RightToLead.com

85% of new sales people leave the job within their first three years. Fast food joints have a better retention rate and they’re paying people minimum wage. You’re offering to make them rich and they’re still running out the door so fast you need to grease the hinges weekly. Take a step back and stop the madness. Ask yourself why they’re leaving and fix it. Here are the top five reasons your revolving door keeps spinning.

1. You hired dopplegangers. We all do this, we hire copies of ourselves because we don’t have a scientific, systematic, organized way to hire competent people rather than entertaining, lively, likable people. You need to get “edu-macated” about competency-based hiring and develop a structured interview program that help eliminate your biases and bring in the horses that can really pull the sleigh.

2. You lied to them about the job. You did, didn’t you? You told them it was going to be wonderful. You told them that prospects would fall out of the trees and land at their feet, begging to buy their products. Then they found out that they needed to talk to 200 people to sell 1. They found out that their friends and relatives changed to unlisted numbers. They found out that they’ve got to be the best of the best to even get their foot in the door. Most people want to be good at their jobs, but they don’t really look good in tights and the cape chafes their sensitive neck. Spend as much time un-selling the job as you do selling the job, make sure new hires have a brutally realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. Great sales people belong to an exclusive club, make sure people are willing to fight their way in, they’re going to have to fight to succeed.

3. You assumed they’d figure it out. Your training program was written on a cocktail napkin with a crayon. Sink or swim is your motto. And sink they will. Every dollar invested in good sales training pays back five dollars in increased revenue. Assign a mentor to each new hire, train and drill, train and drill, until they can spill your product spiel waking up from a sound sleep.

4. They didn’t juggle all the balls. A good sales person needs to keep marketing, networking, prospecting, learning, proposing, negotiating, and closing all in the air all the time. If you don’t teach your sales people a systematic way of multi-tasking and time slicing they cannot succeed. This is not a natural act for most people. You need to give people a mandate to succeed.

5. You enjoy throwing bolos at their legs. You want your sales people to succeed, but then you let marketing generate leads that aren’t qualified. You under staffed the legal department so contracts take months to close. You tell the sales person to close the deal, but then you insist on negotiating the final contract. Decide up front whether you, and your entire organization, are going to lead, follow or get out of the way. The sales force is focused on meeting client needs, you need to make sure every part of your overall business is focused on enabling the sales force, not tripping them up.