Eat What You Kill
Many organizations experience high turnover or attrition rates of sales recruits at the entry level. I often hear management proclaim it’s because their organization does not have the right training program.
Oh how I wish this was the case! During the course of our various performance improvement projects, we often recommend and facilitate training as part of the solution to increasing our clients’ sales. So if our training were the magic cure-all, I’d be a happy camper.
But seldom is training alone the sole solution. More often than not, it’s what I call the, “Make Them Eat What They Kill Syndrome” that sets up new recruits to fail.
In addition to a lack of training, these high turnover organizations don’t give new recruits a fighting chance to ‘kill’ in these key areas;
1.) Expectations; Advertising sales is a profession that takes time to learn. A typical trade apprenticeship takes 3-5 years to complete. Yet many sales managers claim they want ‘self-starters’ who can set the sales world on fire in 30, 60 or 90 days.
2.) The mandate;Often we expect our newest, and arguably our weakest, sales people to sell the tough accounts our seniors couldn’t or wouldn’t sell. We let our best sales people horde the ‘easy’ accounts and never let our rookies taste success. Nothing breeds success as success itself. Having the opportunity to work and grow real accounts can be a huge motivator.
3.) Remuneration; Eat-What-They-Kill Syndrome generally results in new recruits eating elsewhere when you cut off their meals…their guarantees. It’s hard to sell when your knees are knocking, and working on straight commission before you’ve had the chance to learn the profession is unfair to the recruit, the company, and your prospects.
4.) Recruiting; Many stations use the mirror test to screen potential candidates; they place a cold mirror under the candidate’s nose and if it fogs up they get the job. You have to start with the right raw material if your recruits are going to succeed.
Of course, training is a key ingredient to new-recruit success. But it’s not the only ingredient in a successful new-recruit start up plan.
Randy’s What If
We know you have a full time day job, and focusing on the success of your new recruits can sometimes be difficult. What if you worked with ENS Media Inc. to create a new recruit start-up program that eliminated costly new rep turn-over?