Inside sales organisations risk losing 24% of employees
10th September 2019 | Journal Of Sales Transformation
Some 24% of inside sellers are actively looking for a new job, with the three most common reasons being dissatisfaction with the competitiveness of compensation package, manager quality, and the degree of respect the organisation shows employees. That’s according to findings from Gartner’s Global Labor Market Survey.
The survey also highlights factors that would pull sales representatives to similar jobs in other organisations. These include a 15% increase in compensation and a more comprehensive benefits package, work-life balance, more engaging work, more development opportunities, a friendlier work environment, and highly skilled managers.
“Leaders responsible for inside sales face a high turnover risk with reps today,” Matt Dudek, vice president in Gartner’s sales practice, told the Journal. “To avoid this, sales leaders not only need to craft a compelling employee value proposition to attract high-quality candidates to inside sales roles, they must make sure they are delivering on the proposition to retain talent in a competitive labour market.”
“While competitive compensation is an obvious lever for attracting and retaining inside sales talent, it is often an expensive and temporary fix that covers more fundamental issues with a role. By focusing on the most common reasons inside sales staff quit beyond compensation, sales leaders can decrease turnover and potentially realise efficiency and effectiveness gains as a result,” Dudek added.
To improve attraction and retention Gartner recommends two key steps:
- Address turnover and retention concerns with strategies that boost job satisfaction. A competitive compensation package is a major factor for inside sales representative retention, but sales leaders need not overinvest in compensation to retain talent. Gartner research shows that nearly 60% of inside sellers sampled did not select the competitiveness of their compensation as a top-five source of dissatisfaction at their previous employers.
- Focus on more interpersonal factors that motivate inside sales representatives by improving work-life balance, ensuring more engaging work, demonstrating development opportunities, creating a friendlier work environment and employing highly skilled managers. These non-monetary factors should be emphasised in job postings, as inside sales reps have identified them as reasons to leave their current position for another.