This Sh%t Isn’t Hard
Posted on in Retention Strategy
I hope this post doesn’t turn into a complete rant (or maybe I do). I just can’t edit myself or hold back any longer.
I talk to countless people every week…CEOs, other consultants, hiring managers, job seekers in every industry, geography, stage of life, and any other demographic you can think of. Over the last few weeks, the conversations keep coming back to the same thing:
When it comes to attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining talent THIS SHIT ISN’T HARD! Really. I promise you it’s not.
Okay, let me reel myself back in and tie this post to the topic at hand…developing your people. We set out to focus the last few blog posts on “developing” your sales talent. For one, increased sales never hurt. Two, many companies make the biggest investments in their sales teams. And three, I wanted to introduce my friend Bill Morrow, who is a rockstar sales consultant, to my inner circle. If you don’t know him, you should.
But it boils down to this; you have a moral obligation to develop your teams. Yup. That’s right. I said moral obligation. Strong word choice because this is such an important topic. If you’ve been following along, I opened this series with the following snippet:
CFO to CEO: What if we invest in our people and they leave us?
CEO: What if we don’t and they stay?
Boom. Drop the mic. That says everything.
But, I want you to think about this exchange a little differently. What if…
- You were known for developing amazing talent and all of your competitors were looking to poach people from your team. Good for you! Way to go for becoming known for something other than your product or service. Don’t fret. You’ll be able to retain the people you want, plus vacancies create opportunities.
- Your talent leaves? That’s okay! This is not the worst thing that can happen. The byproduct of having your team highly sought after is that you will naturally become a talent magnet. Opportunities for development rank in the top five things all people (yes, all…regardless of industry, gender, age, geography, etc.) look for from their employers. Be a standout in this area and you will have a talent pool many dream of.
- They stay? You have one kick ass, high performing culture. Your A players stay, your company grows, and they attract and develop other A players.
So, let’s officially round up this series with a quick recap. I said that developing people isn’t hard. You need to intentionally design what your development program will look like. At a minimum, you have to know who you are working with. Bill talked about the different sales personalities on your team and provided insight so you can begin thinking about how you would approach people with different personalities, well, differently. We went one step further and talked about the importance of understanding someone’s mindset and how that alters their actions and perceptions of their work. Finally, while I think it goes without saying, all of this should be applied to your entire organization, not just your sales team.
But, before we go, I am personally inspired by some of the efforts these companies are making to develop people beyond traditional job skills. But remember, you don’t have to be Amazon or AT&T to develop your people. It doesn’t take fancy technology, destination learning campuses, or a lot of money. It simply takes a commitment.
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