Covid isn’t the reason why your reps have joined the great reshuffle or the great resignation.
2020 forced businesses to shut their doors and forced many into unemployment searching for new jobs and ways to make money. but that was 2 years ago and many are still packing up their desks and walking out the doors never to return. Why is this still happening?
Many are seeking new roles with competitors and higher positions with hybrid or work-from-home options leaving current CEO’s and leadership scratching their heads on how to make it stop.
After interviewing several sales teams, leadership, and sales individuals, I’ve uncovered one common answer that is ripping through companies and teams faster than the virus and destroying their ability to recover…..
Lack of human connection
Let me start by saying that this is nothing new. In structured, bureaucratic, companies this has always been the bottom line result in retention problems. Companies are hiring coaches to bring efficiency and increase sales into the business but the mark is still being missed.
The lack of human connection is now front and center because of the pandemic and leaving is the magnified survival response of having to think about life and death on a daily basis. It’s simply just too much.
I interviewed several sales execs and individuals from companies like Mass Mutual and Transunion and they are repeating the same mantras. “I want to feel like I am making an impact”. Reps and teams are asked DAILY to virtually connect with people and sell to them without proper training on how to do so. Leadership is asking reps to do something that leaders themselves are not doing…..CONNECTING with their teams on a level outside of business.
So what can leadership do to change this? The answer is very simple
Inspire the human connection by example.
- Provide your teams with a space to use their voices and values to make a greater impact. Give them a platform to be heard AND seen.
- Generate a conversation around diversity and inclusion. These are the common grounds that your teams are standing on waiting for you to join them.
- Use active listening and encourage them to create a program or an initiative that supports their ambition.
So I leave you with just one question, are you going to lead the change?
