Reasons Sales Managers Lose Good Modular Home Reps

There are many reasons why people quit working for you such as work/life balance, co-worker conflicts, family matters or relocation. Here are some of the top reasons your sales rep might pack their bags and look for the door.

Inadequate Reward System. Notice I didn’t say paycheck. That is because your sales rep knew what he/she was going to be paid for the work they do. If they couldn’t meet your expectations and/or didn’t earn enough money from their efforts, then who could blame them for leaving.

The rewards I’m talking about are ones that either don’t you a penny or if it does, it is earned by the sales rep. Being recognized on the company’s website or in a press release doesn’t cost anything but sales reps live for this. Have you ever thought of giving your sales rep a mini weekend vacation or even a gift card to a local restaurant?  Think how special your sales rep will feel if you made a donation in their name to their favorite charity or even a unexpected bonus.

While these represent some of the ways an employer can reward workers, they don’t work without one key element; communication. What money represents to one employee may be of no concern to another. The key here is to find out what your employee’s value most and work from there.

Management. You know the saying: “People don’t leave companies, they leave their managers”. There is truth to this! Here’s my reasoning. When there is work to be done, its management’s duty to enforce, engage, and often times implement reward systems to keep employees satisfied and loyal.

Not everyone is skilled enough to manage processes or lead people. Just because someone is good at what they do does not mean they will be a great manager, and that’s perfectly OK! When people who are not fit to lead are put into positions of leadership it can create a catastrophic circumstance in the workplace leading to high turnover and low employee morale.

The Peter Principle is a concept in management theory in which the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate's performance in his or her current role rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role. Thus, employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively, and "managers rise to the level of their incompetence."

Hiring/Promotions. When good sales reps see people who do not contribute as much as they do or they see schmoozers who do little but socialize a lot land positions or territories they don’t deserve, it’s like a slap in the face. Especially when those workers are busting their butts, not taking vacation and exceeding expectations, the last thing they want to see is some Joe Schmo get rewarded for doing little or nothing to earn it.

Too much work! The moment sales managers see reps who have good work ethic or are great in working with builders they begin to slap on more projects, more responsibility to those who they believe can handle it. And maybe good workers can handle more work but it becomes a problem when they begin to feel that they can’t escape from work because of the amount of responsibility and attention they receive from management. Being an excellent worker can be a blessing and a curse. It’s great for a sales manager to recognize when sales reps are good, but the reward for that shouldn’t always be to pour on the workload. Since good sales reps tend to have a higher workload, it’s important to ensure they don’t feel overwhelmed causing them to burn out.

Happy Sales Rep

It’s easy to get good sales reps to stay, simply ask them what it will take. If you see a rep doing great work, recognize it and reward it but don’t’ forget to find out how you can empower them to continuously deliver.