How to end the never-ending cycle of High Turnover and Sales Recruitment

One of Albert Einstein’s most famous quotes is: “Insanity – Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results”.

And while it was likely he wasn’t talking about sales in particular, it is easy to see how it could be applied to those individuals and businesses who continue to follow the same well-trodden path, even though it never yields them better results or outcomes. 

Sure, there might be flukes, or lucky breaks once in a while – but is it consistent? Probably not.

So when it comes to sales recruitment, how does your business perform? Do you sometimes manage to hire winners, and other times, those who are only mediocre? And in terms of turnover, is it a regular occurrence that you can almost set your watch by?

If you answered yes to all of the above – then what have you done to try and change those results? Surely you can’t expect to do the same thing over and over again, and think you will see a different outcome?

There are two issues here: high turnover, and continuous sales recruitment. Sometimes these have a direct relationship, and sometimes one doesn’t necessarily relate to the other – but identifying causes of the two is imperative if you want to fix the problems going forward.

High turnover can be the result of of a variety of things, from sales management to company culture, unsatisfactory working environment, to simply there being the wrong fit for both the individual and business.

But what these all have in common is that they are very intangible, and of course they happen after the hire, so not a lot can be done about it right? Wrong.

A lot of the time high turnover is a result of the recruitment process, so if you don’t have that nailed down, there will always be a continuous stream of salespeople in, and out, of your business. The potential culprits (according to the Objective Management Group) could be, but are not limited to:

1. Lack of a formal, structured, sales recruiting process.
2. Specification of requirements for the role.
3. The ‘Killer Ad’.
4. The sites used to source candidates.
5. Ineffective use of recruiters or use of ineffective recruiters.
6. Use of ineffective, non predictive assessments.
7. Ineffective candidate filtering.
8. Interviewing skills that are insufficient for identifying sales talent.
9. Weak on boarding program.
10. Ineffective sales coaching and accountability.

So this is where the two problems are linked – if you don’t have the right hiring process in place you are practically setting yourself (and the candidate) up to fail before you even begin. And where’s the fun in that? The good news is, that using world-wide scientific research, you can predict the longevity and success of candidates that can help put a stop to turnover and recruitment of the wrong salespeople.

Not convinced? Check out this case study to see how it can be done.

Download a SAMPLE Sales Candidate Assessment and see for yourself the incredible insight that you can gain when assessing your next candidates.