Proven strategies for retaining your best salespeople

Over the last 18 months we’ve seen a drastic change in sales teams across the UK, with the onset of the pandemic and Brexit causing a huge shift in the way people and businesses buy and sell. In this ever-changing landscape, it’s more important than ever for businesses to develop clear strategies around how they are going to source, upskill, and retain their best people to help their business navigate into 2022 and beyond. 

Here are 4 proven retention strategies that will help you keep your staff turnover low, boost employee engagement, and keep your sales team strong: 

1. Create continuous opportunities for growth 

Most top salespeople want to grow within their career. The moment that potential stops existing is the moment talented individuals are going to start looking for new opportunities. So, if you want to keep your best salespeople engaged, you’ve got to keep raising the stakes for them across the board, and at the right frequency. Building out a strategically designed, transparent system of targeted milestones that increase in difficulty and responsibility over time is key to retaining top talent in today’s market. 

Not only do you need to build this framework, but you also want to make sure you’re showcasing this to salespeople from the moment they start the business so that they’re fully aware of where their career could go if they stay with your company. 

For example, if a talented Sales Development Representative (SDR) knows exactly what it takes for them to be successful and earn a promotion inside of their first year, they’ll be more likely to stay within the business and reach for that milestone. Once that’s been reached, the next milestone will be set a little bigger, again increasing the engagement and striving for them to progress. 

This will ensure you keep your talent engaged and excited – plus, it promotes from within, and so will save a lot of your budget spent on employee churn. 

2. Be a great sales leader 

It's often said that “people leave bad bosses, not bad companies.” It’s hard for an employee to do great work if they’re facing obstacles from people they should be receiving support from. Being a good leader for your sales team will have a huge impact on their success and the overall retention rates. 

So, what are the characteristics of a great sales leader? A great sales leader is focused on team successes, not on their own. They are great at collaborating with others and will encourage creativity and curiosity amongst their team members. Finally, a great sales leader should have strong communication skills. Find out more expert advice on how to be an effective manager here.

3. Build a magnetic culture 

Building a strong and positive company culture should be one of your top priorities when it comes to retaining a killer sales team. There are vast benefits to creating an open and friendly working environment for your team. A good environment can create a substantial boost in employee job satisfaction and productivity, which ultimately profits the company through increased efficiency and employee retention.

There's no definitive blueprint for a successful sales culture — they come in various shapes and sizes. However, a good sales culture in particular brings out the best in its salespeople. That means: 

  • Healthy competition amongst team members 
  • Collaboration and knowledge sharing
  • Trust and communication, both within the team and the greater organisation
  • Continual learning and development
  • Accountability for individual work and successes 

4. Optimising your hiring process 

In a competitive, candidate-driven market, it’s vital that you move fast when hiring for a new role. Talent salespeople aren’t on the market for very long, so having an optimised and efficient hiring process is key to attracting top salespeople.

Here at Michael Page, we provide monthly thought-leadership content and intuitive tools that can help you and your business create a streamline recruitment processes which in turn improves your ability to attract and hire top candidates that are on the market today. Get in touch today to find out more.