In the event you’re not consciously familiar with Sodexo, you’ve almost certainly been touched by the global food services and facilities management behemoth.

Headquartered in France, Sodexo has nearly half a million employees and a presence in 80 countries. Beginning as a supplier of services to hotels three decades ago, the company’s ever-growing buffet of offerings now encompasses everything from food service to security to full facilities management.

SITUATION: Five years ago, office workers on break would go to a central location like a food court or cafeteria to get a coffee. With the advent of restaurant delivery services like Door Dash, Sodexo needed their new VP to be technologically adept, evaluating or developing apps and other digital services that would enable the company to maintain engagement and revenue from these office workers by allowing them to preorder from their phones. Sodexo engaged PeakSales to help them find a VP Sales/Corporate Services for all of Canada.

SOLUTION: Their human resources head is located in Montreal. HR did a video call with each candidate and made extensive notes on each one to make sure that the intangibles and cultural requirements for the job were met. A few candidates went on to do a video interview with the VP/Sales for all of Canada, and then an in-person interview with him at the headquarters in Burlington.

RESULTS: In the end, Peak’s team had a list of 68 potential candidates, and spoke to 31 of them who were pre-screened and about half were interesting enough to be vetted. Ten of those candidates were passed on to Sodexo. Despite the steep requirements, Peak got their player/coach with strong sales skills, experience in facilities management and food services, and the energy to find and develop new clients. Together with three business development managers — all direct reports — the VP is responsible for new client acquisitions and partnership agreements with businesses.

Currie and his team quickly developed their strategy. When you’re hunting elephants, you need to look where the elephants hang out. For Currie, that meant poaching someone from another behemoth — a Cintas, or an Aramark or one of the newer co-working space companies. Sodexo’s national headquarters are in Burlington, in the Toronto metro and that figured prominently for Currie: “They were looking Canada-wide, but I knew it was a better fit if we could find someone within a 45-minute drive of headquarters,” he adds.

We needed a player/coach. A sales leader probably wouldn’t want to go back to selling. And an individual contributor might not be a leader right away, they might not be able to create a strategy, then meet it themselves while also leading others to do the same.”

In the end, Currie’s team had a list of 68 potential candidates, and Currie spoke to 31 of them. Those 31 were pre-screened and about half were interesting enough to be vetted by PeakSales.

Ten of those candidates were passed on to Sodexo.

“Sodexo was very, very thorough,” Currie recalls. “Their human resources head is located in Montreal.

She did a video call with each candidate and made extensive notes on each one to make sure that the intangibles and cultural requirements for the job were met.” But that wasn’t the end of the process. A few candidates went on to do a video interview with the VP/Sales for all of Canada, and then an in-person interview with him at the headquarters in Burlington.

Since the job was located in Ontario, being bilingual wasn’t a requirement, but is was a big plus. The final interview was with the global head of human relations for all of Sodexo, who’s located in France.

Despite the steep requirements, PeakSales got their elephant — or in this case, a unicorn:

A player/coach with strong sales skills, experience in facilities management and food services, and the energy to find and develop new clients.

“The person they eventually offered accepted the job and he’s been a great contributor,” Currie notes. “He’s even followed up with us post-hire to tell us he’s exactly where he wants to be. It was a great move up in responsibility for him and he’s absolutely hit the ground running.”

The Great Resignation is here. It is impacting many employers who are scrambling to retain their employees. Several factors are driving this challenge across the economy.

Three Reasons Why The Great Resignation Is Hitting Employers

After a year of elevated stress thanks to the Great Resignation, many professionals are leaving their positions. Several pandemic-related factors drive the exodus.

A Once In A Generation Opportunity For Career Reflection

The pandemic has given many professionals time and space to reflect on their career goals and may have decided to change direction. For some people, the pandemic has prompted them to change careers entirely, while others are looking for a different manager.

Consequences of Burnout and Poor Management During The Pandemic

Some employers have drained their employees through excessive workloads and inadequate support for remote work. This challenge is especially significant for working parents who have had children at home for long periods during the pandemic. NPR reported that four million people quit their jobs in April 2021.

In many sectors of the economy, the job market now favors employees. This change is leading some employers to adopt unconventional tactics. The food industry is particularly aggressive: A McDonald’s in Florida is paying applicants $50 to show up for job interviews.

Professional employers are also adopting new ways to appeal to employees. For example, San Francisco advertising agency Traction has closed its office and switched to a fully remote model. Other companies are experimenting with the hybrid model like Microsoft, which has proposed a combination of remote and in-office work.

Improve Retention By Diagnosing Retention Situation 

Macroeconomic factors will only tell you so much. It is vital to diagnose your marketing department’s retention situation and the factors driving it.

Step 1: Understand Your Talent Situation

In light of the Great Resignation, it is time to strengthen retention and make your marketing department more attractive to current employees and new hires. These questions are vitally important even if your company won recognition on lists such as Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work.

• Employee Turnover Statistics. Track how your department’s turnover rate has trended since 2018. An increase in turnover can signal discontent.
• Evidence of Career Progression. Ask yourself how many people in your department have been promoted over the last 18 months. A lack of promotion opportunities will discourage the most ambitious professionals.
• Level of Marketing Creativity. The ability to generate new ideas is central to marketing success. For example, some companies pivoted to running virtual conferences during the pandemic. Ask yourself about the quantity and quality of new ideas your employees are bringing to the table. A significant fall in creativity may tell you that employees are under excessive stress. If the marketing professionals that work for you continue to lack creative opportunities, you are more likely to lose them.
• Flexibility. Expecting all employees to work in the office building 9-5 Monday to Friday no longer makes sense. According to a FlexJobs survey, 96% of workers desire some remote work (either full time remote or a hybrid arrangement).
• Engagement With Managers. If you have department-level employee survey data, look for signs of heightened employee discontent. In particular, look for signs that employees are discontent with their direct manager because Gallup data suggests that a person’s manager drives 75% of voluntary turnover.

By using these steps, you can diagnose the specific issues causing talent problems for your department. Generally speaking, many retention problems can be improved by reducing pain points and adding incentives.

Step 2: Improve Retention By Removing Pain Points

Based on what you learn from the previous step, there are a few different ways to boost retention by reducing problems.

• Improve Technology. Did your employees complain about manual processes or repetitive tasks? For example, your employees might struggle with video calls. Equipping staff with lights and better headsets might be the best solution.
• Improve Access To Management. Waiting to hear back from managers is frustrating for employees. Encourage your managers to experiment with scheduling regular “office hours” where staff can drop in to get answers to their questions.

Step 3: Improve Retention With Recognition And Listening

There are two kinds of incentives that CMOs should consider: financial and non-financial incentives. Sometimes you may have limited ability to boost pay and benefits. In that case, use non-financial incentives to boost retention.

• Offer Project Opportunities. Look for ways to give your employees more growth opportunities by participating in cross-company projects.
• Encourage Networking. As the CMO, you probably have an extensive network of connections in the company. You know leaders in sales, customer service, and other areas. You can reward top-performing professionals by opening your network to them.

Step 4: Assess Your Compensation Package

The compensation package you offer is the final element to consider to boost retention.

• Take Inflation Seriously. For example, some economists have pointed out evidence of increased inflation in 2021. Increased inflation translates into a pay cut for employees as their dollars can no longer buy as much food, transportation, and other goods.  Reuters reported that US consumer prices had posted their most significant gain in more than a decade in June 2021. Cost of living salary increases in 2021 may need to be higher to retain staff.
• Benchmark Your Salaries. Check your salary levels and see if they remain competitive with the rest of your industry. You can check industry sources like the American Marketing Association or ask a recruiting expert like Peak Sales Recruiting for advice. If your salaries are below the median for the industry, retention, and recruitment will be more difficult.

Augment Your Recruiting Strategy

Aiming for 100% talent retention is not a realistic goal. Assuming your turnover rate is reasonably close to industry averages, you can turn your attention to improving retention.

Working with an experienced recruiting firm like Peak Sales Recruiting is essential. Rather than hoping your job posting happens to gain attention online, we can help you gain access to more high-quality candidates, including those not actively looking for a new position.

Is your company missing an exceptional Marketing Executive? APEX CMO SEARCH are Marketing Executive Search specialists focused on delivering exceptional executives for Clients seeking growth & transformation. CONTACT US TO HIRE OR GET HIRED!

You have a shortlist of candidates for your next sales leadership position. Choosing between candidates based on a few interview meetings is risky. You need to understand how the candidate’s leadership skills and strategic thinking will apply to your context. The solution is to invite your top 2-5 sales leadership candidates to present a sales plan for the organization.

Three Reasons Why A Sales Plan Presentation Improves The Hiring Process

There are a few reasons adding a sales plan presentation to the process of finding the right VP sales for your organization can help you to make a good hiring decision.

1 You Can See The Candidate In Your Company’s Context

Asking a candidate about their past sales leadership experience is helpful. For example, you can learn about their strategy to coach salespeople. However, each company’s sales situation is different.

For example, your company might have problems retaining skilled salespeople. A Harvard Business Review estimate in 2017 found that the annual turnover of salespeople can reach 27%. If high turnover is a challenge for the sales organization, mention this challenge so that the candidate’s sales plan can consider hiring and retention strategies.

2 See The Candidate In Action

For years, companies have offered free samples to consumers as a marketing strategy. It lets the customer directly experience the product. In a hiring context, some organizations give coding tests to technology professionals. It isn’t easy to simulate a leadership situation with a test. That said, seeing how each candidate thinks about the process gives you insight.

3 Speed Up The Onboarding Process

Ideally, the sales plan presentation should not be a theoretical exercise for the hiring process. Instead, encourage candidates to view the sales plan as a valuable document to help them onboard to the company. Further, the sales plan will help the candidate feel an immediate sense of ownership when they start because they will execute a strategy they have developed.

How To Make The Most Of A Sales Plan Presentation

That said, a sales plan presentation represents a significant amount of effort for the candidates and the hiring company. To make the most of this process, use the following tips to fine-tune your process.

1) Outline Your Sales Plan Expectations

Providing a few simple guidelines to sales leadership job candidates will make the process unfold more smoothly.

• Time Period. Specify the time period the candidate’s sales plan should cover. The time period you suggest should align with your company’s typical sales cycle (e.g., months or years for significant enterprise sales vs. much shorter periods for transactional sales). In addition, help the candidate understand the company’s main strategic goals to prepare accordingly.
• Audience. Tell your candidates who they will be presenting to, such as the VP of marketing and the CEO, so that they can consider those stakeholders appropriately.
• Presentation Format. Tell your candidates how much time they will have to prepare and respond to questions from your hiring panel (e.g., 90 minutes in total).
• Provide Guidance On Growth Goals. The degree of revenue growth you expect to achieve matters. For example, a Fortune 500 with billions in sales might be pleased with growing top-line revenue by a few percentage points. In contrast, a startup might aim to double total revenue in a year. There’s no need to share specific sales quotas, but some level of guidance will help.
• Customer Insight. If your company has publicly available case studies, testimonials, or videos with customers, remind your sales candidates to look at them. This step can be beneficial for candidates coming from a different industry.
• Sales Plan Assumptions. As an outsider, the job candidate will have limited information about the sales capabilities of the organization. Look for them to state the fundamental assumptions they made in preparing their plan (e.g., “I assume 80% of sales reps will meet quota each quarter” and “I assume we will have double the size of the sales team in 12 months to achieve the company’s stated revenue goals). For example, you might ask them to use publicly available sales statistics to ground their assumptions.

2) Limit The Sales Plan Presentation To Your Shortlist

Sales leadership candidates are busy people, so asking them to spend several days on a sales plan presentation is a significant time investment. Asking ten candidates to prepare a sales plan presentation is probably unwise. Instead, we recommend only asking a maximum of three candidates to prepare a sales plan

3) Invite A Few Key Stakeholders

To reduce bias, it is helpful to have three people listen to the sales plan presentations and provide feedback. Specifically, invite stakeholders who are likely to interact with the new sales leader regularly, such as the CEO or President, head of marketing, and customer service. Inviting multiple stakeholders will also help to gauge how the candidate may interact with their future colleagues.

4) Use A 0-10 Scoring System

Rather than relying on highly complex scoring systems, use a simple 0-10 scoring system. Use the following definitions as a starting point:

• Score 0-4: The sale plan has significant errors and mistakes. The candidate’s answers to questions may have been unclear or confusing. A score this low indicates that the candidate probably lacks the skills to develop a sales plan. Hiring this candidate with a weak sales plan could require significant coaching and support.
• Score of 5-6: The sales plan is of reasonable quality and shows some understanding of the company’s goals and target market.
• Score of 7-9: The sales plan is above average, and the candidate has demonstrated excellent strategic thinking skills. The sales plan likely requires only minor adjustments before it is put into effect.
• Score of 10: A score of 10 means the candidate has impressed everyone with an ambitious sales plan grounded in reasonable assumptions. Seriously consider making an offer quickly to this candidate, or you may lose this candidate to another company.

A candidate who has met your other criteria in the hiring process and scores about 7 is well worth pursuing.

Transition To Onboarding

Now that you have selected a sales leader to join your organization use the sales plan document as a resource during onboarding. Provide your new hire with additional sales data like customer lists, sales statistics, and sales representative performance reviews. With this additional data, the new sales leader will be able to fine-tune their sales plan and start to grow revenue.