Top performing sales reps are rare — making up only 10-15% of the sales industry workforce — and, they are highly sought after. In order to remain competitive, it is essential that companies implement effective strategies to keep their top talent.
However, research shows that the voluntary turnover rate for salespeople (15.9 percent) is higher than the average rate for other types of employment (14.3 percent). These statistics demonstrate that in sales, if your employees are unhappy, they will move on to the next opportunity.
As a sales executive, it is crucial that you have a deep understanding of why your top talent is leaving in order to increase retention rates. That is why we have put together the top 21 reasons great salespeople leave their current position and what you can do to mitigate the risk of losing your best salespeople.
This infographic demonstrates 21 reasons why your top salespeople are leaving your organization:
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When entering a new market, the right sized salesforce will make or break whether the go-to-market strategy is effectively executed.
Hiring too many reps drains resources and limits the success of salespeople by over saturating the market. Not enough ‘feet-on-the-street’ means that a company will lag compared to its competitors, failing to grow during its pivotal first year.
Because of the challenge of estimating the right size of a sales team in a new market, many executives follow their instincts rather than digging into the facts to optimize market coverage and sales resources. This is a common mistake that can cause companies to miss between 2-15 percent of profitable revenue growth.
But there are effective ways that both mitigate risk and maximize revenue.
This article identifies:
The key methods for discerning the number of salespeople to deploy into a new market or territory
How these techniques will empower a leadership team to optimize their teams for long-term profit and reduce the opportunity costs of bad sales resource optimization.
Understand the Stage of the Business to Mitigate Risk
First, we encourage growth companies to ensure that they have established a concrete sales strategy before they think about sales force sizing. In particular, a company needs proof of a market opportunity, a detailed sales strategy, and the resources to hire salespeople who have proven they can excel in the company’s unique selling environment(s).
This approach mitigate the risk that resources and time are wasted on new salespeople before they’re ready for a sales team. For example, if an organization regularly changes the goals of the sales organization or hasn’t identified a target market and ideal customer base for each offering, the sales force won’t be able to close the right prospects — thus draining resources without contributing to the bottom line.
Although it’s vital that business leaders identify the ideal size of a sales force, they also need to source candidates with the right skills, experience, and sales DNA to fill the roles. Sales force competency gaps are detrimental to the ability of a company to successfully enter new markets, draining revenue and potentially damaging brand reputation.
One of the biggest mistakes growth firms make when determining selection criteria for new sales hires is assuming that experience selling for large companies is desirable. However, selling for a start-up is very different than selling for an established company. While working for an industry leader, salespeople benefit from a well-known brand, a stable product, a customer base for references, and the infrastructure to enable big sales. At growth-stage companies, there are a lot of obstacles that salespeople at industry-leading firms are not used to experiencing. For example, the product offering, value proposition, and target market can evolve quickly.
Salespeople need to adapt to multiple stops and starts as well as an extra level of rejection and resistance from leads. Not all salespeople, even the great ones, have the predisposition to be successful in a this kind of an environment.Given that, leaders of growth-stage companies need to create selection criteria to matches this unique selling environment. At Peak Sales, we look at candidates for growth-stage companies with the following sales DNA: ambition, optimism, flexibility, a comfort with uncertainty, perseverance, confidence, and an overriding sense of urgency.
Even for successful start-ups, it can be challenging to entice high-performing salespeople without a record of achievement or reputation within the industry; above-average compensation and the ability to have a material impact on the company as it grows can help usher in new recruits. Although these top performers require upfront investment, they’re less expensive than the alternative: mediocre salespeople.
Before building a new sales force, executives need to solidify their corporate and go-to-market strategies, assess their ability to pay top-performers, and estimate the expected length of the sales cycle. The longer the cycle, the longer it will be until an organization sees the returns on their investment in new headcount.
Match Territory Penetration to Sizing Needs
As important as it is for leaders to set a clear foundation for hiring through strategy, it’s a mistake to wait too long to expand their sales force. Analysis of 3,800 companies and their performance from PIMS (Profit Indicator Market Share) reveals that the strongest indicator of long-term profitability is market share. Companies that are launching a new product or expanding solution sets need to focus on aggressively penetrating new markets to gain an edge on competitors.
Unfortunately, some business leaders begin with a smaller sales force because they want to minimize headcount costs. They intend to hire more salespeople when costs equal profit. This “wait and see” approach can jeopardize market share, leading to compromised short and long-term profitability.
In fact, research from global consulting firm ZS Associate found that an understaffed sales team limits short-term revenue. Their team studied 11 health-care start-ups and found that the average sales force size was 46 percent smaller than it should be for optimal performance. Of that group, the start-up that outperformed their competitors in the short-term had the largest sales force.
The ZS study also found a strong correlation between sales force size and longer term performance. Specifically, they found that, “the sales force size that maximizes companies’ three-year profits is 18 percent larger, on average, than the size that maximizes one-year profits.” Building out a bigger sales force from the beginning sets the foundation for continued growth.
As cofounder of ZS Associates Adris A. Zoltners and writer Sally E. Lorimer summarize in Harvard Business Review, “The moment signs of success emerge, businesses should increase the size of their sales forces quickly and aggressively. Otherwise, they will forfeit sales and profits—and, perhaps, even their futures.”
Business leaders, therefore, need to find a balance between preparing a solvent sales strategy before hiring salespeople to execute that strategy.
Assess the Selling Capacity
Correctly sizing a sales team in a new market also depends on an analysis of the customers. That means leaders need to understand and segment customers to create a robust profile of each territory. From there, an organization can estimate how much selling time each segment requires. The collective, aggregated time from each segment gives leaders a clearer sense of the resources needed to support the customer base.
When leaders have identified the time each segment requires, they can consider the selling hours at the disposal of each rep. The average rep has ~1200 hours of potential time a year. However, organizations need to be realistic about how much time reps have to take away from that for non-selling activities. Plus, they have to account for the differences in performance — assuming that allsalespeople will perform and productively contribute at the same level can cause an underestimation in sales force size.
Just as executives consider selling capacity for reps, they need to make sure to add the infrastructure necessary to support and enhance selling activities. This can mean adding sales managers, inside sales reps, and administrative support personnel to the headcount. Even A-players can strengthen their impact when they have both administrative support and sales leadership. If you choose to hire sales reps beforehiring a manager, consider screening for candidates who are player-coaches: They possesses the experience and time to hone strategy, forecast sales, hold reps accountability, and support a healthy culture.
Building out a sales force means accounting for the structure and support required to achieve quotas.
Use a Sizing Tool or Technique
By considering the life-stage of the business and assessing both the role of territory penetration and selling capacity, leaders gain a general sense of the ideal sales force size. They can bring extra depth and accuracy to the process by implementing a scientific technique that balances common-sense approaches to these decisions.
Not only do statistical methods strengthen confidence in sales force sizing, they serve as definitive facts for leaders who need to advocate for sales resources within the organization.
Although data is not perfect, these two approaches help mitigate risk by pinpointing the optimal sales force size:
Return on Sales Optimization
Return on sales optimization (ROS) is widely practiced in sectors with large, established sales forces, but it’s just as relevant to growth organizations trying to break into new markets. This calculation takes into account both cost and revenue, maximizing profit on sales investments while limiting risk. When implemented correctly, it widens the operating profit margin.
As Business Executive summarizes, optimizing ROS depends on several pieces of data: the segment and product profitability, the sales response function, and the costs for sales employees.
Through this process, leaders compare the marginal profit contribution to the incremental cost attributed to each sales employee. The optimal sales force size is when the marginal profit is equal to the marginal cost — after that point, the ROS decreases because of the threshold effect and exhausted market potential.
Efficient Frontier Benchmarking
This “top down” approach is a tool that leaders can use to both target the most profitable sales force size and improve operational efficiency. Like ROI optimization, efficient frontier benchmarking (EFB) identifies the sales force size with the greatest possible return at a limited risk. However, unlike other methods, this calculation accounts for the differences in market potential and teams across regions, calculating the “efficiency frontier” among a company’s distinct sales units.
To accurately predict EFB, leaders need estimated data on sales revenue, sales costs, and sales activities in ten sales districts, as well as some general insights into competitors’ performance.
Dan Horsky and Paul Nelson of University of Rochester also details the formula for EFB in full, highlighting exactly how executives can use it to make a clear assessment of a sales force size. Their method works with each district, enabling leaders to identify the optimal sales size both on the local and national level. The formula specifically accounts for the changes in salaries, market potential, and expected performance based on geographical area:
SPEOP = The optimized number of salespeople in the district
g = Gross margin in the district
y = Number of salespeople
c= Fixed cost of a salesperson in the district
POTEN= Sales potential
The optimized sales force on the national level is the sum of the number of salespeople in each district. If companies have a limit to the number of salespeople they can hire nationally, EFB also gives leaders a tool to assess which markets would most benefit from those extra reps. In short, EFB is extremely precise and useful when executives input accurate data.
In conclusion…
These techniques and tips for sales force sizing in a new market ensure that business leaders pursue the right approach when executing their go-to-market strategy. Each method and tool moves beyond gut instincts to build on proven headcount sizing approaches that support long-term sales and profit growth.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
Whether you are happily employed, or actively looking for a new position, landing a sales job has become increasingly complex. A recent Wall Street Journal article revealed that 80 percent of corporate jobs are never advertised. Simply put, without expert knowledge, your career trajectory suffers.
Enter recruiters. Companies hire these professionals when a position is difficult to fill, when the role requires a very specific set of skills, or because they need the position filled quickly and lack the time or resources to get someone hired.
Recruiters specialize in building relationships with companies, sourcing and vetting top level candidates, and understanding the needs and goals of both. They are experts in the job market and understand hiring trends and challenges. But this is simply where it begins.
Here are the top ten reasons a sales recruiter is your best resource for advancing your sales career:
1. They know the industry
Much like sales professionals know their territory, sales recruiters understand their industry. They know who’s hiring, what positions are available, or will be in the future. Only a recruiter can provide this valuable insight.
2. They have access to jobs that will never be on the market
Often, recruiters are called to replace positions that are currently occupied or fill jobs that are new to the organization. These roles are rarely publicly advertised. The only way to find out about these potentially attractive positions is by partnering with a sales recruiter.
3. They have company insight
Retained recruiters spend a significant amount of time talking to and understanding companies since it’s their job to be informed and connected. These relationships enable recruiters to provide inside information about companies that aren’t readily available from other public sources. This provides an invaluable edge against other candidates applying for the same position.
4. Their reputation provides you with credibility
If you are qualified for a position, you can rely on the recruiter to get you an interview. They know the details of your work history and skillset and know how to effectively communicate this to the company. Since they have a relationship with the company, their advocacy of you is more meaningful than your resume.
5. They will improve your interview skills
In the process of working with a recruiter, you will become better prepared for the interview because he or she will have a good understanding of your prospective employer’s interview process. While good sales recruiters won’t “coach” you about what the interviewer is looking for or the kind of questions they may ask, they can provide you with advice on how to prepare for the interview and how to showcase your skills and accomplishments.
6. They save you time
The screening procedure during the interview process has multiple stages and takes a significant amount of time. Working with recruiters means it will be their time, not yours, spent matching your skills and experience with career opportunities.
7. They help you highlight your most relevant skillset
As someone who is an experienced sales expert, you likely have a great deal of sales experience to draw on when showcasing your work history. A sales recruiter can help you hone in on what’s most important in the role you are seeking.
8. They job hunt for you
Recruiters take much of the grunt work out of the process of making your next career move. Because they are constantly in contact with companies in the process of hiring, they are your source of insight and information when a potential role becomes available. You are able to remain employed in your career and only be contacted about positions that are in line with your career goals.
9. They help you negotiate
During the negotiation stage of hiring, your recruiter will act as a liaison between you and your new employer. He or she can provide you and the client with insight about the market of other compensation packages for roles at your level, helping you and your prospective employer negotiate a fair and effective compensation plan.
10. They provide support during the onboarding phase
During the onboarding process, top sales recruiters will prepare you for the first few days on the job, and then check in to ensure that you are getting comfortable in your new role. It’s a time when the recruiter can get any last feedback from the you as well.
Before choosing a recruiter to work with, do your research since not all recruiting firms are the same. Finding a great recruiter can mean the difference between remaining stuck in a less than fulfilling role and advancing your career to one that is meaningful and lucrative.
Click here for more industry insights and the latest on the B2B sales industry. To gain access to specialized B2B sales recruiters, submit your resume here.
Within the averaged 118 applications, you were among the 20% selected for an interview. But, you didn’t get the sales job. While it can be extremely frustrating when you fail to close your dream job, understanding the reasons behind your prospective employer’s decision is crucial to your success in future interviews.
That’s why at Peak, we put together an infographic detailing 7 reasons why you didn’t get the sales job:
If you lead a sales team, here are some proven and simple ways you can make your top performing sales reps leave for another employer. I am not quite sure why anyone would want their top reps to leave, but I have witnessed all of these things happen first hand, so I thought I would compile a list for easy reference:
1. Regularly change the compensation plan
Changing the rules of the game is a fast way to frustrate your best sales reps and is a top point of failure for compensation plans. This is particularly true when it occurs in the middle of a sales cycle and reps find that their maturing leads will result in lower payout commission than they expected. In addition, compensation plans can be difficult to understand. Reps won’t enjoy wrapping their heads around yet another one, especially if they need to significantly pivot their selling tasks and behaviors to meet performance standards.
Limit changes to compensation plans. If an adjustment is necessary, provide ample notice and communicate the ways that it can benefit both the rep and the business overall.
2. Reduce the commission rate if reps start producing big sales and big commission checks
High-performing sales organizations have been found to consistently reward their talent with compensation packages that are above market, which is one reason we strongly recommend against commission caps. They remove incentive for the best performers to grow, and top talent will soon look to other companies that can offer them uncapped earnings. They also remove an employer’s control over performance once the cap is activated.
What’s more, there is very rarely an economic downside for a company to pay large commissions if the sales compensation plan is structured to be profitable at any level.
“I was recently eating lunch with a telecom sales rep at a big company. We were talking about the comp plan and he mentioned that their pay stub showed a ‘commission deduction line.’ It shows the amount of commission earned and then a deduction for earning above the limit for the pay period. Let me repeat this. This company actually shows reps how they are being screwed (ahem, sorry, ‘capped’) as a line item on their pay stub. I can’t imagine anything more de-motivating.” — Steve Richard, CRO of Vorsight BP
3. Penalize the sales team for poor post-sales delivery
Companies should keep reps focused on delivering sales results by rewarding consistently excellent performance. But penalizing the team for post sales delivery is a distraction from those results that really matter.
Salespeople generally have varying approaches to post-sales relationships with clients. According to Steve W. Martin’s research, 36% of salespeople report that they feel personally responsible and dedicated to a customer’s success. 17% develop close friendships with them, while 26% report cordial but less personal relationships, citing busyness on both ends. 22% take a hands-off approach and just stay up to date on the client’s experience post sale.
The customer and company certainly both benefit from an excellent post-sales experience. But penalizing it detracts from what’s most important: selling activities.
4. Refuse to comp sales reps on certain types of sales that generate desirable profits for the company
Another common mistake in compensation plans is the tendency to pay commissions only on the sales of certain products and not others, even if they generate profit for the company. This doesn’t align rep goals with business goals. Instead, companies should pay the highest commissions for the sales that generate the highest profits, regardless of type of sale or type of product.
5. Fail to support reps with proactive product management, strong product development, professional delivery and effective support
Great reps want and need to sell great product offerings, not “me too” solutions. This is why it’s absolutely critical for product leaders to support sales and marketing by creating products that solve big problems for customers and disrupt the marketplace. They must also position the product well against the competition and find a price point that resonates with the market.
Product teams can listen to what customers truly want to purchase by tapping into the sales channel, support channels, market research, and user experience research, then use this information to develop a product roadmap that meets current customer demands and innovates to differentiate the product in the future. Meanwhile, companies can invest in a smooth product delivery process or infrastructure and create a robust support function to ensure customer success and loyalty after a sale.
6. Invest nothing in marketing and brand recognition
A 16-year quantitative study from the Harvard Business Review investigated the notion of “brand equity” and concluded that “billions of dollars are locked up in B2B brands, yet managers consistently skimp on brand building.” That’s an expensive mistake.
It found that corporate brand is responsible for 7% of stock performance, on average, for top public companies. What’s more, the best 40 brands outperform stock index MSCI world index by 73%.
A strong brand affects every business function, and sales is no exception. When a company is recognizable, a rep can enter a prospect relationship with a base level of familiarity and trust, saving time and effort.
There are many ways to invest in brand, such as:
Brand development: Mission, vision, and values; persuasive, articulate, on-brand sales collateral; and a modern website
Presence and brand recognition: Thought leadership content, community management, events, online marketing, and social media
7. Make them spend a lot of time completing reports and doing other non-selling activities
Mike Weinberg puts it well: “If the consequences for your reps not updating the CRM are harsher than they are for poor results and weak pipeline then it’s time for you to take a sabbatical and rethink your leadership priorities.”
Focus is critical to help your rep achieve sales results. Reprioritize activities like updating CRMs, pulling reports, and creating sales enablement materials like case studies by hand. You can cap time spent on these activities, and don’t penalize reps for being behind.
8. Hire sub-par sales reps and keep poor performers on board
If hiring strong salespeople sounds expensive, speak to any business leader who has built a team of mediocre salespeople. Underperforming sales reps drain financial resources, put pressure on managerial resources, hurt brand reputation in the marketplace, and damage the morale of the rest of the team.
If it’s tempting to fill an open seat quickly, resist the urge. (See our quick calculation of the cost of a bad sales hire and 4 types of salespeople you don’t want on your team.)
It’s equally important to fire poor performers quickly. Research shows that high-performing sales organizations are quicker to terminate: 18% of them fire after just one quarter, compared to 5% of underperforming organizations.
9. Step in to take over accounts reps have worked hard to acquire and develop
“Ownership is the most powerful motivator in business,” writes Chuck Blakeman, business advisor and founder. Reps who maintain ownership of a prospect from nurture stage onward will stay motivated to close them, and will be able celebrate in earnest once they do.
If a manager steps in to take over a rep’s account, however, that ownership is disrupted.
Managers should instead leave the selling to their talented reps. Companies with a well-developed sales process will be able to trust the rep’s ability to follow protocol, and managers can use weekly one-on-one time to stay updated on the status of projects (and get involved when appropriate).
10. Focus on hours and activities instead of your rep’s results
Excellent reps thrive in an environment where measurable business objectives are aligned with performance goals and where evaluations are based on those objectives.
It can feel frustratingly irrelevant when a company places too much attention on a rep’s hours, busywork activities, and physical time spent “in the seat.”
Results are what matter. To keep top sales talent, set clear expectations for success and keep performance measurements focused on those results. Rather than asking whether they were at their desk on Monday, ask them what matters: what accounts closed, deal size, and leading indicators like size of pipeline.
11. Forget to be a cheerleader that distracts everyone from the daily rejections
Rejections rack up on a daily basis in sales, yet a team’s success depends on their ability to soldier forward in the face of this reality. This is why it’s so important for a manager to support their reps by acknowledging and celebrating progress.
The key is in the small wins. Research from Harvard Business School shows how small wins have a strong positive effect on a worker’s motivation and their ability to tackle difficult work challenges.
So track daily and weekly wins. Keep a pulse on small positive metrics like leading indicators. Publicly acknowledge progress and remind your team of its overarching mission on a regular basis.
12. Require reps to make cheap travel arrangements which waste valuable selling time
Time is your salespeople’s most valuable and scarce resource, yet we see companies skimp on travel budget. Cheap travel arrangements can take a long time, chip away from selling time, and don’t deliver reps in their best possible condition.
Research* shows that every $1 strategically invested in business travel is correlated with an increase in $20 of additional gross profit, according to an analysis of 900 public companies over an 11-year period.
13. Fail to provide best practices and resources such as objection handling scripts and reference material
Even the best salesperson’s performance hurts in the absence of a well-structured sales process, best practices, and resources. Research shows that high performance companies aretwo times more likely to have structured sales process, and businesses that want to help their sales reps reach full potential need to support them in this way.
Talented reps don’t want to spend their time developing resources and reinventing the wheel. Support them with high quality reference materials, sales enablement collateral, objection scripts, value proposition talking points, and more.
14. Ask reps to lie to customers and prospects in order to close more business
Top sales talent values integrity. A survey of high-performing salespeople overwhelmingly shows a preference for the truth, with 36% reporting “nothing but the whole truth is acceptable,” and 34% reporting “you don’t have to point out every blemish of your product.”
Reps stay intrinsically motivated when they believe in their mission and ability to match prospects with a truly good-fit solution. So lying to customers is a lose-lose proposition. Customers will lose trust in the company and churn, while a rep loses their most basic and powerful motivation engine. And managers that require a rep to lie will simply alienate their top talent and lose their respect.
15. Avoid coaching and constructively helping the reps be bigger producerd
Coaching is one of the most important activities a manager can do to develop their reps.
Not only does it benefit the company’s revenue, it is a retention tool that is directly linked to job satisfaction. A Bridge Group survey of over 2,000 sales professionals found that reps who received more coaching than others (over 3 hours per month) were twice as likely to recommend their role at their company to a friend. In other words, they were twice as likely to be “promoters,” using the standard satisfaction measure of NPS (Net Promoter Score).
There is room for improvement for managers to provide this support to their teams. We see a disconnect between how much coaching a rep feels they receive and what a manager thinks they provide. Managers from the Bridge Group survey reported that they provide an average of 3.9 coaching hours per rep per months, while reps reported receiving 2.2 hours. That’s a 40% discrepancy.
16. Refuse to leave your office and visit customers
Managers can’t lead from an ivory tower. For one, a disconnect can develop between a manager’s and a team’s appraisal of what their customers need and want if managers are not in touch with the reality of their customer base. Either the sales leadership and strategy start missing the mark, or reps need to spend time educating their managers on what they see in daily interactions, which draws away from selling time.
Secondly, reps need to see managers “in the pit” with them, modeling behaviors and attitudes. There’s nothing more frustrating than taking direction from a leader who is out of touch with the realities of the team.
17. Pay commissions late
Rewards reinforce behavior, and to keep your salespeople loyal and productive, make sure they can see an immediate connection between their positive activities and their commissions. It can be demotivating for a top rep to deliver a great sale and not receive commission when it’s due.
“When salespeople succeed, they should see it reflected in their paychecks immediately. When they fail, they should feel the pain in their paychecks immediately,” said Mark Roberge, who built the sales team at HubSpot. “Any delay between good (or bad) behavior and the related financial outcome will decrease the impact of the plan.”
18. Take credit for closing deals reps close
There is no faster way to alienate your team than to take credit for their work.
And it’s throwing away an opportunity to reinforce excellent work, keep the rep engaged with the company, and motivate them to close the next deal. Indeed, a study of top salespeople found that receiving acknowledgment for a job well done is key: “…they are also motivated by status and recognition. A staggering 84% of top sales professionals indicated that being respected and recognized as one of the best by peers at their company is very important to them.”
Never take credit for a rep’s closed deals. Instead, celebrate their work and highlight their accomplishments at all-hands meetings, smaller team calls, and in front of company executives.
19. Suggest or imply that selling is the easy part of a company`s success
Sales reps are the driving force of a company’s growth. It’s critical that managers tie their team’s role into the bigger picture and validate the many ways they influence the company.
The revenue impact is an important one that is easy to show quantitatively. Looking at sales results quarter over quarter one can see the direct financial impact a rep has on a company. This revenue translates into the ability to grow the company into new markets, further pursue its mission, pay salaries, and benefit investors and shareholders.
There are also less tangible ways that talented reps influence the company as a whole. Reps have a direct line to customers, who are the people that matter the most. Sales represents the brand. They connect the dots to solve people’s problems. They listen to customer needs and communicate them up through the company. There is no doubt that they are a key frontline component, and to suggest anything less is a big mistake.
If you find yourself doing anything on the list above, stop yourself immediately or else risking the loss of sales people you worked hard to find and develop!
**Note that the research mentioned in point #12 is from the Global Business Travel Association and the business travel division of American Express. Even if this study is aggressively pro-travel, we do agree that business travel expenses are worth the investment for top sales reps.
Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.
Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.
He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.
If you enter ‘Time Management Book’ in Amazon’s search bar, you will receive 43,584 results. These books offer hundreds of ways to maximize your time to be more efficient. But not many are focused specifically on the particular challenges sales professionals face. Online distractions and email addiction are often major problems for salespeople who spend much of their time online in an effort to stay up to date and competitive.
So, how does an overwhelmed sales professional free up time to focus on high impact selling activities and maintain a healthy work/life balance? Jill Konrath’s latest book More Sales, Less Time, answers these questions.
Packed with actionable advice on how to succeed in the age of distraction, this book promises to help you reclaim at least an hour a day, free up time to focus on priority sales activities, optimize your sales process, and transform your life by incorporating new, more productive habits.
Peak Sales Marketing Specialist and Sales Hiring Expert Taylor Dumouchel caught up with Jill to discuss how salespeople can succeed in the age of distraction:
Jill, what was your inspiration for writing More Sales, Less Time?
Shortly after my last book Snap Selling – all about selling to crazy-busy buyers – came out, I was speaking in front of a large group of salespeople at a conference. Afterward, a sales rep named Matt, came up to me and said, “Jill this is really good stuff for buyers and I see how this is going to work but I am crazy busy too! What do you have for sales people?”
He went on to describe his life. He would get up in the morning, race to the office, work around the clock, and try to meet his recently raised quota. He just couldn’t see any way to get it all done AND have a life AND be a father to his children.
The problem was, I didn’t have a response for Matt. I was feeling exactly the same way. As more time went on, there were more and more salespeople coming up to me saying, “I’m crazy busy. What advice do you have for me?” And I didn’t know the answer.
And finally, I got sick of not knowing. I was so crazy busy that I couldn’t stand it either. I needed to find a solution. And every time I address a sales challenge, and figure out a way to resolve it, I write a book about it. Thus, More Sales, Less Time.
The book is a model for how salespeople can succeed in the age of distraction. What would you say are the top causes of salespeople falling behind in their work?
The biggest reason salespeople fall behind is something that they haven’t a clue that they’re doing. They jump around from one task to another all day long. And, they think that’s the way they’re supposed to work. They get online in the morning, check email, think of something else they need to do, jump on LinkedIn, then check email, then jump to writing that proposal they need to work on, but then they think, “I better check email”.
All day long, they are moving from one focus to another. But the time increment between task jumping is miniscule. Research shows it used to be 3.5 minutes before people would switch tasks but with the digital age, it’s now 2-2.5 minutes. Research also shows that 72 percent of people respond to an email within six seconds. And, since they have so much riding on them, salespeople are amongst those who are constantly checking and responding to email. One of them just might be from the prospect they were hoping they’d close today. And as a result, their whole day is a function of disruption.
What we really need to consider is what this disruption does to our thinking and overall productivity. Research shows if you’re constantly disrupted, you’re adding an hour or two to your workday. But, this disruption also harms your thinking ability. And today, in order to be successful in sales, you need to be a world-class thinker. You need to be strategic, a fast-learner, up-to-date on what’s going on, and have insights for clients. Your head needs to be in the game, but if you’re bouncing around, it won’t be.
You say in order to overcome distractions, there needs to be a change. However, as you mention in the book, our brains are resistant to breaking bad habits. How can we overcome time-sucking temptations and recover lost time?
Habits are really hard to change – and I had no idea how hard they were until I started changing small habits of mine to get more done. I found out that my brain wanted to do things a certain way. For example, my brain was stuck on email. Every time a new email came in my brain instantly thought – “better check that!”
When we try to change habits, our brains create a massive resistance. To overcome this, you need to create goals and be really clear on what you want to accomplish. The goal can be anything from freeing up more time so you can get out of the office and have fun, to working hard to earn that promotion. Once you have established that goal, you need to ask yourself what you need to do differently and come up with a positive action – one that you can start doing and not one that you should stop doing.
It’s harder to change habits than we think. But in order to get more sales in less time, we absolutely have to change these default bad habits.
Let’s talk about email again. In the book, you advise readers to avoid checking email constantly. However, salespeople often feel the need to get back to important clients or prospects immediately. Will limiting time on email harm their sales?
As I mentioned before, most salespeople feel a strong sense of urgency and are constantly checking their emails, often responding within seconds. And, in some jobs, such as Inside Sales Reps, when your job is to follow up on leads coming in, there is research to support that quick replies have an impact on sales success.
But with the average salesperson, responding to an email in five seconds versus 60 minutes does not necessarily impact sales success.
How do you figure out if limiting time on email will affect your sales? Try conducting an urgency experiment. In my book, I discuss conducting this experiment myself. For a couple of days, I tested if not replying within 15 minutes would have any effect on my relationship with the client. I found there was no effect – and most of you will find the same thing.
In reality, our email is not as urgent as we think it is and it’s killing productivity. Research shows people who constantly check email are lowering their intelligence. Women who constantly check email drop their IQ by five points, and men drop it by a catastrophic 15 points.
So if we want to be really good at our sales jobs, we should not let email harm our ability to think, learn, and make critical decisions for our clients.
How are the distraction-busters mentioned in your book more effective than traditional time management strategies?
Most people think they need to master time management but time management assumes that you’re in an office and not living online. In reality, salespeople live online – it’s just how we do our jobs today.
Whether it’s communicating via email or social networks, or doing research on clients, salespeople are online and thus, living in a world where they are constantly exposed to distractions. In fact, the other day I found myself looking up, “Top Celebrity Plastic Surgery Fails.”
Can we manage that? That’s not time management – it’s distraction management. We have to use a whole lot of different techniques to protect us. What I found is we have to create a firewall around us.
You mentioned a firewall, tell me what a firewall is?
A firewall is protection from the storm of the distraction that’s around you. It’s admitting that we are powerless in this age of distraction of getting sucked in. I know I am not capable of preventing distraction myself – so I need a firewall to protect me.
How do you create a firewall? The first thing I did was use a software application called “Rescue Time” to investigate how I was really spending my time online. It was a rude awakening to see the amount of time I wasted being distracted.
The next step was getting my email monitoring under control. I was spending too much time constantly checking incoming email, which the majority of the time was not even work-related. To stop this time-sucking habit, I signed up for “enroll.me.” It’s a wonderful application that gives you the choice of whether or not you want to receive your subscription emails. I’ve been using this application for over a year now and I have unsubscribed from over 1,244 email subscriptions. Ultimately, this tool has given me an inbox that is much more friendly to work with.
Another software application I highly suggest using to create your firewall is called “Freedom.” Freedom is an app that will help you reduce distractions by blocking you from certain websites and apps for a period of time. When I have some focused work that I need to complete distraction-free, I launch “Freedom.” It gives me the opportunity to set a time limit for how long I want to be protected, and what sites and apps I want to avoid, and it works on all my devices – so I can’t cheat and check my email on my cellphone. And, we all cheat if we don’t protect ourselves with that firewall.
Your book teaches salespeople to reclaim time lost to distractions. How can they then optimize the time they do have to sell more?
I actually wanted to call my book Optimize Me because I think that’s really what it’s about – it’s how to get the most from yourself. Once you protect yourself from those distractions, you need to figure out how to spend the time you’ve reclaimed.
Start by asking yourself this question – what’s the most important thing I should be working on?
Most salespeople when they get to work they sit down and immediately start going through all their emails. Then boom – an hour and a half is gone and they haven’t really worked on anything essential.
The important question sellers should ask themselves at the beginning of the day is, “What do I NEED to get done?” Looking at all the things you could do and knowing you simply do not have enough time to do all of them, what one thing will help you reach your goal today?
Don’t just jump into work. By taking that time to focus, you actually do what you need to do.
Another thing that’s crucial, and that a lot of people don’t realize, is that our brains are not meant to sit at a computer all day long. It actually wears us out.
We need to think about working our day in blocks of time focused on specific activities. Put them on your calendar. Work in blocks. Then allow yourself to take a break.
One study on what differentiated top performers found that top performers work really hard for 52 minutes and then take a 17-minute break. The study found that the break gave their brain a chance to relax. They socialized with people, got up and moved around and, when they got back to their computer, they were much more productive.
The best thing to do is to leave your computer because when you do, your brain turns into mind wandering mode and finds the answers – better answers – to the questions you’ve been thinking about.
You talk about how gamification is used as a tool to help salespeople spark internal motivation to optimize their time. How can salespeople who work remotely or aren’t part of a “team” motivate themselves, when self-discipline becomes tiring?
First of all, trying to control our lives and to be so disciplined is perhaps one of the hardest things we ever have to do. You’re only given a certain amount of willpower per day and if you’re using it to go online and fight distractions, you wear yourself out much faster and actually reduce the quality of your thinking.
For me, it was so hard to change my habits, and I work remotely so I have to motivate myself – which can be a real challenge.
In order to change and become someone who got a lot done during the day, I actually decided to invent a game for myself. I studied gamification and read a number of books. I created an avatar for myself with challenges where I could move up through levels. But, it was such a pain to actually use the game I threw it away.
But I had one thing that changed everything for me – my avatar, Jill the Time Master. Each day when I got in the office, I would see the picture of my avatar hanging on the wall, and it would motivate me to play the role of Time Master. It was really silly and I never told anyone about it for a long time. But by playing the role of Time Master, I actually became the Time Master.
Research indicates that when you act as if you’re someone else, you start to possess some of the qualities you are pretending to be.
My day started changing as I started becoming the avatar. Jill the Time Master didn’t try to fight habits – she created new ones.
Now that readers have minimized distraction and optimized time, let’s dive into the next part – more sales. What are some tips salespeople can use to accelerate their sales?
There are many things salespeople can do to accelerate their sales – and this is something that has always fascinated me and was the focus of all my previous books.
First and foremost, people can study their craft and become better salespeople. The more you spend time determining the effectiveness of your actions and studying different ways to interact with customers and help them realize the value of change, the more successful you will be.
But, there are other strategies you can use to accelerate your sales. One thing I always felt was crucial to sales success was leveraging trigger events. Trigger events are things that happen – internal or external to a company — that change the organization’s priorities.
One example of this could be a bad third quarter earnings report. If a company has a bad third quarter, all of a sudden there is going to be pressure across the board to reduce costs and drive more sales. So, how can you leverage the fact that your client needs to be more cost conscience? Well, your product may help increase productivity or efficiency. If you can call someone right now, while they’re under pressure to meet these objectives, and craft a personalized message to get in, you’re more likely to get the sale. If you track your client’s environment, you can leverage the trigger event to get in the company.
Another thing you can do to accelerate sales is to make decisions simpler for your prospects. In many cases, salespeople will want to impress prospects, so they tend to overcomplicate things and send an information overload. But prospects are busy people. They barely have time to read your message let alone read three pages of information on the value of your product/service. Simplifying things as much as you can really contributes to accelerating sales.
Those are just some strategies mentioned in my book.
What are some strategies you recommend to help salespeople to keep overwhelmed buyers moving?
At the front end, salespeople need to be able to pique someone’s curiosity. They really need to look at their value proposition and figure out what is of most interest to prospects. But people at the front end of the sales cycle, often haven’t made these decisions before and they’re quite overwhelmed.
Research shows in many decisions, there are 6-7 people involved. And, they feel overwhelmed and don’t know how to make the decision. One thing you can do is help them create a road map that shows where they are in the buying cycle currently and how that matches up with your other clients who are making similar decisions. You can then outline a typical process other companies are following to get them from where there are today to their end goal. The road map helps clarify exactly what they will need to do and also establishes you as a knowledgeable person who has worked with similar companies before and truly understands how their company works.
Another thing that makes a big difference is talking about the tough stuff. Discuss the challenges they may face and propose solutions to how to handle them. For example, the financial department is going to want know about risk. You can present the client with some ideas on how they can reduce the risk and get the financial department to buy into the decision. Your client is in a situation where they have to get all buying decision makers to agree. Help make that process easier by providing advice on how to overcome challenges, and how you can make a difference.
One final thing that helps keep overwhelmed buyers moving is not to try to oversell them. Start with one thing to get them working with you on the project – perhaps doing research or working with one area in the company. By doing that, you get your foot in the door and have an opportunity to show your value, develop a relationship, find out more ways to help them, and build the deal as you go along.
Finally, can you tell us how using the strategies in your book helped you gain more sales, in less time?
Yes, I can! Let me first say – it helped me gain sanity. If you’re constantly working around the clock it is exhausting and you are not your best self. The best thing these strategies taught me personally, was to limit the number of hours I was working. My goal was to hold my income steady, but not work so much.
Now, I’m working on reducing the number of hours even more to see if I can still earn the same income in fewer hours. I started out this project really crazy-busy. And it’s almost as if I wore that as a badge of honor – I was proud to be crazy busy and proud that everybody ‘needed’ me. It made me feel invaluable.
But what I found out is being crazy-busy is something I control, and I’m not at my best when I’m out of control. I really believe people can sell more in less time.
Watch the full interview with Jill:
Join the #MoreSalesLessTimeChallenge for simple strategies to help you earn more revenue without working round the clock.
About Jill:
With over 1/4 million LinkedIn followers, Jill Konrath was recently named one of the top 7 sales influencers of the 21st century. She’s an international speaker and bestselling author of 4 books including SNAP Selling, Agile Selling and Selling to Big Companies. Her newest one, More Sales Less Time was just released on December 6th.
The most recent challenge Jill has tackled is overwhelm. Every sales rep she talked to was crazy-busy, working non-stop. She felt the same way. Today, after several years of serious study, epic battles with deeply ingrained habits and personal experimentation, she’s a different person.
In her newest book, MORE SALES, LESS TIME, Jill shares what she learned—the good, the bad and the ugly. (Yes, you’ll see some of her warts!) Most importantly, you’ll discover how to regain one to two hours per day—and get your mental mojo back so you can be at the top of your sales game.
Sales job security can be tenuous so it pays to keep all your options open. This article provides some tips on how you can stay visible to sales recruiters on LinkedIn — whether you are job hunting or not. As a top performing salesperson, you already understand the value of being connected on LinkedIn. You know that a strong social media presence is essential in attracting the right recruiters that can open doors to a hidden job market. And, you know that access to the hidden job market will benefit you in achieving your career goals.
Understanding LinkedIn
Research shows that approximately 65-75% of LinkedIn members are passive candidates and 15-20% are ‘Tiptoers’ – those who are casually looking for another job. On the other hand, active job seekers make up 5-20% of the total talent market. With over half of these employed job-seekers indicating they are satisfied with their current roles, it is evident that employed professionals understand the benefits of being open to recruiting opportunities.
Further, according to a study conducted by the job matching website The Ladders, in today’s work economy, half of all jobs are not advertised publicly. That means it’s more important than ever to network on social platforms like LinkedIn.
Even if you are not actively job hunting, LinkedIn can keep you visible to recruiters and in tune with the hiring scene in your industry. Recruiters are always networking, so maintaining a strong working relationship with them can be beneficial to your long term strategic career goals. Even if you’re happily employed today, it’s likely that at some point in your career you will seek a change – so knowing what opportunities are out there is critical.
In the same way the best salespeople understand the value of this social platform, top recruiters rely on the power of LinkedIn for their own prospecting and networking goals. According to Jobvite’s 2015 Recruiter Nation survey, 87 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates. In fact, only 4 percent recruiters don’t use social media as a part of their recruitment efforts.
LinkedIn has become an invaluable tool in the B2B sales recruitment process because it’s where recruiters research, identify, and attract top sales talent. Further, LinkedIn affords recruiters access to some of the most proactive and well connected talent in sales. Having a LinkedIn presence indicates that you understand the power of networking, a valuable sales skill.
How Top Salespeople Optimize their LinkedIn Profiles
As the largest professional network in the world, LinkedIn is a powerful tool to advance your career. Taking advantage of the LinkedIn’s reach begins with a professional, well-crafted profile. It must be clear and concise and provide valuable information to the reader. Great salespeople optimize their profiles with keywords that highlight your sales skills and achievements and an updated summary of your sales career milestones.
Sales recruiters are looking for results like attained quota percentage, close rates, new customer acquisitions, and lead conversions. Recruiters want to know what percentage of quota you have attained, and who you did it for. Here are four ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile:
1. Use keywords
The summary is the first thing people see when they visit your profile. Highlight your experience and qualifications in your headline and summary to ensure you rank high in search results. For example, if you are an Account Executive in Software Sales with Client Management experience, include these terms in your summary, not only in your work history. It will make it easier for recruiters who are researching candidates with these qualifications to find you. The LinkedIn ranking algorithm emphasizes keywords in the headline and summary of your profile.
Recruiters use specific roles and job titles when inputting their search terms. They will also want to know about your customers – both past and present.
2. Join Sales Related Groups
Joining relevant sales groups will show recruiters that you are actively involved in the sales industry. It can highlight that you are looking to expand your contact base and willing to enhance your selling skills.
If you join groups related to your industry, other members are able to contact you by bypassing the 1st connection requirement set by LinkedIn. This streamlines the process of connecting with others. Not only are group members able to reach out to you without being a connection, but you are also able to showcase your expertise to a wider audience.
Here are 7 must-join sales related LinkedIn groups:
Rather than simply joining sales related groups, top salespeople engage in them on a regular basis. A simple way to do this is to comment on an article a recruiter or fellow sales professional has published or shared. This demonstrates thought leadership, displays engagement, and creates a more natural relationship should a recruiter ever reach out to you.
As you progress in your career, developing and maintaining a professional network can expose you to lucrative job opportunities. Sharing your ideas and thoughts on the selling process through posts and comments will help recruiters get to know you better. That may put you near the top of the list when they are looking for qualified candidates for particular open positions.
4. Include a Professional Photo
Your profile picture should be professional and simple. Profiles with a photo are viewed 7 times more frequently than profiles with no photo, so it’s an important element in optimizing your digital presence for networking success.
When developing your LinkedIn profile, be mindful of how quickly first impressions develop. Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov conducted research on how long it takes to develop a first impression. They found it only takes 100 milliseconds to form an impression of someone just from looking at a photo of their face. This is based primarily on two factors—how competent and trustworthy you come across to others. Research published by Photo Feeler, a website that provides feedback on how you are perceived in professional profiles, also found that these two factors improve other’s perceptions of you.
Your profile photo is the first step in establishing credibility and trust. Dress professionally, keep the background simple and clutter free, and show a natural smile. Shots from mid-body or shoulders are best. Avoid black and white photos or pictures with excessive color saturation.
Create a Powerful First Impression and Get Noticed by Recruiters
Nearly one in four professionals engage in professional networking on a monthly basis, even while satisfied in their sales roles. This can include maintaining an updated resume, researching potential job opportunities, or engaging with a LinkedIn group or on other social media. Recruiters spend a good deal of time on social media so it’s a good place to be found and recognized for your sales experience and expertise.
The overall impression created by the content and look of your LinkedIn profile will set the tone for how others interact with you. It’s in your best interest to make the first impression a lasting one.
Failing to sign the top candidate is a reality every sales leader is likely to face at some point in their career. But understanding why a candidate has chosen to forgo a position at your company can provide critical intel that impacts how you approach future hiring efforts. This article offers best practices for extracting information from a sales candidate who declines your job offer.
You’ve done the work to successfully attract and interview your top sales candidate, and now you’ve offered them a coveted role on your salesforce. Unfortunately, the candidate has chosen to take another offer. Or, they’ve chosen to stay with their current employer.
This presents a critical business opportunity to better understand what attracts A players to your organization and why they say no.
The most common factors that go into a salesperson declining a job offer include compensation structure, company culture, number of reps currently making quota, and length of time in recruiting process.
Knowing the reasons why top candidates are declining your offer is the only way to take proactive steps toward preventing future offer declines. To better understand a candidate’s reasons for declining your offer, be proactive in attaining this information.
Here are 7 questions to ask a sales candidate who declines your job offer:
1. What aspects of the role or company did you view as positive?
2. What were your primary concerns about the role/working at our organization?
3. Was there a specific factor in your decision-making process?
4. Was your decision based on compensation structure?
5. Do you have any feedback on the interview process, interviewers, or how we could have improved your experience as a candidate?
6. Can you provide any observations about, or feedback on, the hiring manager, HR, or the organization overall?
7. How can we provide a more compelling employee value proposition to candidates like you in the future?
It’s best to address these questions as soon as possible after an offer decline – the factors that went into the candidate’s decision will be fresh in their mind and they will be more able to provide specific detail about why they’ve chosen not to join your team.
If you’re using a third-party recruiter, ask them to conduct a brief interview that includes these questions. You can alternately rely on the HR function of your organization to collect this feedback, or use an anonymous email survey to have these questions addressed.
Top performing sales leaders understand why the best salespeople join their organization, but they’re also proactive in preventing future talent loss by understanding why candidates choose not to join. To build a top performing sales team, make it a priority to collect this feedback so you can prevent the same loss in future offers.
Like it or not, research tells us that employers are increasingly using social media to assess sales candidates in the interview process. So, what do you need to know about your social media profiles before you interview? How can you prevent your profiles from working against you? Read on for everything you need to know about what employers look for on your social media profiles, what they view as red flags, and how you can make online surveillance work for you in the hiring process.
According to a survey by CareerBuilder, 52 percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates. The survey also found that 61 percent of hiring managers in sales will use social networks to screen candidates. In fact, here at Peak, we review LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on every candidate we research.
These numbers suggest that when you are looking for a sales position, hiring managers will more than likely be reviewing your social media presence. Because nearly 80 percent of Americans are on social media, employers have almost unlimited access to the personal and professional activity when assessing potential sales candidates.”
Here we explain what employers look for on your social networks, outline common mistakes candidates make on their profiles, and show you how to use social media to your advantage in finding employment:
What Employers Look for in Social Media
It’s imperative to make sure your social media activity is free of any content that might be inappropriate for a candidate for a sales position. This includes popular sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, but can also include Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and YouTube.
CareerBuilder’s survey found that a third of employers who scan social media profiles reported they have found content that has caused them not to hire the candidate. So what do employers look at?
Half of employers revealed that they didn’t offer a candidate a position because of provocative or inappropriate photos or information posted on his or her profile. Forty-five percent said they chose not to hire someone due to evidence of drinking and/or drug use on their social networks.
Other reasons employers decided not to offer the job to a sales candidate include:
Profile displayed poor communication skills i.e. spelling/grammar
Spoke poorly of past employers
Discriminatory comments related to race, gender, or religion
Lying about their skills or qualifications
References to illegal drugs or alcohol
When assessing sales candidates, recruiters look for specific character traits that are common amongst top sales performers. Your social media presence can either reinforce that you have these A-Player traits, or contradict them.
For example, being successful in sales means creating friendly relationships with customers. Posts or tweets that show you to be negative or confrontational may cause hiring manager to conclude you don’t have the right makeup for sales.
On the other hand, silence on social media could be just as damaging as negative posts. Sales reps must be comfortable expanding their network. If you don’t show much interaction on social networks, hiring managers may feel you are too disconnected to be successful in sales.
Mistakes to Avoid in Your Social Profiles
There are other ways you may lose out on an attractive sales position due to your online presence.
Avoid discussing your political affiliations, since one in six recruiters view this as a potential negative. Do not rely on privacy settings to protect your online visibility – these update often and can leave your information exposed. A good rule of thumb for all your social platforms is to refrain from posting anything you wouldn’t want an employer to see. This eliminates the risk that something will appear that could cost you a job opportunity.
Make Social Media an Advantage
Despite all the rules and warnings, there is good news when it comes to employers and your social profiles. Although recruiters and hiring managers are looking for red flags, they also look at social profiles to gain an understanding of your work experience, volunteer history, mutual connections, and potential for cultural fit.
The CareerBuilder survey revealed that 29 percent of hiring managers found something positive on a profile that drove them to offer the candidate a job. Employers most often hired candidates based on their social profiles because:
The hiring manager got a good sense of the candidate’s personality – something difficult to determine through resumes and formal interviews
The profile conveyed a professional image
The candidate’s background information supported professional qualifications
Other people posted positively about the candidate
The profile showcased the candidate as creative, well-rounded, or with exceptional communication skills
While it may be tempting to temporarily disable or delete your social media profiles while you search for employment, some experts suggest that having no social media means candidates miss out on an opportunity to showcase themselves. More than two in five employers say they are less likely to interview job candidates if they are unable to find information about that person online.
Greg Simpson, a senior vice president at Lee Hecht Harrison, agrees. He explains in a press statement that “Job seekers who are silent or invisible online may be at a disadvantage. They need to engage on social networking sites to increase their visibility and searchability with prospective employers.” Refine the content on your social profiles, but keep them active.
Despite the unease that can come with so much online surveillance, it is possible to make your social profiles an effective part of your employment strategy. Brad Schepp, co-author of How To Find A Job On LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+, explains that it’s useful to ensure “any profiles you write are free of typos, all information is consistent with your other profiles, and your photos present you in a favorable light.”
Stand Out as a Sales Candidate on Social Media
When preparing your social profiles, ensure they are free of any inappropriate content well before your interview. Take the time to ensure all photos shed you in a positive light, but avoid disabling or deleting your profiles altogether. Finally, use your social media presence as a tool to showcase your work history, communication abilities, and volunteer experience.
The presence of women in the sales industry cannot be overlooked. LinkedIn statistics indicate that women represent 41% of the active sales workforce — and this number continues to grow. Any high performing sales team you see today will prioritize gender diversity (among other types of diversity) to ensure success. Women bring unique perspectives and skills to sales. As a result, companies with a sufficient presence of women on their sales forces outperform less diverse companies.
As more women seek to advance their careers and move up the corporate ladder, we have compiled a list of 20 tips from Women Sales Experts.
Here are 20 tips from female sales experts on how to succeed as a woman in sales:
“Want to succeed as a female in sales? With our ever-changing business environment, the key to success is learning agility. Personally you need to keep up on trends, stretch your knowledge, develop new skills, and experiment with fresh approaches. Also, create an environment that challenges your reps and managers to grow and find better ways. Before long, with everyone working at the edge of their comfort zone, you’ve up-skilled your entire team. Plus, you’ve captured their spirit; they’ll work harder and feel good about it.”
“Understand the difference between mentors and sponsors — and have a sponsor within your company. Mentors can be very helpful in building a sales leadership career to improve specific skills or learn to maneuver within corporate politics. A sponsor is a senior leader with power and influence within an organization who can get your name in front of others with power and influence. This is critical as a woman leader because someone may not consider you for a new role or project simply because you are not on their radar.”
“Successful female sales pros distinguish themselves. Differentiate yourself from other people in your sales role, both within your company and outside it. Figure out what you do really well and perfect it. Become known for it. Be the person that everyone turns to for advice on how to do it. Your leadership and peers will seek you out. Customers will recognize you do it well and value you for it. Your differentiation may be as broad as using a collection of prospecting strategies to gain access faster and more creatively than your peers. Or, it may be as specific as using social selling to research and foster relationships with target prospects.”
“One thing that helped me succeed as a female sales professional is remembering that anything that can be told can be asked. You may have heard the term “bossy” is a gendered word. Women are often labeled as “bossy” when using the exact same phrases as their male counterparts. So what’s the solution? Rather than making accusations or statements when you disagree or intend to motivate, ask questions. Stop talking. Listen empathetically to the response. Statements trigger logical and even fear responses. Questions, on the other hand, trigger creative thinking and emotions. Don’t you think?”
“Growing up in a family with four brothers taught me quite a few lessons — one that has helped me throughout my career both as a seller and a leader: Keep up or get left behind. Gender doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can keep up with the top players’ pace and activities. I am comfortable selling to both men and women because my focus is on ‘keeping up’ and staying relevant. Buyers don’t have time to waste and if you aren’t adding value to the conversation, you will quickly be left behind.”
“The rules of success for achieving as a salesperson are no different for a man than they are for a woman. The #1 tip I would tell anyone moving into the sales profession is to set goals for yourself that are outside of your quota and make sure one of them is perfecting your craft. If you rely solely on your company to provide you with the skills that you need you will be sorely disappointed. You own the success of you.”
7. Stop trying to be something you are not
Ann Davis
VP of Sales at Journey Sales
“Most female sales executives, at some point in their careers, get caught in the trap of thinking, believing, or acting like they need to be part of the boy’s club. Focus on being your authentic self. Understand your skills, strengths and areas of development and most important believe you bring qualities to the team which makes everyone better. Being a valued member of the team and making others better is something female executives do very well. Don’t be afraid to take risks, trust your gut and reach beyond your comfort zone as you are often very surprised at the positive results you can achieve.”
“Be both confident and curious. Many studies have shown that women feel the need to ‘check all the boxes’ before applying for a job or taking on a new challenge. Men don’t have that same inclination. In order to lead, a woman must exude confidence, and be comfortable with the fact that she might not have all the answers and that mistakes and failure are part of the package. Equally important is the quality of curiosity. Curiosity strengthens relationships. It fosters agile thinking. It facilitates deeper insights.”
“Want to succeed as a female salesperson? Get rid of the head trash. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to be something you’re not; trying to fit the mold of the ‘sales persona’ the tech industry has coined. You cannot listen to the nay-sayers, care about the stereotypes, or consider reasons to doubt yourself. There is no inherent difference that makes women less qualified or able to do the job. Wipe the slate clean and focus on being an exceptional leader – invest in people, care about the customer, and relentlessly drive to results.”
“The fabulous thing about being in sales is that it is a merit-based profession. If you make your numbers, exceed your goals, get more sales, you will be a top performer – no matter whether you are a man or a woman. Personally, I have always made it my business to know my product better than anyone else. I also have studied, studied, and studied the masters. And, I’ve gotten to know myself well. Know your strengths, play to them, and never stop learning or trying. If you adopt a “whatever it takes” attitude, nothing can stop you!”
“Want to succeed as a female salesperson? Speak your mind with confidence, tout your ideas, and come prepared to defend them with data. Ask for advice from people you respect. Your most important trait is curiosity. Be curious about your company and how it will grow. Be curious about your clients. Learn their businesses, broker innovative solutions, and continue to learn and grow based on your curiosity. Above all, be genuine. The best way for women to succeed in our profession—and any other—is to believe they have what it takes and then prove it.”
“It’s the road less travelled in many instances for women in business — in sales or leadership — and most times we second guess ourselves based on so many different factors — feedback, lack of feedback, uninvited feedback. My advice to women who are emerging leaders or established leaders is to keep the faith. Keeping the faith, to me, is a knowing. Just knowing that by putting one foot in front of the other and with an intention that is to make a difference, you will succeed.”
“Many women shy away from the spotlight and don’t assert themselves enough in the workplace. This is a challenge because, in fact, you must be visible and vocal in order for leadership to see what you bring to the table and how you can add value to the business! Three ways to accomplish this are to: get to your meetings early and make sure you get a seat at the table; come prepared with meaningful questions or thoughtful insights on the topic at hand; and don’t wait for someone to call on you to speak, jump in the conversation even if it means forcing your way in. Being visible and vocal will help you build your reputation and further your advancement.”
“Don’t wait to speak up until you have all the answers. No one wants to be wrong – but women tend to care about this more than men. Women will hold back until they are 100% certain while men are ok with tossing out some hypothesis and guesses. This leaves you out of the conversation. Don’t wait until you have all the facts – your judgement and instinct are your assets so use them.”
“As a female sales leader in a male-dominated sales world, you still have to make your numbers and keep your margins down but your leadership presence will be more scrutinized. Think about the meetings you’ve attended. Is there someone who listens intently, and when they do provide their insights, everyone in the room hangs on to their every word? You know the leader I am talking about. Be genuine to yourself, but to the best of your ability, emulate that leader.”
“My recommendation for women in sales is to play to their strengths as good listeners and strong communicators. Don’t be afraid to let your intuition and instincts guide you in decisions when you are reading a situation and people in a sales meeting. Your gut reaction is usually right on.”
“By nature as women, we take up less space and space plays a role in the energy in the room and one’s confidence levels. So physically force yourself take up more space than you normally do. By this, I mean stretch, spread out, and hold your head a little higher. Once you start doing that, your confidence will increase and the results will show up in the quality of your work.”
“In order to succeed as a female sales leader you need to do 5 things. Firstly, you must excel at being excellent — don’t settle for mediocre. Secondly, you need to get recognized. Toot your own horn and be your own champion. Do not leave this up to others. Thirdly, Get out of the office and into the field with your reps. Build your team with them in the real world. Fourthly, talk with your reps often. Learn how to have effective and efficient conversations for great coaching and the unplanned conversations. And finally, hire a coach. Your time to performance escalates and you’ll end up in fewer land mines.”
“Want to be a top sales leader? You don’t need to lead like a man – gaining compliance through rewards and punishments. Although this has been a successful leadership style in the past, Millennials, who will soon be the majority of your workforce, respond well to a more authentic, collaborative, transparent kind of leadership – a leadership style more naturally attributed to women. Historically, women have made accomplishments in business through influence or inspiration because they didn’t have the authority to make things happen. Now that you do have the authority, don’t fool yourself into thinking you need to behave like a man. Your natural leadership style will make you very successful – embrace it!”
“Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself. It is not uncommon for women to share an idea in a team meeting only to have a male counterpart subsequently take credit for it, whether accidentally or on purpose. Don’t let that go. Additionally, always be confident in your abilities and when you believe in a clear path forward don’t be afraid to stand your ground, even if others don’t agree.”
Put these 20 tips to use and visit the Peak Sales Career Blog for the latest actionable insights on how to advance your sales career.
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