According to the Sales Management Association’s report, Salesperson Retention and Turnover, “Businesses retain just 71% of salespeople annually, on average.”
You don’t need the HR Director to tell you the exact numbers: every business manager knows that attrition and high staff turnover eat into profits, slow down productivity and damage morale and company culture.
So why do so many salespeople move on? Dispute resolution is a major cause of discontent and disruption. Commission is dear to every sales professional’s heart and when an employer gets it wrong or causes payment delays, that undermines motivation and trust, sometimes catastrophically.
We conducted research amongst companies that use pay for performance in their organizations – from small businesses to Fortune 500. Over 40% had more than six different compensation plans in use, with more than a quarter racking up eleven or more plans. Multiply that by the number of individuals on your salesforce and it’s not surprising that mistakes and delays creep in.
The good news is, optimized Sales Performance Management systems can help you recover from these breaches of trust – we estimate it can typically reduce sales team turnover by 10% as well as reducing by 90% the overpayment errors that hurt your bottom line. The bad news is, our survey revealed that only 14% of organizations are actively considering SPM improvement projects to tackle the problem, falling to just 9% who intend to automate, track and control commission disputes.
Are you one of those burying your head in the sand, or are you just missing a major business opportunity?
If you’re ready to answer that question honestly, why not download our free white paper? The hidden potential in your SPM systems shares our survey results in more detail and explains how optimizing your system and introducing more automation could bring highly visible benefits.