Are you looking to grow your team by recruiting President’s Club caliber sales talent? Today’s job market is hyper-competitive. As a result, top sales talent has more choices than ever before. So, how do you compete?
Here’s what salespeople are looking for today in a new employer.
This subject is on the table for some employers and entirely out of the question for others. However, remote teams are how the sales team has always been built for many software companies.
However, if you require your salespeople to come into the office, you’ll miss out on some of the best talent available today. In addition, most experienced salespeople enjoy the benefits of working from their home-based office.
With heavy travel schedules, they save time by not commuting to and from work on a daily basis.
They invest their travel time in on-site client meetings. If your sales role is limited to only those who can commute into your office, you’ll miss some of the best sales talent available. Some companies work around in-office requirements by allowing flexible work options.
However, sometimes this isn’t enough to capture the attention of the best sales performers, and it still eliminates many other potential high-performing reps who live in other areas.
A recent global study of almost 20,000 employees concluded by the ADP Research Institute concluded that it makes little difference where you work in terms of employee engagement.
Employees are equally engaged at a home office, company office, or even client’s office. The engagement has nothing to do with where the employee works but does fall significantly when employees travel heavily.
High retention rates mean satisfied customers, excellent onboarding, and solid solutions. Without high retention rates, salespeople are churning clients in and out. This is hard on their reputations and motivation to bring on additional clients.
Weak retention numbers point to product problems, poor client service, and a lack of attention to the customer experience.
If your customer retention numbers are high, in the 90+ or more, you have something to brag about that matters to President Club caliber salespeople.
Salespeople love high retention numbers because this one data point, more than many others, points to a formidable competitive advantage.
It’s no secret that healthcare can get expensive fast. Changing jobs means changing healthcare programs. If costs are too high, the actual cost of moving to another sales role may become unfeasible.
Because most sales roles are built on equivalent base salaries and commission opportunities, if base salaries are more or less similar and the healthcare costs with the new company are significant, the job change will start to make less and less sense.
Plus, employees don’t want to pay more for healthcare than they already pay. Therefore, programs that reduce deductibles and, most importantly, monthly payments are the most desirable.
Very few candidates ask for specific medical groups or dig into the exact nuances of coverage—their focus centers primarily on monthly premiums and then deductibles.
Retirement programs are perceived as a big plus for salespeople. Without a 401K program, their ability to reduce tax rates or save for retirement becomes severely limited if your organization matches or has an equity program, even better. Today’s salesperson values retirement programs.
A recent survey compiled by Betterment for Business revealed that 91% of workers agree that a company’s 401K plan impacted their decision to take a job. Even if only a tiny impact, whether a company had a 401K plan received some consideration from job changers.
The quality of the 401K program matters too. For example, the study found 46% of respondents stated employer matching programs contributed to their decision to accept their current role.
Let’s face it; sales is not a solo sport. Without marketing, pre-sales, architects, post-sales, customer success, or sales development, a salesperson has a slim chance of being super successful.
Support matters in their success, and they will be very interested in who’s on the team and how the team members interact and collaborate to win new business.
Websites and marketing materials that appear to be from 1999 turn off talented salespeople.
Finding a good boss is essential. Because selling is full of stressful situations, every salesperson wants a boss they feel comfortable with. However, if sales leadership is volatile, complex, or extraordinarily particular, it can be hard to attract people who aren’t in desperate need of a job.
Top salespeople won’t waste their time evaluating a job opportunity if the sales leader has obvious fatal flaws.
Selling follows the product lifecycle. Eventually, if you stay with a solution for too long, it becomes commoditized. But unfortunately, most software salespeople aren’t interested in selling commodities.
They are looking for products that solve problems in ways that haven’t been solved before. This means they will bring new solutions to customers who haven’t yet experienced the value of solving the problem.
If a salesperson sells more mature solutions, they want to work for a company that continues to invest in their solution. But, unfortunately, winning new business is more challenging when your solution hasn’t been changed or updated in a few years.
Hiring salespeople for SaaS solutions is competitive. By default, most candidates aren’t in the top 20%, so competing for them will be more difficult. However, today’s salespeople want to see most of these items in their next move.
If you can’t offer at least some of these seven items, your ability to compete for top sales talent will suffer. You may need to grow your team with average reps with high potential, aim for less experience, and supplement with heavy investments in sales training.
