2 Sales Manager Fears: Losing Key Staff Members & Losing to Competitors

Most Business Owners claim that their staff are their business’ greatest asset. Most Sales Managers equally agree that the strength of their individual sales team members is directly related to the output of the team. Both of them would agree that losing a key sales team member would directly impact the sales results. Losing sales and market share to a key competitor is equally something that concerns most managers. In this article we’ll address both topics: 

1. How to not lose key staff members
2. How not to lose to key competitors 

How to not lose key staff members

As a Sales Manager, losing great employees can be a real setback for your team. It not only means losing valuable skills and experience, but also damaging the morale and productivity of the remaining team members. Retaining great employees should be a top priority for Sales Managers, and in this article, we'll discuss some effective strategies that sales managers can use to stop losing great employees.

In fact, if you simply calculated the average weekly GP (gross profit) or sales results from a top performer and compared it to the average weekly results of a new staff member, you’d realise how important retention is. 

Offering competitive compensation and benefits is key. Who cares if the top salesperson earns a similar package to the top managers? One of the most effective ways to retain great employees is to offer competitive compensation and benefits packages. This includes providing fair salaries, health insurance, retirement plans, and other perks such as flexible schedules or remote work options. Sales Managers should ensure that their compensation and benefits packages are competitive with those offered by other companies in their industry to attract and retain top talent.

Provide opportunities for growth and development: great employees with a growth mindset want to grow and develop their skills, and Sales Managers can help them achieve their goals by providing opportunities for growth and development. This includes offering training and development programs, mentoring, and career advancement opportunities. Sales Managers should work with their employees to create individual development plans that align with their goals and the needs of the company, and with the individual. Be creative: rather than increase someone’s wages, why not train them on budgeting or investing so that they can keep more of their existing pay packet?

Create a positive work environment: creating a positive and motivating work environment is essential for retaining great employees. This means fostering a culture of teamwork, respect, and communication, where employees feel valued and appreciated. Sales Managers should ensure that their team members have the resources they need to do their jobs, provide regular feedback, and encourage open communication. With remote salespeople, this takes extra planning and effort. Ensuring they don’t feel disconnected from the culture is critical. 

Encourage work-life balance: Great employees value work-life balance, and Sales Managers can help them achieve it by encouraging flexible work schedules, remote work options, and paid time off. By promoting work-life balance, Sales Managers can help their employees avoid burnout, reduce stress, and maintain a healthy work-life balance, which in turn helps with sales productivity. Gone are the days of the 9 to 5 or 8 to 6 sales role in the office. People value weekends and family time more these days so try to allow for that. 

Recognise and reward performance: these are essential for retaining great employees. This includes providing regular feedback and recognition for a job well done, as well as offering performance-based incentives such as bonuses or commissions. If they over-perform, why shouldn’t the business overpay them? Sales Managers should work with their employees to set clear goals and expectations, including stretch goals. 

Communicate the right way: effective communication is key to retaining great employees. In fact, the most common complaint made by internal employees about a business is that internal communication should improve. Sales Managers should ensure that their team members have the information they need to do their jobs, provide regular updates on company goals and initiatives, and encourage open and transparent communication. By communicating effectively, Sales Managers can build trust and confidence with their employees and keep them engaged and motivated. Equally, Sales Managers should cultivate and expect open communication in return from every member of their team. 

Offer meaningful work: great employees want to work on meaningful projects that make a difference. Sales Managers can help their employees feel engaged and motivated by offering them work that aligns with their values and interests and provides opportunities for growth and development. Sales Managers should work with their team members to identify areas of interest and provide them with opportunities to work on projects that are meaningful and challenging.

Provide a clear career path: great employees want to know that they have a clear path for career advancement within the company. By providing a clear career path, Sales Managers can help their employees feel valued and invested in the success of the company. This point can get a little tricky as not all great salespeople make great managers, and nor should they try. I debate this with salespeople and Sales Managers the world over on a fortnightly basis! Remember: sales success comes from EXTERNAL (client/supplier) relationships, whereas Sales Management success comes from INTERNAL relationships: not everyone is equally skilled at both! 

How not to lose to key competitors 

Having competitors is a great thing: it means that there is enough market size to allow for other businesses to exist. Likewise, with a growth mindset most Sales Managers can “use” competitors to hone the skills, strategies and approaches of their sales team. Losing to competitors sometimes is inevitable. However, many Sales Managers lose sleep worrying. It’s time to take action on some of the following strategies: 

1. Understand them: thoroughly research your competitors to identify areas where you can differentiate and outperform them. Unbiased knowledge and research is powerful. 
2. Monitor and analyse competitor activities: proactively keep an eye on your competitors' activities and adapt your approach accordingly to stay competitive in the market. See what marketing tactics they use, how they pitch their messages and more. 
3. Develop a unique value proposition: make sure that your team can clearly articulate the unique value of your products/services and company and that they can communicate it effectively in their sales pitch.
4. Build strong customer relationships: provide expert customer service, above client expectations. Be responsive to customer needs, and maintain PROACTIVE communication to build trust, loyalty and referrals. If clients aren’t referring, they’re “satisfied” at best. 
5. Stay customer-centric: the more you focus on understanding and meeting the needs of your customers, as an entire business team, providing exceptional value and service, the greater your client retention rates. 
6. Differentiate through innovation: continuously innovate and improve your products/services, processes and overall offering, to stay ahead of competitors.
7. Focus on marketing and branding: develop a strong brand image and marketing strategy to create awareness and preference among your target audience, to tempt across the clients your competitor now serves.
8. Train and empower your sales team: Invest in regular sales training and provide your team with the right tools and incentives to perform at their best. The best-trained sales team will likely win over the long term, which is partly why so many global corporate businesses obsess over this area. Training also helps with key staff retention, so it’s a win-win. 
9. Collaborate with strategic partners: find strategic partners in the marketplace who can complement your products/services and leverage their expertise, resources or database of contacts.

If you’re committed to the cause of long-term sales success you can look to implement multiple strategies from the above article to stop losing your key sales team members and to stop losing sales to your key competitors. Taking action is everything. 

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