What can you do to manage turnover?

1. Recognize turnover is inevitable.
No one is hired permanently. Everyone leaves sooner or later. People want and need better opportunities. Spouses get transferred. People retire. Some die. A few win the lottery. Not all turnover is bad. I've received some resignation letters that caused joyous celebration. You can't eliminate turnover entirely. Savvy businesspeople learn to leverage turnover.

2. Second, use turnover proactively.
Plan for it. Make the inevitable work for you instead of against you. Learn to take advantage of people's natural quest for greener pastures to fertilize your own. Don't recruit talented people to a "job." Provide promising new hires with a career path that includes regular promotions, incentives, and referrals. I know one sales manager who tells her salespeople to let her know when they're getting tired of the routine and ready for a new challenge. "I tell my people the day they're hired: 'No job is forever, but stay with us a year or two, do a good job, and when you're ready to move on, if I can't give you what you need, I'll refer you to people I know in the industry who can.''" That's an example of using turnover proactively. It's usually too late for anything proactive to happen by the time the salesperson gives you his or her notice.

3. Hire right in the first place.
The third key to leveraging turnover in your sales organization is eliminate unnecessary turnover by hiring right in the first place. Most counter- and non-productive turnover can be traced directly to negligent hiring, inadequate training, and just plain dumb management practice. In times of economic prosperity jobs are plentiful. It's a job-hunters market. You can't expect to attract and keep good people if your selection strategy is: run a fantastic "Unlimited Income" ad in the Help Wanted section; give your new recruit a presentation book, an order form, and the phone book; push them out onto the streets with a pat on the back and a hearty "Go get 'em, tiger."

Examine your selection criteria. One bank card sales guru told me the only test he gives new hires is the mirror test. "What's that?" I asked. "I tell them to blow on a mirror. If it fogs over, I tell him you're hired." The problem is anyone can go through a revolving door. The more you invest in the selection process of candidates up-front the more likely you will be to reduce high turnover.

Our company provides research-driven selection tests (a bit more sophisticated than the "mirror test") and sales training materials. We've been able to help some companies reduce turnover by nearly half by providing them with the right tools. Those tools include sales selection tests that assess whether a candidate possesses the critical skills, personality, and attitudes necessary to succeed at a job.

Another important tool for leveraging high turnover is training. If a salesperson doesn't know exactly what to do and how to do it most effectively, frustration increases, productivity suffers, and you can be certain the company will never get back its investment in hiring that individual. Untrained salespeople leave at the earliest opportunity. It's difficult for companies with huge revolving doors in their sales department to see any way out of the turnover problems. Convinced that the answer is managing costs, they hesitate to invest in the tools they desperately need.

Turnover is a complex problem. It can have many causes in sales organizations. You can't ignore it. It won't go away. You must manage turnover proactively or it will certainly mangle you and the productivity of your organization. Someone once defined insanity as doing the same old thing and expecting different results. Examining your sales selection strategy may be the first step in stopping the insanity of high turnover.

Copyright © 1999 The Barnett Group. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

Dr. Barnett or "Dr. Dave" (as he is known to audiences on four continents) is co-author of Earning What You're Worth? The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance (Dallas: BSRP, 1995) and is currently working on a new book Advanced Buy-ology: The Secrets of Level Four Selling. He specializes in testing tools that determine a candidates sales or management aptitude and potential. In addition to a Master's degree in counseling psychology, Dr. Barnett holds an earned doctorate in Organizational Management from McCormick Seminary at the University of Chicago. He is an ordained minister and has taught leadership and conflict management at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Dr. Barnett is President of The Barnett Group of Dallas, Texas where he lives with his family.

You can reach him at:

Dr. Dave Barnett
The Barnett Group of Dallas
Phone: 1-888-764-0003
E-mail: drdaveb@drdavebarnett.com