How to retain your top sales performers?

Convincing someone to invest their hard-earned money seems challenging to many. However, there are a few top performers who excel at this art of persuasion.

They enter the sales field like fearless warriors and conquer it using their impressive skills. However, these sales talents are thirsty for growth; they take a leap and switch whenever they get a chance to quench their thirst.

A company that aims to grow can’t afford to lose such gems. Besides, hiring and training a new sales rep is no easy job. So, it is important to take every measure for retaining these proficient sales talents.

The average turnover cost per sales rep is $97,690

But the question is – how to retain the top performers? 

Nowadays, it is difficult to find a good sales rep. If you’ve been lucky enough to find a few good ones, then take every necessary step to retain them. 

Here are a few strategies for retaining top sales employees in your organization. 

1. Create a close-knit and transparent office culture 

Internal conflicts are infuriating. Sometimes sales reps steal each other’s deals and take the credits. The communication gap between different teams becomes the root cause of many problems. The blame-game adds fuel to the flame and makes things worse.

Top performers have the skills, but they can’t give their best in a negative environment. So, they try to move out of it. Don’t let this happen; create a better work culture to retain your best sales employees.

Break the wall between different teams and encourage them to collaborate and communicate with each other. Organize fun games occasionally to bring different teams together.

Unity is strength. When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved. – Mattie Stepanek 

Try to build a positive environment of transparency. You can take the help of the CRM software to boost collaborative productivity. 

With CRM, sales reps can see which deals their team members are working on so that they don’t approach the same prospect.

Besides, most of the CRM offers a Shared Team Inbox feature. This helps in creating a shared email environment where team members can access all the email conversations. This will reduce the disputes within the team and help in adding clarity in the work process. So, the top performers can work peacefully and focus on reaching their sales quotas without worrying about anything. 

2. Give recognition and opportunities to grow 

After spending a few years in a company, the top performers feel stuck at a single point. They can’t see themselves growing.

Besides, as they are good at closing, the management gets used to their victory and stops giving it much attention.

No matter how far we go, appreciation is always motivating. So, appreciate the small wins of your top sales reps.

If your top performers are consistently doing good and winning maximum deals, then give them the recognition they deserve. For instance, send emails about their excellent performance to everybody in the company.

Their tremendous performance speaks volumes about their expertise and experience in a specific domain. So, instead of calling professional speakers from outside, you can give your top performers a chance to share their knowledge with others.

Besides, they can play some role in strategizing also. Let your top performers do a little brainstorming to improve the sales game. They can even contribute to creating a sales playbook that will help in training the new sales reps.

3. Invest in coaching and training 

The best sales employees are ambitious. They are good, but they want to get better. Even the top sales reps face specific problems while handling high-value deals. So, they look for professional development opportunities. They expect continuous training to maintain high-quality performance. 

So, give them regular training. See where they are facing issues. Get them registered for a sales seminar.

Often sales organizations are confined to the tips passed down in the organization from the seniors. So, seminars will give the top performers an opportunity to learn from the industry experts. It gives them a chance to enhance their skills and learn new selling techniques.

They can then come and present whatever they’ve learned with other teammates. This will help in training the rest of the sales reps too.

4. Have regular meetings to ensure everything is well 

If your top sales performers are planning for a change, they won’t tell you. They’ll find a new opportunity, and then give you a sudden shock. So, you need to anticipate their plan to stop them at the right time.

Conduct regular one-to-one meetings. Make your top sales talents comfortable so that they can freely share their real concerns.

Find out – 

• If they still enjoy working in your team
• Is anything bothering them?
• Are they demotivated due to something?
• Do they have anything in mind that they want you to implement?
• Do they require your guidance anywhere? 
• Do they have any feedback on suggestions?
• Are they stressed?
• Do they still feel motivated to come to work? 

If you get any signs of unhappiness, then take immediate action before they begin their job hunt. Because once they get a better opportunity, it might become challenging to retain them.

5. Provide the sales apps your top performers require

Most companies set high expectations, but they don’t give the sales reps the essential technology they require to simplify tasks and increase their productivity.

Invest a little on your top sales performers and provide the sales apps they require to fulfill their goals. The market is flooded with a wide variety of apps that help in saving time and increasing efficiency. Coordinate with your sales reps and find out if they want you to invest in any specific app.

Yes, most of the apps have a free version, but to unlock the main features, you must take the paid subscription.

However, ask them to create a full document stating why they need the app, how it will help, and what the company can expect after investing in the specific app.

Here is a list of sales apps that can help your sales reps 

• Salesmate – Sales CRM 
• Badger Maps – Route planner for sales 
• Basecamp – Project Management 
• Hunter – Email Hunter 
• Bidsketch – Proposal Software 
• Invoice2go – Professional Invoicing 

For finding more such effective sales apps refer the blog “30 best apps for sales reps to boost sales in 2024”

Wrapping up 

Companies want to hire the best. If you don’t take care of your top performers, somebody else will. And that “somebody” might even be your competitors. So, try your best to retain your top sales performers. Appreciate their work, train them regularly, and give them proper feedback to improve their performance.

Find out the tools that most of the sales reps are using for their growth. For instance, Salesmate CRM is used by teams of different sizes to manage their sales, analyze their performance, and maintain lasting customer relationships with the clients. So, empower your sales reps by providing such tools to grow.