Competitive Excellence

What’s happening today in the technology sales arena has been going on for years. A friend of mine recently had his sales manager position eliminated for a small high-tech firm. He was there two years and increased revenues from $22 million to $50 million. Why would a company let somebody like this go? If your company lets people go that perform like that, what do you expect from the next person you bring on? The turnover in high-tech sales has been incredible for at least the last eight years. Back in 1996 I worked for an IT consulting firm with a sales team of four people, and this company had hired and fired 24 sales people over five years! The average sales executive for this company lasted nine months.

Back in the 1980s, sales executives would have successful careers for 10 or more years with one company. If you left a job every two years you were considered taboo, but today a new sales position every 18 to 24 months is the norm. Apparently management no longer has patience, and if someone’s performance dips for a month, they let him or her go. How can anyone build relationships, customer loyalty, and new business when a client sees a new face every year or two? The high-tech environment may be tough, but the short-term mentality, this looking only from quarter to quarter, has to end. This segment of the economy is still rebounding, and supply is still greater than demand. If companies lack the patience to retain quality sales people today, what can they expect in the future? If your sales people are performing, keep them, or expect no loyalty from a successful sales executive when the high tech economy is back in high gear. If you let quality people go, it will only hurt you and your company’s reputation in the future! You can read more about this is my book, “Don’t Just Stand There, Sell Something.”