Turnover in sales teams happens. But since salespeople are the primary revenue drivers in many organizations, high salesperson turnover can cripple profitability and team morale. 

Sales team turnover can be even more detrimental in remote settings because replacing, onboarding, and motivating great salespeople must be even more intentional when you’re spread across the map. Fortunately, you can always improve retention across your sales team with these tips. 

How to keep your best salespeople?

To ensure turnover doesn’t become a problem in your sales organization, start by understanding what makes salespeople stay. 

The best salespeople are happy to stay at a company where they see a bright and fulfilling future, feel recognized and appreciated, and respect leadership. It’s even more likely they’ll stay when they feel a sense of belonging and enjoy being part of the culture.

To help ensure you offer these workplace must-haves, here are six ways to prevent salesperson turnover in a remote setting: 

1. Recognize your salespeople

The most successful salespeople are ambitious, hard-working, and love to push themselves to achieve their goals. Giving timely recognition for their efforts keeps their fire going and makes them more likely to put their best effort into your company. 

Don’t wait for the big milestones to recognize their work. By praising small wins, sales leaders can continuously motivate individual sales reps and the whole sales team. 

Chris Gadek, Head of Growth at AdQuick, advocates equally celebrating big wins and small victories. 

“Everyone enjoys hearing praise for their work. But, far too often, pats on the back only come after a significant score. Recognition for any job well done boosts emotions and motivates team members to perform better. It’s also a meaningful way to track incremental achievements as they work toward larger goals.”

Gadek adds that “celebrating all the milestones is a great way to boost job satisfaction, enhance company culture, and increase employee loyalty to your business.”

Recognition takes on many forms, so make sure you consider what your team values most.  Some solid examples of ways to recognize your sales team include giving monetary rewards, sharing wins across the team in Slack, and verbal recognition during one-on-ones. 
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2. Develop their skills 

Salespeople are typically goal-oriented by nature and thrive when they can hit company targets and continuously grow their skillset. But no salesperson would enjoy pushing themselves long-term without adequate training and support. 

That’s why providing sales training and supporting them as they hone their craft is crucial for preventing turnover. Here are some effective ways to help your salespeople develop their skills:
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• One-time or ongoing sales training 
• A mentorship program
• A professional development stipend 
• Upward mobility and career growth plans 
• Shadow program with company executives
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3. Ensure stability

Selling is more fun and fulfilling when you believe in what you’re selling and have confidence that you’re pitching a viable product. Give your salespeople this type of assurance in your product and company. If you don’t, you might soon have a sales team retention problem on your hands (if you don’t already!). 

One study found that 75% of sales reps leave because of concerns about their company’s ability to meet market needs. Take this concern off their minds by creating the best product you can and investing in areas of your business that help solidify your position in your market. Also, communicate openly and proactively with your salespeople about your company’s financial stability so they don’t feel the need to worry. 
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4. Offer a competitive compensation and benefits package

Did you know that 89% of sales reps leave because they’re dissatisfied with compensation?

While it’s not great that most salespeople don’t feel they’re getting what they deserve, the good news is that this represents a straightforward way to prevent salesperson turnover: offer better pay and benefits. 

There are multiple ways you can approach this. For example, you can increase their base pay, redesign their commission structure to get a higher percentage of each sale, offer more equity, or add a new perk or benefit that meaningfully adds to their quality of life. Some ideas include a wellness stipend, more PTO days, flexibility in their schedule, and family benefits.

5. Build a strong culture

Strong remote team culture is one where there’s good rapport and camaraderie among employees. This is especially important in sales teams where high stress and toxic competition can derail a positive team culture and cause sales reps to disengage. 

Building camaraderie within your sales team is about enabling healthy connections. That’s because when employees feel connected to their teams, there is a 91% increase in feeling like they belong to the organization. 

Some ways you can foster connections and create a strong culture in your remote sales team include: 

• Implementing Kona daily check-ins to help team members learn more about each other and bond over shared experiences.
• Running a non-sales-related contest to promote healthy competition.
• Acknowledging everyone’s successes and failures, but treating everything as an opportunity to learn.
• Planning a team offsite to set goals, strengthen relationships, and rally together.
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6. Create a fair playing field

One of the worst things you can do within a sales organization is to create a working environment where your team feels like they can never win. 

Whether it’s unrealistic quota assignments, letting favoritism come before merit, or not following through on commitments as an organization, anything that makes sales reps question their leadership’s integrity can lead to turnover.

Keep in mind that having good intentions isn’t enough to ensure fairness. Remember to double-check that the sales quotas you set make sense in the current market conditions, that all sales reps are being recognized and treated fairly, and that leadership isn’t making promises they can’t keep. 

To avoid unfairness or pay discrimination, your organization could consider holding themselves publicly accountable like Buffer, who is transparent about their pay:
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Great salespeople know their worth and will leave if they don’t have a clear growth path, competitive compensation, and an environment where they feel supported and appreciated. By taking these six tips for preventing salesperson turnover, you can give your salespeople what they’re looking for and create a workplace they wouldn’t want to leave.