SalesForce Search recently surveyed over 300 employers in our first ‘Employer Sales Force Survey’. Those surveyed included companies both small and large in all industries including Financial Services, Pharmaceutical, Consumer Goods, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, and Technology.
The response rate to the survey was great - thank-you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey. The results provided us with valuable information regarding trends in sales force management, specifically in the areas of attraction & retention, resources, and sales compensation. We hope you will find the following survey results both informative and useful.
Attraction & Retention of Sales Teams
- The majority of survey respondents indicated turnover in their sales team has increased slightly since the start of the economic downturn. However, a significant number of respondents indicated the recession has not changed their sales teams’ turnover rates.
- When asked about their plans for hiring sales people over the next 12 months, the overwhelming majority of respondents indicated they were going to replace poor performing sales reps with better sales talent. This shows that while much of the attention during the recession has focused on downsizing, a significant number of of company’s do not plan to reduce headcount. Instead, companies are focusing on improving their sales recruiting efforts to replace under-performing sales reps with high potential sales professionals.
- Surprisingly, while some companies have invested in sales training and sales performance technology, the majority of survey respondents have not implemented any specific initiatives to retain their top sales people.
Sales Force Resources
- The majority of survey respondents believe the economic downturn will have no impact on the level or frequency of sales training provided to their sales team.
- When asked about the focus of their company’s sales training, the responses were evenly split between product training and selling skills. Interestingly, almost a quarter of companies surveyed do not provide any sales training to their sales team.
- While a large number of companies plan to upgrade their existing sales support and tracking technology, the majority of respondents are not planning any changes to their sales technology over the next year.
Sales Compensation
- The economy has certainly had an impact on sales targets - the majority of respondents indicated their sales targets have decreased by more than 10% over the past year.
- An overwhelming number of companies surveyed said the majority of their sales force did not meet sales quotas and received below target commission.
- Despite these results, most companies do not have any plans to change their sales compensation plans in the next 12 months.
SalesForce Search is a sales recruiting company which specializes exclusively in the recruitment and placement of sales professionals. To contact us please call 1-800-461-SELL (7355) or email us at info@salesforcesearch.ca
Tags: Hiring Sales People, Sales Career, Sales Job, Sales Jobs, Sales Manager, sales recruiter, Sales Recruiting, Sales Team, Sales Training, Toronto