By Brad Ristas   bristas@rayandbarney.com

How do you keep your top reps from jumping ship?

This is a very important question in this challenging economy.

The first thing you need to consider is whether you are aligned with the reps own goals.   Get to know your sales force better by asking questions and spending some time with them.   This investment in your time upfront and early on will pay back in so many ways over time (and it’s never too late to begin).

These meetings could include collaborating on their career roadmaps or just giving them a place to ask questions and make comments about anything that concerns them.  You can become their “go-to” person when they have questions about next steps.  Remember, often times these sales reps are out there by themselves for long stretches of times trying to find new ways to penetrate accounts. Their entire workday is not always so clearly scripted.  They want to hear from you if they feel that the information you are funneling to them can assist in building their business.  You can gain a better understanding of what motivates your Sales Force to do a particular job if you build this initial relationship on Team Building and Trust.

Some top Sales Reps are truly representative of the organization from day one.  They demonstrate their loyalty by their abilities to get out there and get done whatever is necessary to promote the well being, growth, and profitability of the organization. These key Sales Reps understand being of service to the customer first, and then of service to the organization.    This doesn’t mean you can ignore the Sales Rep who is strictly “coin operated,” as there is room in the organization for them also.  You just need to know that you should handle their needs differently from how you handle the true team player who has bought into a program of internal ownership for your sales process.  Just because the latter Rep is motivated more by money, and that may not be aligned with your own strategic long term goals, it doesn’t mean that they cannot be a Team player.  Appeal to them at a different level.  There are still a lot of good Sales Reps in this category as well.

So the answer is quite simple if the communications is simple also. Both are retained by always improving these communications processes, coaching them equally through good and bad times, and enforcing the ideals that it is a Team approach and that you as a manager share in both the successes and failures he/she enjoys.   Put yourself on the same page by sharing their route with them, giving them the feeling and understanding that they aren’t out there alone.  It isn’t them against the world, but rather, they are looking to build a successful business practice, and you are their partner and advocate in getting them to where they want to be.

You do this successfully, and you’ve likely given them every reason to stay with you.