8 Unaddressed Reasons Why Great Salespeople Are Leaving Your Company

So one of your sales reps has generated prospects, built a strong sales pipeline, and cracked some hard nuts to convert them into big accounts. Then suddenly… the person quits, leaving you baffled because they left while at the peak of their performance. 

As a one off case, this isn’t a reason for alarm for most people in management. Yet, when this cycle continues with some of your other top performing reps something is definitely wrong and needs to be fixed immediately. 

Aside from being offered a better job opportunity, there are other reasons that support an employee’s decision to quit. Here are some that might go unnoticed by the management: 

 

Burnout and Overwork

 

Burnout strikes employees, especially the sales reps when they have exhausted their physical or emotional strength at work. 31% of the employees who feel burned out daily are more likely to think about switching their job. With a pressure to hit the sales targets, long hours at the office, at the client meetings, or traveling, salespeople can feel more exhausted than other employees.  

 

Dealing With Non-Productive Activities

 

Sales reps spent over one fourth of their daily time searching for missing information and entering even more data into the CRMs. Apart from this, salespeople have to spend time on other non-sales activities such as internal meetings and administrative tasks. This leaves them with very little time prospecting and selling. Great salespeople want to spend time selling than doing the non-selling stuff that limits their sales productivity. 

This reason can go unnoticed as the person might not feel the need to convey this to the management. However, tools like Prodoscore helps you track the time spent by your sales reps on productive and non-productive activities.   

 

Lack of Helpful Tools 

 

In continuation with the above point, modern salespeople like to use tools do their job effectively and spend more time selling. Sales reps expect the access to the tools from management that can support their ability to sell better and more quickly. If management isn’t willing to invest in tools, they won’t feel valued and will look for better opportunities where the organization better supports its employees.    

 

Unrealistic Quota Assignments

 

This reason can easily go unnoticed for a number of reasons. Most often it’s the result of management not being realistic with either the quality of service/good, not paying attention to the market, or not listening to their sales team. Unrealistic sales targets result in more work pressure and frustration for your reps. If the situation seems hopeless enough salespeople will be happy to settle for a new opportunity elsewhere.

For example, you tell your team they must complete five upsells of the newest feature in one month to meet their quota. (And no, four sales doesn’t count. It’s all or nothing). Yet, there are major flaws in the original offering your clients rely on. So when your team tries to upsell, they are met with angry client emails asking why the original issues aren’t being fixed. All of that resulting in your team not meeting quota and being upset because they lost over something they had no control over. 

This might be seen as an extreme case, but the point is the same. If you can measure sales performance correctly and keep an open mind of what is a reasonable growth goal, you will be able to set realistic targets for your sales reps that will keep them motivated and reach the growth targets you want to hit.

 

Not Enough Coaching and Instruction from Sales Managers

 

Productive salespeople always look for ways to improve and enhance their skills. They expect guidance and coaching from their managers on selling techniques and tips to crack more deals. You need to find ways to coach your team even when things are busy under a tight schedule. If they aren’t challenged to grow and don't get the timely feedback from your end, expect them to look for other companies that have better sales managers.    

 

Reducing the Commission Rate As Reps Start Closing Large Deals

 

Salespeople who have performed well should be rewarded and given recognition to keep them motivated to hit the target. Yet, many companies tend to reduce the commission rate if the salesperson starts closing larger deals regularly. Reducing the commission rate because of success will make them feel frustrated. At the very least your reps will game the system to try to push deals out to ensure they don’t exceed that large tier to keep their commission consistent. At the very worst, delayed closes will result in dropped deals and encourage your team to explore a monetarily-rewarding opportunity with other companies.      

 

Keeping Poor Performers Onboard

 

Not every sales rep is a star performer. You will always have reps who consistently underperform or find it difficult to hit the target. It puts a lot of pressure on the top performers to show the desired sales numbers as a team. As a result, at the end of the month or quarter,  managers expect good sales reps to stretch themselves in order to achieve the team goal. The frustration starts when poor performers rely on excuses to mask their underperformance and management does not take any corrective action. 

Prodoscore allows the sales managers to get the performance report of each sales rep and analyze the numbers in the simplest form to take the corrective action at the right time.  

 

Concern About Company Stability

 

Sales reps are probably the best people to know the stability of the company as they directly work to drive the company revenue. Though your top reps are trying their best to close the deals, the company may still fail to create a strong position in the market for different reasons that might involve issues with investors, key stakeholders, or constant changes in leadership. 

Sales reps like to work for a company that’s stable as well as has a clearly defined future. 

Take the Corrective Measures

Addressing the issues from your best sales reps isn’t just about retaining the best men on the job, it is about maintaining a constant revenue machine. To ensure this, it is important to constantly track the performance, activities, and targets of your sales reps. Here’s where Prodoscore helps you get the actionable data in the simplest form whenever you need. Explore how Prodoscore works and calculate productivity of your sales reps. 

Let’s discuss your opportunities. Get a free demo!