up with the latest sales ideas and all the blogs, podcasts, and news articles every week.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sales Bluebird curates content from all these sources and gives you one thought from me, two quotes from others, and three sales leadership ideas once a week in your email inbox for free.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sign up right now at salesbluebird.com.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode 72 of the Bite-sized sales podcast.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this episode is all about how to think about attracting and shifting great sales talent from their current role into your company.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not easy, right?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: These people are not just randomly looking for jobs.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's very rare that they're truly on the market.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're not out there looking at uh job postings and applying for jobs.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: They've got a track record, people know who they are, they want to bring them on board.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not usually easy for them to walk away from what they're doing.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're often at really good companies and they're often in situations where they're doing pretty well, right?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, in those situations, why would someone like that ever leave?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: A number of years ago, Sales Benchmark Index did some work around this, and I kind of paraphrased some of it and put it into this list of eight things that are reasons why top sales talent leave.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I was in a role recently at a company where I was doing a lot of the early screens as we were looking to bring people into the sales team.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it was rare that we I would talk to someone from one of two or three companies which were high flying in our industry, right?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it was very, very rare that it was someone from those companies who was doing really, really well and is seen as a top talent.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I did notice some of the trends here, right?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the things I'm going to talk about.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I saw it.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I asked them why looking to leave, there was a couple of things list that I heard again and again.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it really rings true for me.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember at the time thinking these are things I should probably listen out for or look out for as we're working some of the candidates coming in.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you what the list is, and I'll go through each one in turn.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is a change in sales manager.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I think maybe the more important part of this is a change in the style of sales manager, right?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: If a new one, new person comes in and they're completely different to how you like to be managed or like to be led, then that's going to cause you problems, right?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a difference in values about that sales manager.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime there's a different difference in values between two people, that's where it gets really, really rocky, right?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you imagine you're you're a high-flying rep at a high-flying company and suddenly the manager changes and it's actually someone you know and you trust and you get on well with, that's probably not gonna impact you too much.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But imagine it's not, right?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine it's someone from outside you never heard of before, and immediately they come in and start asking for activity spreadsheets or something like that, right?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you're just not that, you know, make a hundred cold calls a day type of person.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna cause you a lot of stress, and you're gonna say, I can't work for this person.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I've heard it from people in the past.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: As new people come in and you internally in the company, you go, How's how's the new guy doing?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll start rolling their eyes, right?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a mismatch uh there immediately.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing on the list is comp plan changes.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, this happens a lot, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every year there's always tweaks to the comp plan.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think where I've seen this have the biggest impact is when there's a shift in the company about which groups have the most power.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I mean by that, right?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime you're at a sales-led company where sales is really driving things and driving the company forward, and the sales leader is really strong and politically aligned internally, then usually the things go well for the sales team, right?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Things go your way.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: The comp plan is rich, but not stupid.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's attractive.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can look at it and go, yes, this is good.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I can make some money.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's simple, it's understandable, it's not too complicated.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if I do these things, I can see how much I'm gonna make, right?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the balance of power shifts.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen a couple of companies actually where finance takes over and then they start want to, you know, cut away the comp plan.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: They think that salespeople get paid too much, right?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you're there as a high-flying rep in a company that's going places, and suddenly you look at your new comp plan, you go, well, hold on.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: If I do the same as I did last year, probably in a smaller territory, I'm not gonna get paid nearly so much as I was before.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why is all these changes?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: It makes no sense.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And suddenly, you know, it gets the heart of someone to say, My goodness, I could work my ass off this year, and I still wouldn't make what I did last year or the year before.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, comp plan changes can have a big problem.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the same that goes with a comp plan change is a quota increase, right?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've looked at this, I've experienced this in all different sides.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, if you're a company that's growing, the sales team is expected to do more.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So either you take a bigger quota or you get, you know, there's more people and you take a quota, a territory cut, right?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: But how it's handled is so important, right?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if someone's got gets their quota doubled, and I've heard horror stories interviewing people about you know things that have gone on, and there's something expecting so much more from reps that are just you know just not achievable, not attainable on any sort of scale.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh quota increases is one of those areas.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth one is sales leadership change, you know, and you know, we've all seen this where the head of sales is the person that gets changed up.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I had it happen to me recently at a company where a new leader came in, and he and I just did not see eye to eye about what I should be doing and what the real impact should be and how to go about doing things.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I left that company because that of that, you know, the CRO came in with a completely different vision.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I could just sit there and say, you know, I could see how I can make an impact, but I I can't make nearly as much of an impact as I think is needed and I know is needed if I go down the plan that he wants us to to go down.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, this these you know, CROs come in, head of sales come in, and they they can have that type of impact, right?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we've seen it all where the focus of the sales team might change because of what the sales leader believes was needed.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you go from a very highly direct company into more of a channel company.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're you're all about partners, and the guy the new person says, no, we're gonna build our business by going direct all the time.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, right?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: These these people have such a huge impact on how we do our jobs and the the variables that a sales leadership change can actually result in a in a big shift in the sales force.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth one is is product issues.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, at the end of the day, products are products, right?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh really great sales teams and salespeople can can really work with what they're given.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a huge but here, right?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: When it impacts your ability to deliver great things for your customers, that's where for many of us it becomes more of a challenge, right?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: If there's a track record for new features slipping, if you're out there working on a roadmap and setting expectations with your customers and prospects that things are coming and they don't come, then you yourself lose credibility as a top rep and therefore you don't want to keep going down in that situation.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like the product itself is undermining you, not just your ability to build business, but also undermining your credibility.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So any kind of changes in in that world or continuous slipping or or poor quality products, things like that, can cause salespeople to leave.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: The next one on the list is one that happened to me recently.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Company has been acquired.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, they don't want salespeople, they don't need the current salespeople, they've got their own salespeople, whatever it might be, right?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: When the company is acquired, there's there's a lot of uncertainty that goes with it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes what they'll say is, look, we don't want to change anything, we want you guys to keep operating and keep doing your thing.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And for a certain time that may be true, but I think we've all seen this, where at some point in the future, in a few weeks, sometimes, or maybe in a year or two, then they're gonna change things around and bring that whole acquisition into their fold somehow.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the one I went through recently, they they didn't want our salespeople because they had their own salespeople, right?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the whole basically you know the whole sales team got laid off.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, you know, top reps as well.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: They just decided they didn't want many of any of us at all.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that caused some great reps to be on the market all of a sudden.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Next one here is no upward career opportunities.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's it's funny, you know, the company's not growing very fast, then it's rare that you there's a whole myriad of different opportunities to move up.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And for many of us, we want to stay being top performing reps, and for many of us, we don't, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that might change for you.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've known sales reps who are just top, top performers want to keep doing that for you know 10 years, and then suddenly they get the itch to say, you know what?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to challenge myself a little bit, I want to grow a little bit, I want to take on a team and go do new things, right?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, you're you know, that person may or may not feel there's an opportunity to do that at their existing company, and that might be an opportunity for them to move on and go somewhere else.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the last thing on the list is territory changes.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And this one happens a lot.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot easier to change territories than it is to change quota and comp plans in a company, right?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't have to be wholesale changes, but you know, if you're looking at the region or you know, a geo or whatever, and you get a whole bunch of reps, when you're when you're and I've I've experienced this, you're looking at the map and you're looking at uh addressable market in each region, each territory, and you start moving things around, before you know it, as a leader, as an operations person, it's way too easy to start moving states and and cities and and accounts around, not truly understanding the impact it's gonna have on the individuals in these situations, right?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you hope that someone comes in as the voice of reason sometimes and say, well, let's not make wholesale changes, let's figure out you know the right thing for the people, not just where we allocate uh territories.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: But often it doesn't happen that way, right?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you can have, and I've seen this and I've heard this, top reps say, listen, you know, I've I've worked these these whatever it is, 15 accounts for five years, and suddenly they just come along and take away six of them because we got some new policy that says that you know I can't have more than 10 or nine or whatever it is, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And these weird arbitrary things happen and they get forced down upon even the top reps.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they kind of, you know, sometimes if it's uh you know a decision made above without the best view of the individuals in the sales team, you get great sales reps who are like, you know what, screw this, I'm gonna go and look somewhere else.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: So these are eight things to listen out for.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're working to get great talent, when you're talking to them and you're feeling them out, these are some areas to ask questions about, right?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And to ask them how they think they'll handle it if it happens.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you you're not trying to scare them with the idea that did you know that, you know, it's likely that your territory is going to get cut.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: But what you can do is say, look, you know, as as your company grows, I'm sure one of four or five things is gonna happen.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just wondering what your your thoughts are about how you might handle that, right?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they might say, well, I don't really care about leadership changes, but what I do care about is these 10 accounts I've got.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know that these are the kinds of always work with.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if someone comes along and says you can't have them, then I'm gonna have a problem with that.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then you know that's your that's that might be your in to to really work that person so that if it ever does change, then you're ready to swoop in and say, listen, I can give you those 10 accounts in my team.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we come and talk about by joining the team?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's eight reasons to leave.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Figure out how to use those when you're working with great reps that you want to attract into the team to try and get some leverage or give them reasons to make this big switch.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Change for reps does not happen easily if they're happy where they are, right?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So these are some things to look out for.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you like this podcast, the most useful thing you could do to support it is share it with just one person.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: It will mean the world to me, but more importantly, for that one person, it may well transform how they lead and also their results in the coming quarters of the meeting.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: It will take you just 20 seconds.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is click the share icon in your podcast app and follow the prom.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I need your suggestions with you.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a topic you want me to cover or just want to get in touch, simply email me at upside at unstoppable.do.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's upside at unstoppable.do.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And now to wrap up this episode, training without implementation is just entertainment.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if you heard something today that you want to use, take action right now and keep getting better every single day.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I'm sending off as the great Joe Sexton would by saying, gone to sell.