Since 2013, Atlanta has become something of an economic unicorn. The city and its surrounding areas have enjoyed strong job growth, especially in well-paying professional and business services jobs. Yet, the region continues to boast a relatively low cost of living, especially when it comes to housing. At the same time, both state and local government are working overtime to lure companies to the region and to develop the infrastructure necessary to nurture the area’s start-up companies. This is good news for employers looking to expand their sales forces in the Atlanta area.  

With new graduates from the region’s cluster of prestigious colleges and universities and a steady flow of well educated migrants from other U.S. cities coming into the region looking for a better quality of life, employers are likely to find a deep and intriguing talent pool in Atlanta.

This article discusses how sales recruiting in Atlanta is evolving. Specifically, it illustrates how the city’s growth, budding start-up community, and educational institutions are affecting the sales talent pipeline, sales wage levels, and employer hiring requirements.

The Atlanta Landscape – An Overview

Atlanta and its surrounding region make up the 11^th largest metropolitan area in the U.S. The region is second only to Miami-Dade in Florida as the largest in the southeast. Forbes ranks Atlanta #5 on its annual Best Places for Business and Careers and the city is also included in the top ten “cities of the future” list compiled by FDI Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times.

As headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta has always played a key role in the medicine, pharmaceuticals and life sciences industries, a role backed up by an impressive array of research universities that include Emory University, Georgia Tech University, and Georgia State University.

However, while Atlanta continues to be a leader in these health-related industries, its economic growth is coming from a diverse array of areas. Blue chip companies are moving their headquarters to take advantage of Atlanta’s skilled workforce and low cost of living, joining Fortune 100 companies like Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Home Depot, United Parcel Service, AT&T Mobility and Newell Rubbermaid.

Established companies are also moving their headquarters to Atlanta. Last year, Mercedes-Benz USA moved its headquarters to a temporary office in Atlanta while awaiting its new building to be completed next year while NCR Corporation broke ground on its new headquarters in Midtown Atlanta. In order to be in close proximity to other technology companies, Sage Software expanded its North American headquarters with a new facility in downtown.

The city’s low cost of living is often cited as a reason for companies relocating or expanding in Atlanta, but incentives provided by state and local government are also likely to weigh in that decision. For example, the state of Georgia provides a tax credit of $2,500 to $5,000 per job created.

“Our new Atlantic Station location puts us in the in the center of the emerging Midtown Atlanta technology corridor and positions our newly established North American headquarters to attract top talent in the years to come,” – Marc Scheipe, Sage North America’s CFO.

Start-ups have targeted downtown to take advantage of the entrepreneurial support network and incubators, like TechSquare Labs with its 25,000 square feet of co-working and innovation space, and Georgia Tech University and other nearby universities. And other large and mid-size companies, like Equifax and Georgia-Pacific, are growing along with the city itself in a wide range of industries, including financial services technology, healthcare, life sciences, cyber security and app development. The chart below shows regional employment by industry. Growth in professional and business services, one of the largest industries in the region, continues to be strong.

Employment in the Atlanta Region as of February 2016

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Atlanta’s position as a regional economic hub is backed up by its geographical location. The city sits at the convergence of several major interstate highway arteries and its airport, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is the busiest airport in the U.S. in terms of passenger traffic.

Outside of work, there is plenty to do in the city, including music, theater and professional sports. The city is also awash in history and the site of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. Over the past several years, Atlanta has become a Hollywood of the eastern seaboard with $6 billion worth of film production going on in the city and its surrounding areas throughout the year.

Sales Opportunities in Atlanta

Atlanta is growing. Between November 2014 and November 2015, the metropolitan area added 25,100 jobs. In particular, growth in professional and business services jobs (5.3%) far outpaced the 3.2% experienced in the U.S. as a whole. This growth is coming from companies large and small who are either choosing Atlanta as their corporate hub or expanding into the city.

Given this economic growth, sales professionals will not lack opportunities. With sales positions a perennial entry on lists of the hardest jobs to fill, companies fishing in sales talent pools are looking for the best stocked ponds. Atlanta fits the bill.

The local area has an ongoing flow of new talent coming out of universities like Georgia Tech, Emory University and Georgia State University, among others. Sales professionals who want to increase their chances for success also have access to sales-specific education and talent development opportunities at these schools, making them more educated in sales than any generation before. Georgia State University, Morehouse College, and Kennesaw State University are all among the top 50 universities for professional sales education. Further afield, the University of Georgia, 90 minutes away, also ranks on the list.

At the same time, new migrants to the area are driving population growth, attracted by expanding job opportunities and the low cost of living. There are still challenges, however. For instance, like the rest of the southern U.S., and indeed the country as a whole, it still takes time to fill positions. In this case, companies in the region should expect an average of 26.9 days to fill a job vacancy, according to data from DHI Hiring Indicators. For senior sales positions in particular, Atlanta employers are reporting search times to range between 100-125 days.

Other industry moves also have greater impact on Atlanta than just opening a new office or plant. Baxalta (formerly part of Baxter International) is scheduled to open a new plant in Covington, GA this year. This is significant for the city because “[i]t breaks the stranglehold that North Carolina has on pharmaceutical manufacturing,” according to Bill Johnston, CEO of Tucker, GA based InVasc Therapeutics Inc. and a 20-year Baxter veteran. He noted that Baxter chose the Atlanta site for its proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. “Atlanta could become a preferred hub for pharmaceutical or vaccine manufacturing that requires air distribution,” he said, noting that Dendreon Corporation also chose Atlanta for a cancer treatment manufacturing plant for the same reason. As Atlanta becomes more of a hub for pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, career opportunities in sales are likely to grow in tandem. In fact, requests for Atlanta based senior sales reps and regional managers have increased by 24% since 2014.

As Atlanta continues to attract sales talent by diversifying and expanding industries in the area, ideal candidate requirements in the city are evolving as well. Typically, employers are evaluating candidates against these 4 primary criteria:

• Achieved quota for past 5+ years
• Experience in account and territory planning (Atlanta area and Southeastern statelines preferred)
• Extensive CRM knowledge
• Successful experience working in an entrepreneurial environment

For organizations looking to attract and recruit top salespeople with the ability to exceed targets in the Atlanta area, download our free winning job description templates for VP of Sales, Sales Manager, Account Executive, and Sales Engineer positions.

The Start-Up Scene

DataFox named Atlanta one of the best cities to form a start-up outside of Silicon Valley and New York. “Atlanta’s start-up scene owes a great deal of its success to Mayor Kasim Reed,” according to the report. To create an environment for start-ups to thrive, Reed recruited economic development veterans to build out the Invest Atlanta staff and deepened ties to nearby Georgia Tech University, among other initiatives. 

Other investors are taking advantage of the opportunities in Atlanta. The recently formed Leaders Fund plans to invest the $100 million it has raised in enterprise SaaS firms in both Atlanta and Toronto. In Atlanta, the fund will be looking for opportunities to invest in “underserved” companies from a venture capital perspective.

In terms of overall venture capital, Atlanta ranks 13^th in the ongoing MoneyTree Report compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. In 2015, the Atlanta area attracted more than $836 million for 70 deals allocated to 58 companies. Data from the fourth quarter 2015 (below) shows a breakdown by industry, all of which rely heavily on their sales forces to drive growth.

Bijon Khosravi, an angel investor in Atlanta, expects the city to continue growing as an entrepreneurial hotspot, especially for Silicon Valley companies looking to expand or relocate. “Leaving Silicon Valley means leaving the ego behind too,” he said. “In Atlanta, an entrepreneur doesn’t have to charter a luxury bus to cart workers from San Francisco to Palo Alto or Mountain View. There is no need for extensive perks or costly amenities. Salaries are much more affordable, and the cost of living is lower in Atlanta. For example, the median price of a home in San Jose is $773K. The median price for a home in Atlanta is $138K. That’s big savings when it comes to a business plan.”

Moreover, Peak Sales Recruiting has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of requests from start-up companies seeking to recruit top performing sales executives in the Atlanta area. Since 2012, the demand from high-growth start-ups looking to hire sales leaders in the area has increased by 16%.

High Growth with a Low Cost of Living

There are plenty of reasons why future growth in Atlanta and its surrounding areas shows no sign of tapering off. “A high concentration of college-educated workers, business partners, high-tech companies and research universities will continue to attract high-technology companies in life sciences, research and development, IT, professional and business services, and advanced manufacturing,” predicts Jeffrey Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

Overall, Atlanta’s job growth between November 2014 and November 2015 was more than 1.5 times greater than job growth for the U.S. as a whole. As a result of this strong job growth, the Atlanta area has more than recovered from the recession. “Total payroll employment is now more than four percent above its pre-recession peak,” according to an economic forecast from PNC Bank. “High-tech professional services have been the mainstay of Atlanta’s economic rebound. A number of planned expansions and relocations to Atlanta by large firms attest to the strength of Atlanta’s tech and corporate cluster.”

More importantly for the future, growth from the types of jobs Atlanta is attracting is in many ways self perpetuating and sales job growth is a key beneficiary of the city’s current growth trajectory. For example, if a software firm creates 100 new jobs, assuming industry-average earnings of $140,304, the economic impact of those jobs would create an additional 503 jobs in other industries, including sales positions, averaging $61,488 in earnings, according to an analysis conducted by CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists International. This includes 78 jobs in sales and related fields, 51 management jobs, and 55 jobs in business and financial operations.

In addition to job growth, Atlanta is attractive to both companies and key sales talent because of its the relatively low cost of living compared to other major metropolitan areas. This is particularly important for start-ups and companies of any size that want to attract great sales talent from other areas.

DataFox’s report on the Atlanta entrepreneurial environment specifically focuses on the low cost of living the city offers. “Atlanta makes our list primarily because its early-stage companies show strong growth, and because it’s more affordable than many other startup centers. With a focus on scaling and low cost of living, Atlanta is the perfect place to grow a company from 1 employee to 100.”

Housing costs, in particular, are low enough to make home ownership feasible for a large swathe of the working population, something that cannot be said for many other major cities. PNC Bank noted in its analysis that a median-priced home priced costs 1.4 times the area’s median income, compared to 1.7 times the median income nationally. The chart below shows how affordable housing is in real terms compared to other cities.

The one shadow on the Atlanta growth curve is traffic—the natural consequence to rapid growth in a major city center. Like Austin, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Boston and many other urban hubs, Atlanta’s traffic jams have become a well-known nuisance in the logistics of transportation. Companies are well aware of the situation and many are turning to flex-time and some telecommuting options to help employees avoid long commutes. Mercedes-Benz USA, which recently moved from Montvale, N.J. to Atlanta, quickly recognized traffic problems and is looking at flexible work arrangements to deal with the issue. “The new generation of employees expect such flexibility in lifestyle, too,” said Stephen Cannon, the company’s now-retired CEO.

Despite the traffic difficulties, one benefit of Atlanta’s location is that the road warriors of sales have ready access to one of the most important airline hubs in the country. In fact, Atlanta’s easy access to direct air travel is one of the reasons why so many companies choose the area for their operations. Not only does Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport serve as an important distribution hub, but the airport also helps get people in and out of the city more easily for sales meetings, customer visits and other key elements of the sales process. This hub is a key reason why Mercedes-Benz is moving its dealer leadership training to Atlanta. Such a strategic move is not surprising when you consider that Mercedes-Benz USA’s new CEO Dietmar Exler was formerly the company’s vice president of sales, a position now held by Adam Chamberlain.

The Impact on Sales Pay

Despite such consistent growth, sales pay levels in Atlanta remain in line with national averages. Peak Sales Recruiting data shows that Atlanta salary averages for VP of Sales, Account Executive, and Sales Manager are all very close to U.S. averages. While these averages remain on track with national figures, the low cost of living in Atlanta makes these salaries more attractive.

While overall annual wages in Atlanta are close to national averages, wages for specific positions greatly vary. For example, average annual wages for advertising and promotions managers, at $93,370, are much lower than the national average of $114,700, while advertising sales agents earn much more ($78,510) than the national average for those positions ($60,910).

Peak Sales data indicates that for a VP of Sales in Atlanta, the average salary is typically lower in most industries (IT and telecommunications, manufacturing, and software) in comparison to major cities like New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. For more information on average sales salaries for Atlanta vs. other major cities by industry, please see the VP of Sales Salaries by Industry article.

Looking Ahead

Atlanta has a lot to offer and a bright future. While the city still has some work to do as it builds its entrepreneurial infrastructure before it can catch up to places like Silicon Valley and Austin, city officials, higher education and the local business community have carefully laid the groundwork for future growth. Large and mid-size companies have already begun to capitalize on Atlanta’s low cost of living and strong talent base. People moving into Atlanta from more expensive parts of the country have recognized the advantages of Atlanta as they move into the region in search of affordable housing with an enhanced quality of life. Sales professionals will indefinitely seek out Atlanta as a location to discover opportunities for career growth, while the companies that hire those professionals are likely to see a deep talent pool eager to advance their careers.

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Ryan Thornton

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• 3 Ways Your Employees Will Sabotage Hitting Year End Targets – December 27, 2023
• 7 Ways to Hit Your Year End Target With Ease – December 20, 2023
• How to Handle Counter Offers — and Win Top Talent – December 18, 2023

The Millennial generation will soon make up the vast majority of the workforce and in order to remain competitive in the marketplace, employers need to implement recruiting strategies that are designed to attract and retain Generation Y employees.

To better our understanding of the needs and wants of Millennials in the B2B sales workspace, we conducted the 2016 Millennial and the B2B Sales Industry Study.

To give you a brief overview of some of the findings, we created the infographic below. This visual guide summarizes the study’s major findings of the Millennials’ perception of a B2B sales career.

For more findings, download the complimentary study here.

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Eliot Burdett

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• 31 Must-Know Sales Follow-Up Statistics for 2024 Success – December 21, 2023
• 7 Success Characteristics That Define Top Performers – December 19, 2023
• 5 Reasons Your Top Employees Quit (Stop Doing This to Stop Them Leaving) – December 14, 2023

By 2025, the vast majority of the workforce will be comprised of Generation Y, also known as the Millennials. In order to compete in today’s global economy, employers will need to have a comprehensive understanding of Millennials in the workplace.

That is why at Peak Sales Recruiting, we wanted to gain a better understanding of the Millennial generation’s perception of a B2B sales career and their overall career preferences. We wanted to understand whether or not they had any interest in a B2B sales career and why, what attracts millennials to a certain job, and their workplace preferences.

The 2016 Millennials in the Workplace: Transforming the B2B Sales Industry Study reveals the answers to these questions.

Here’s a few key insights. Get the complete report by filling out the form below.

Millennials’ Perception of a Career in B2B Sales

At the beginning of the survey, participants were asked to rate their perception a career in business-to-business (B2B) sales. The chart above reveals the majority of respondents had a positive view of a B2B sales career, however, an alarming 17% did not know what B2B sales was. To find out what respondents said needs to be done to improve a negative perception, download the full study below.

Millennials Who Would Consider a Career in B2B Sales

As demonstrated in the pie chart above, the majority of respondents (62%) would consider a career in B2B sales. Following this question, respondents were asked to comment why they would or would not consider a career in B2B sales. The most common answers are revealed in the full study.

Millennials’ Top 5 Considerations When Choosing a Job

Participants in the study were asked to rate 21 items from most important (5) to least important (1) when considering a job opportunity. Each answer was given a point value and the sum of those points were converted into a mean number. The chart above reveals the Millennials’ top 5 considerations when choosing a job.

Work Preferences: Communication, Location, and Motivators

Study participants were asked to indicate their workplace communication, location, and motivational preferences. The results revealed that Millennials are seeking employers who are prepared to forgo traditional workplace arrangements and change their day-to-day operational practices.

HERE’S INSTANT ACCESS TO THE STUDY

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• 31 Must-Know Sales Follow-Up Statistics for 2024 Success – December 21, 2023
• 7 Success Characteristics That Define Top Performers – December 19, 2023
• 5 Reasons Your Top Employees Quit (Stop Doing This to Stop Them Leaving) – December 14, 2023

Appeal to these salespeople’s insatiable drive to advance their career, differentiate your company, and embrace the domino effect.  

Your competitor’s top salespeople are grounded in industry knowledge, know the pain points your prospects have and what decision makers to target, and have a proven themselves to be successful in selling environments similar to yours. Undeniably, these rival reps are a strategic addition to a sales team, ensuring that a company’s sales force keeps a competitive edge in the market.

The same momentum that pushes these top reps and managers to surpass quotas motivates them to take on bigger and better career opportunities. To recruit them from a competitor (or ‘poach’), hiring managers need to appeal to these salespeople’s insatiable drive to advance their career.

Through a discrete recruitment process and conversations that emphasize career advancement opportunities at a rival company, hiring managers can lure these stellar salespeople to their teams.

Use A Discrete Recruitment Process

Although some company leaders believe that lateral recruitment is controversial, poaching a competitor’s employees is ethically sound and can be a smart business move. Just as companies compete for clients, they need to be prepared to compete for top salespeople too and realize that not doing so can do more damage than good.

Ultimately, an unspoken “gentleman’s agreement” between companies not to poach each other’s reps is a detriment to the industry. When salespeople achieve their quotas year-over-year, they expect companies to actively recruit them. Without healthy competition between companies to attract these top salespeople by offering bigger accounts, better compensation packages, and better career paths, it can undermine a salesperson’s motivation to exceed expectations. In the long term, these agreements do little to further sales numbers and company company growth. In fact, it can damage a sales force’s morale. Recruiting from rival companies, however, does require more discernment than the traditional hiring processes.

Recruiters and hiring managers need to ensure that they use discretion when bringing in new talent to mitigate the risk of alienating their company or sacrificing goodwill between friendly competitors. Using these three methods for starting the recruitment process can shape whether the outcome will, indeed, be a smart business move. Each has advantages and disadvantages, so explore every option before making the first move:

Make Direct Calls

Direct calls are the most straightforward but controversial approach to recruiting a rival’s salespeople. Although they’re efficient and transparent, this tactic can also start a recruiting war and increase tension within an industry.

Because many employers monitor in-office communication, best practice is to reach out to personal email accounts and phones rather than to work accounts. Hiring managers need to be sensitive to the fact that reps don’t want their employers to know they’re talking to a rival company.

Use Third Party Recruiters

Recruiters offer companies a healthy distance from the hiring process. Unlike the organizations they represent, third party recruiters have no unspoken pact that they won’t poach a competitor’s salespeople. The number one obligation for recruiters is to attract the most qualified, exceptional salespeople for their customers — it’s only natural that they would reach out to high-performers from competing employers.

Third party recruiters can also talk to reps about a job at another company while keeping their client’s name confidential. This extra step ensures that only interested and qualified candidates learn that the job is at a rival organization, removing extra controversy from the situation.

Ask for Referrals

Referrals are another way to add subtlety to the recruitment process. If hiring managers know the sales talent they would like to recruit, they can look for personal or professional connections on LinkedIn or Twitter. Sales and hiring managers also benefit from asking business partners, clients, or friends to connect them with reps at another company.

Similarly, casual conversations at conferences, trade firms, and social events can lay a positive foundation to create a candidate pipeline. Ideally, these friendly encounters take place in a neutral location, giving company leaders the opportunity to gauge interest while still using discretion.

Differentiate Your Company

To benefit from a competitive advantage in the labor market and successfully recruit reps from rival companies, hiring stakeholders need to be prepared to outmatch their competitors. From the first moment of contact, hiring managers must communicate the selling points of their company, emphasizing the opportunities for new reps.

As Bastian Bergmann summarized in the Harvard Business Review:

“You are trying to sell complete strangers on your idea and get them to leave well-paid, attractive jobs for something completely unknown. In order for the recruits to trust you, you have to master telling your story. Others will only follow you if you really leave them with the impression that you yourself are completely captivated by the opportunity you’re presenting.”

To make a convincing argument to a high-performing sales rep that a different team is a better place for their talent, focus on these four attributes:

Present Your Company as an Industry Leader

The prestige of working for an industry leader — as well as the resources and administrative support that accompany employment at these leading organizations — is a major motivator for salespeople to change jobs.

Hiring managers need to start by emphasizing their organization’s current rate of growth, record of success, and position in the industry. Although start-ups do not necessarily have the advantage of a being an industry leader, they can emphasize substantial funding and the support of high-profile advisors, and underscore how their solution is going to disrupt the market.
While speaking to a competitors salespeople, get specific about practical details such as the ease of access to administrative support and the opportunities to clinch high-profile sales at a company. These seemingly small attributes can motivate salespeople to make big changes.

Develop and Maintain a Strong Employer Brand

Ninety seven percent of sales professionals read online reviews about a company before they accept a job offer. An organization’s reputation as an employer, both online and among industry professionals, is a significant part of attracting the best sales talent.

Develop a strong employer brand is more than just having a great online profile. The role of an organization’s culture play a major role in enticing happily employed, passive sales talent. We advocate for companies to bring attention to their on-boarding programs, the importance they place in maintaining their sales force’s work-life balance, and how they plan to invest in ongoing sales training and skills development programs.

Offer Market Leading Compensation

Top-performing salespeople know how much revenue they bring to a company, and they want to be compensated for their experience. To appeal to these star reps, offer generous compensation that surpasses competitors’. Here’s 6 compensation secrets that lead to great sales hires.

Research cited by Harvard Business School professor Doug J. Chung suggests that companies eliminate caps on commissions, which can be off-putting to top sales reps, and instead bolster overachievement commissions. When top salespeople at competing firms know that they’re rewarded for going above and beyond, they’re much more likely to switch organizations.

Provide Clear Advancement Opportunities

Craig Rosenberg, a co-founder at TOPO Inc., underscores how growth potential is a pivotal part of recruiting the best talent. “There are lots of salespeople and few managers so their internal growth opportunities are limited,” says Rosenberg. “I have met lots of salespeople who want to do a career change but then do the math on what they made with their biggest W2, and have trouble making the jump. That leaves them to try to advance, and in many cases, if they feel like they hit a wall, they have to jump.”

When recruiters or hiring managers interview to top performers, they should inquire into a candidate’s long term goals and match these aspirations with opportunities at their organization. Offering a clear path to advancement can open an otherwise closed conversation for leading reps.

Minimize Legal Liability

Before recruiters and other hiring stakeholders start interviewing a candidate, they benefit from asking if a salesperson is bound by a non-compete clause. If reps are not bound by a restrictive clause, the process can move forward as planned.

If your ideal hire is bound by restrictive agreement, you may still be able to hire them.  As Attorney Oberman Thompson summarized in a paper for the Employment Law Institute:

“Very few job applicants for key positions show up without any competition restrictions.  Hiring employers are recognizing that they may be able to make the hire and still avoid extensive and expensive litigation costs and risks; or that they have to take some risks to make good hires.”

Companies that want to recruit these salespeople need to weigh the expected benefits and potential liability of these hires. With the help of their legal team and or a third-party employment lawyer, hiring managers can minimize the chances of litigation through an intentional strategy. For example, companies might be able to tighten the terms of the hire so the activities of the job do not directly compete with the prior employer. Other firms may choose to include a contingency clause that only offers the position if the rep can perform his or her duties.

If hiring managers want to completely avoid risk, they can take a more creative approach altogether. Instead of directly recruiting current reps of a rival, managers can research past employees who left the organization for better opportunities elsewhere. Since the average non-compete agreement lasts two years, sales reps who have been working at other companies for two or three years could be cleared of the restrictive agreement.

Embrace the Domino Effect

According to a survey from Glassdoor, 68 percent of salespeople plan on searching for a new job in the next year, and 45 percent plan on looking for another position in the next three months. These statistics mean that even the most successful and satisfied reps are open to better opportunities at other sales organizations — they’re likely to follow the leader to another company.

If recruiters can successfully hire a top salesperson from a competitor, they can also encourage peers to reevaluate their choices, sparking a chain reaction among reps that can provide a steady talent pipeline for months. When allocating resources toward recruitment, concentrate on recruiting the best-of-the-best with the intention of further motivating other top performers to switch to a new organization.

Poaching Your Competitor’s Top Sales Talent Can Be Fruitful

These three practices — showing discernment while recruiting a competitor’s top reps, differentiating a company as an employer, and minimizing liability — ensures that companies maintain a strategic talent advantage in the field. These tactics not only bolster sales teams, they give a company inroads into their competitors’ clients, leading to further revenue down the pipeline.
*Note: none of the statements made in this article should be considered as legal advice and all recruiting activities should remain within the boundaries of the law.

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Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

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.

Connect:

Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

• 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
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• Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021

Salespeople are the engine of a great company. They identify new opportunities for growth and are tasked with driving profitable revenue streams that propels organizations to achieve success. To help assess the effectiveness of their sales force, sales executives need to dive into their human capital metrics.   

When viewed as pieces of a larger puzzle, core human capital metrics illuminate the complex workings of a sales organization and a team’s ability to achieve aggressive growth targets.

We focused on eight metrics that offer sales executives a bird’s eye view of the human aspect of sales. Analyzing this data helps provide sales leaders with the knowledge they need to build a better sales team that consistently drives higher rates of growth and organizational success.

Here are the human capital metrics every VP Sales needs to track:

1. Turnover Rates

Turnover rates reveal an organization’s ability to retain employees. If a company can’t keep their salespeople happy, they incur high costs associated with additional recruitment, poor performance and low morale. A recent Sales Effectiveness Survey from DePaul University revealed that the annual turnover rate for inside sales roles is 26.9 percent and 27.7 percent for outside sales roles, with a reported average cost per turnover at $97,690.

High voluntary turnover rates indicate larger issues at play such as below-average or poorly constructed compensation plans, or even a toxic sales culure. Leaders who experience consistently high voluntary turnover need to analyze feedback from employees in exit interviews. Candid conversations with departing sales reps are the quickest ways to discern the primary reasons for their departures.

High involuntary turnover rates, or a high percentage of reps being fired, indicate a poor sales hiring process. In 2015, The Bridge Group conducted a study surveying nearly 350 B2B SaaS companies and determined that the average sales rep involuntary turnover rate was 20% – making up nearly two-thirds of all annual attrition. This alarming statistic reveals a lack of structure in the B2B SaaS industry’s sales hiring process. World-class companies understand the substantial cost of a bad sales hire, and implement effective sales hiring processes to lower involuntary turnover rates.

Sales executives also benefit from examining turnover rates to find out what level of salesperson is leaving the company. Andris A. Zoltners, PK Sinha, and Sally E. Lorimer break down sales turnover into three categories: top performers, poor performers with high potential, or low performers with low potential. High performance sales organizations retain top performers and poor performers with potential. Below is a detailed diagnosis for transforming the turnover rate for three pools of employees:

Low Performers with Low Potential

A high turnover percentage among low performers with no potential to improve their sales performance points to problematic recruitment. While it’s important for sales leaders to quickly rid their teams of consistent under performers, effective sales leaders determine the root causes of their poor hiring practices.

Reassessing the characteristics of the ideal candidate profile and adopting a structured and rigorous recruiting processes is proven to reduce the risk of hiring bad salespeople. For more information on how to construct a structured and rigorous sales hiring process, download our eBook – Sales Recruiting 2.0

Low Performers with High Potential

Front-line sales managers are vital pieces that should be relied upon to help executives discern if a low-performing rep offers significant future potential based on performance reviews and the exemplified traits of the rep. The best method to increase retention among this category of salespeople is to bolster coaching and manager support during and after the onboarding process.

A structured schedule for the first three months of employment paired with a system of accountability for sales managers helps ensure sales team members are set up to reach their potential. HBR also recommends giving these salespeople “warm leads so that they can taste sales success, which is the ultimate motivator.” For more information on how to develop a structured onboarding process for new sales hires, download our eBook – The First 90 Days.

High Performers

High performers are a sales organization’s greatest asset — and biggest asset that can be lost. To reduce voluntary turnover among top performers, sales executives need to offer the rewards that high performers look for in competing companies: extra recognition, more freedom, better pay, long-term incentives, and a pro-sales culture.

2. Average Revenue Generated Per Rep

The average revenue generated per sales rep sheds light on two important aspects of a sales team — overall performance and the fairness of sales quotas. Ryan Tognazzini at Sales Benchmark Index suggests that if the average revenue is low, managers need to assess the strength of the sales pipeline. As he told Inc. Magazine, “It’s literally getting down into the weeds and understanding if the pipeline is real, and if there’s hope.”

If, however, the average revenue generated by each rep rises significantly above the sales quota, sales executives need to increase their benchmarks. Research from academic Steven W. Martin reveals that over 80 percent of high-performing sales organizations increase their quotas every year. Successful companies strike a balance by aiming for higher quotas that are still attainable to reps.

3. Actual Revenue Generated Per Rep

The revenue generated by individual reps gives managers a clear metric to assess the contributions of each salesperson and the achievement of the team as a whole. Research from The Tas Group indicates that two-thirds of all sales people miss their quotas, and 23 percent of surveyed companies don’t know if their teams are hitting quotas or not.

By contrast, the top 10 percent of firms surveyed by CSO Insights report that 75.1 percent of their reps either met or exceeded quota, achieving 116.7 percent of their company’s benchmark. The best sales leaders conduct an analysis to ensure that revenue generated aligns with specific revenue goals, such as new account acquisition or renewals.

The actual revenue generated per rep also indicates rep performance, giving managers important information about their contributions to a company. However, Fred Shilmover, CEO InsightSquared suggests that managers take a deeper approach to assessing the impact of this metric in From Impossible to Inevitable:

“Don’t be too quick to jump to conclusions and criticize or compliment anyone on the team right away. First look at their data to find out why and learn from it. A sales rep with highest consistent win rate may be talented at sales –– or talented at sandbagging/cherry picking. Don’t assume –– investigate.”

Sales executives can increase this metric by supporting individual performance with personalized talent development plans. Combined with heavy coaching, managers bridge skill gaps and radically impact the individual performance metrics of employees. This approach doesn’t mean that companies should keep bad hires, as research shows that top sales organizations cut chronic underperformers sooner rather than later.

4. Average Time to Hire

The average time it takes to hire a new employee from the original date of the job posting reflects both the competitiveness of the hiring market and the efficiency of a company’s recruitment process.

As baby boomers retire, the competition for top sales talent is steadily increasing. Bob Coughlin, a chief executive at Paycor, told The Wall Street Journal that a smaller sales talent pool meant his company missed out on $2 million more in 2015. Coughlin is not alone — the Harvard Business Review assessed that employers spent 41 days filling technical sales roles compared to 33 days for non-sales roles.

Glassdoor also supports that estimate; their researchers calculated 40 days as the average time it takes to hire a salesperson. Our own data suggests that across 3 industries (technology, professional services and industrial and manufacturing), the average time to hire a passive sales person — those who are actively and gainfully employed — and in the top 10% of their team, is 95 days.

The nature of a company’s recruitment processes also affects the average time to hire. By standardizing the procedure and focusing on qualified candidates who have achieved their sales targets year-over-year in the same or similar selling environments, sales leaders can decrease this metric over time.

An effective sales hiring process includes the following key elements:

1. Establish an agreement on how the position and company will be communicated to candidates
2. Establish a hiring benchmark and build an ideal candidate profile that defines critical sales skills and traits required for success in the position
3. Hunt for only qualified, top performing salespeople
4. Implement a rigorous and structured interviewing and assessment process
   1. 1st interview – high level qualification
   2. 2nd interview – skills and experience screening
   3. 3rd interview – behavioral interview, role playing, & psychometric assessment
5. Submit an offer to the candidate that is most likely to drive consistent, profitable revenue
6. Implement a structured onboarding program that sets new hires up for success

For more details on a standardized hiring procedure, read Hiring Salespeople: A Core Process You Must Perfect.

5. Average Ramp-Up Time

Companies measure ramp-up time in a range of different ways. However, a universal approach is to assess the time it takes for a rep to start significantly adding to a company’s revenue stream. (Based on the organization, executives can choose the most relevant supporting metrics, such as meeting monthly or quarterly quotas.)

The Revenue Conductor found a simple way to shorten the duration of this period. Their research concluded that employers who were most satisfied with their onboarding process experienced 34 percent faster ramp-up time for new sales reps. With the average ramp-up time of 10 months for B2B salespeople, a well-planned onboarding process can make a huge impact.

Increase early productivity by creating a structured training program that immerses new hires in company protocol and best practices. These onboarding programs should include both ‘classroom’ and in the field training, as well as concrete 30, 60 and 90-day goals that give new salespeople stepping stones toward yearly targets.

For a comprehensive look at how to implement an effective onboarding process, download our eBook: The First 90 Days – Your Guide to Making New Sales Hires Produce Fast.

6. Average Time to First Sale

The average time before a rep’s first sale serves as a benchmark for new hires. To coach new reps toward this goal, start tracking early and mid-stage indicators such as appointment setting and proposal generation to help build their confidence.

The most efficient leaders decrease the average time to first sale by hiring top performers. With 22 to 30 percent of salespeople lacking the skills to succeed at their jobs, recruitment is essential to ensure a strong average time to first sale.

If business development reps (BDRs) or inside sale reps struggle to make their first sale, sales managers need to change their tactics. Effective sales leaders direct new reps toward low-hanging fruit, giving them the opportunity to practice and get comfortable on the job. The positive momentum acquired by closing smaller transactional sales builds toward more lucrative deals.

7. Average Time to Revenue

The time to revenue is the average number of days between the date HR posted a job and when the new salesperson is profitable for their company.

Average Time to Hire + Average Ramp-Up Time = Average Time to Revenue

According to Imparta, a top performing salesperson will generate their first revenue in less than 6 months, while an average salesperson will generate their first revenue in 9 months, and a below average salesperson will generate first revenue in 12 months or later, or will never generate profitable revenue.

If the time to revenue surpasses nine months, it could be due to a slow recruitment process or a long ramp-up time. Leaders should investigate which challenge their organization faces — an instinct-based & non-objective hiring process, disorganized or poorly implemented onboarding processes, and poor front-line managers all contribute to a prolonged average time to revenue.

Tackle the issue by collaborating with HR and recruiters to examine each aspect of the recruitment and onboarding protocol to find the weak link. Since hiring and onboarding practices influence sales productivity, executives need to align those efforts with their goals.

8. Percentage of New Hires Meeting Sales Quotas

The percentage of new hires meeting their sales quotas points to the early successes (or failures) of new reps. If reps are failing to meet or exceed their quotas, an organization is hiring the wrong people or failing to train them correctly.

Mark Roberge, Hubspot’s Chief Revenue Officer, focuses on the coachability of job candidates during interviews. This approach ensures that new or ‘junior’ reps bring growth potential to their jobs. With the right coaching, great hires can steadily improve their performance. By pairing this method with a repeatable, formal sales process, Hubspot magnifies the early successes of their team.

Tom Hopkins, Sales Trainer and Chairman at Tom Hopkins International Inc., says that the answer to get more new hires to meet and exceed sales quota is through collaborative training and proper goal setting. “Before the training even begins, it’s important to set goals with the news hires – not for them. Salespeople will work much harder at achieving goals they’ve been involved in setting, than if goals or quotas are set by the company or a manager.”

Human Capital Metrics Matter

Human capital metrics are an integral aspect of assessing the rigor of a sales organization’s recruitment process, the effectiveness of its onboarding programs and the ability of managers to bring out the best in new hires. By tracking these statistics every quarter, sales executives gain a thorough understanding of what talent acquisition and retention methods are working — and what’s not working — within their organization.

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Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

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.

Connect:

Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

• 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
• How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
• Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021

The ability to recruit, coach, and develop effective sales teams; have a relentless pursuit of key strategic goals; and posses a long track record of high integrity transactions with peers, customers, and partners are all traits employers look for in their next (or first) VP Sales. But in order to attract and hire a great VP Sales and outpace competitors who vie for the same stellar candidates, employers need to understand the job traits that a VP Sales values most when evaluating prospective employers.

Why? Great VPs of Sales – those who consistently lead their teams to achieve aggressive growth targets – are happily employed and understand that they are the most highly coveted salespeople on the market, so they won’t consider making a move to a new employer unless the perfect opportunity comes their way.

So, what job traits do great VP Sales value the most when considering a new career opportunity?

In no particular order, here are the 10 job traits every VP sales considers when evaluating a career opportunity from a prospective employer:

1. An offering they believe in

If an executive decides to join a new company, it’s because they believe in what the company is selling. World-class employers understand this, and, when sales recruiting, clearly detail to candidates how their offering fills a need in the market, has an excellent market reputation, and will continue to solve complex business problems today and into the future.

2. A compensation plan that is above market

The number one thing all salespeople consider when evaluating an employment opportunity is compensation. A typical VP Sales compensation package will be comprised of a six-figure base salary plus additional incentives, such as equity, stock options, and bonus plans.

• Base Pay – A VP Sales expects to have the highest base salary on the sales team because of the functions they perform. Base salaries for the position, regardless of company size, industry, or location, start at $100k, with an average base salary of $124,193.
• Commission – A VP Sales expects commissions and bonuses to equal about 30% of their total compensation package.
• Equity and Stock Options – If the company is private, a VP Sales will expect equity, especially if the company is a startup and does not have the capital to offer a base salary that is at or above market.

No VP of Sales is going to consider a job that doesn’t have a lot of financial potential, whether that comes through a traditional commission structure or substantial equity.

“A VP of Sales wants to make money and wants to make a lot of money on their stock. They want to make coin. Anyone that’s good is not going to join your company at $5,000 or $20,000 MRR a month, it’s just not going to happen.” – Jason Lempkin – CEO Echosign.

3. Colleagues who share their vision

If a VP doesn’t respect (or like) their colleagues, or if their colleagues don’t respect their strategic vision or management approach, it’s going to be difficult for them to be effective. When a VP is assessing a new opportunity, they want to know who they’ll be working with on a day-to-day basis. They want colleagues who will execute their vision, as well as a leadership team that supports their strategic philosophy.

4. A company that understands its corporate objectives

Every company needs a corporate strategy to succeed in today’s marketplace. A good corporate strategy determines where resources are allocated, how the competition stacks up, what markets to compete in, and what advantages the company has in order to meet their growth targets.

When a VP considers a new role, he or she wants to see that the leadership has outlined clear goals and needs for the business, and that they’re committed to helping the VP execute their sales strategy.

Whether the company is an early-stage startup that requires the VP to create a sales process, or is an established business that needs a VP revamp existing processes, the VP Sales wants to join a company that understands their corporate strengths, weaknesses, and growth objectives.

5. Opportunities for growth and change

Great salespeople will only join a company that offers growth, change, and the ability to rise within the organization. In fact, one in three employees leave their jobs because of a lack of career growth.

When a VP of Sales assesses a new opportunity, they want to know if the company is private and going public, or if there is an opportunity to move into a C-level position. They assess the role beyond the moment, looking to the future to see how they’ll be able to grow within the organization. Specifically, they will want to know if there is the opportunity to become the VP over a larger territory, or move into an Executive VP, Global VP, or President role.

6. Ability and autonomy to solve challenges and provide real value

When assessing a new position, a VP wants more than just a large paycheck and a great product. They want to know that their future employer will give them the autonomy necessary to make significant changes and solve critical problems that will drive selling costs down and revenue up.

At the VP level, autonomy is extremely important. VPs want to have complete P&L control over their region and staff. If they feel the leadership team will micromanage and try to direct their every move, they will pass on the position, regardless of the compensation or room for growth offered.

“A Sales VP won’t be content if they’re not able to provide value to an organization. The best VPs want to be confronted with challenges they’re excited to solve.” – Brent Thomson, CSO, Peak Sales Recruiting.

7. A proven leadership team

When a VP Sales is assessing a prospective employer, they want to know everything about its corporate leadership team including:

• Who is on the existing management team
• The structure of the management team
• The background of the management team
• How much autonomy the management team intends to provide the candidate

Sales VPs also want to know that they will have the ability to learn from other proven executives who possess unique business experiences and who value their perspective on how to achieve aggressive growth targets.  

8. Organization stage

When a VP is considering joining a company, they want to know what stage the business is in.

Is the organization in the compete stage, where there is a deep need to build and grow a new sales team, or is the organization in the maintain stage, when there is an established sales force, but a need to continue to grow revenue without adding headcount?  

Why does organization stage matter to a VP? Running a medium-sized $50 million sales department requires a much different skill set than leading a large billion-dollar sales organization.

When a VP Sales is assessing a new opportunity, they want to understand the challenge they’ll be faced with and if their experiences and skills sets will help them be successful. Will they need to come in and build out a sales team, or overhaul an existing process? The best VPs enjoy a challenge, are intrigued by the possibilities, and will join a company if they feel they can make a difference.

9. An ethical approach to selling

There are some sales teams that will do virtually anything to make a sale, and there are others who work to make ethical choices about selling.

Unethical sales practices damage sales numbers, and repels salespeople from joining the team. These unethical practices include executives and reps making promises about product developments that cannot be fulfilled, misrepresenting products or promotions to close deals, and not being transparent about price changes.

When a VP sales is scouting a new opportunity, they look carefully at the company’s sales philosophy and ask the following questions:

• Are the target numbers realistic?
• Are the sales methods ethical?
• Are the sales practices and approaches something I’m comfortable with?

10. Being set-up for success

If an organization doesn’t offer the best tools, infrastructure, and budget to its sales team, it won’t be very attractive to an established VP Sales. In order for VPs to be successful, they need the organization behind them, and want the right tools and processes to make their sales goals a reality.

For a list of the top sales management tools, read our Sales Management Tools Study results.

Job Traits for VP Sales

Proven VPs are highly sought-after by employers. In order for them to accept a new role, they must feel that the new opportunity provides the challenges, products, leadership and compensation that they need to be successful.

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• About
• Latest Posts

Connect:

Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

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.

Connect:

Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

• 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
• How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
• Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021