5 reasons your top AEs are thinking of leaving (and how to delay it)
Your top AEs are thinking of leaving.
They might not leave immediately, but their eyes are always on what is happening outside of your business.
The facts are that the average productive tenure of a SaaS AE is 22 months.
The numbers from the most recent Bridge Group report are two years old now, and we know that average quota attainment is lower today as the pressure on SaaS spending increased in 2022 and 2023.
We can also assume that top performing reps stay longer than the average because they are earning well (we’ll look at this shortly),
The reality is however, that your top reps, if they have been in your company for a couple of years, are more likely to be thinking about their next move than they are about growing their career with you.
So what are the top 5 reasons that your best AEs might pull the plug and move on?
1. Not achieving their OTE and accelerators
Let’s get this one out of the way quickly.
Salespeople are motivated by money.
That is why they are in this role and accept the high level of rejection and stress - because if they hit a home run they can earn life changing money that can pay off home mortgages, educate children and support family members.
Top performers are not here for 80% of their OTE.
Top performers are not here for 100% of their OTE.
The best sellers are here for 300% of their OTE through over achievement and accelerators.
Top sellers are focused on the number on the right, not the middle
If your sellers are seeing those returns, or at least a path towards them they will hang around.
If they can’t see a path towards a knock-out year they will be figuring out where they can.
2. Not being listened to
The best AEs have deep empathy and understanding for their customers.
They research the industry, their challenges, their competitors, their financial situation.
They understand the customer’s current situation, how they solve this problem today and their other options for solving with other competitors or the tools they already have available.
The best AEs put themselves in their customer’s shoes and because of this are sat on a huge amount of customer insight that is valuable to your marketing team, your product team, and your pricing team.
Often this insight is not requested, and when offered up is dismissed.
“You concentrate on selling what you have in your bag and let us focus on the product, branding, pricing, bundles…..”
When creating a start up, speaking to customers is the number one predictor of finding a product that the market needs - don’t lose that curiosity at scale.
Your top sellers have the most regular contact with your customers - and it irks them that you don’t capitalise on that.
3. Middle managers inferring they want the deal more than the seller
Being a sales manager is tough - I’ve been there.
They likely came from an individual contributor role, were successful in it, and so they know what they would do in this situation.
But they aren’t in control, and they are getting pressure from their own sales leadership to get the forecast up, to bring in everything in pipeline, to bring deals forward from next quarter.
So they start chipping in,
“Do they know why now is the best time to do this deal?”
“Do they know its our end of quarter?”
“Let’s bring it forward in the forecast to keep our focus on it”
“Are you speaking to the right people"?”
“Get me on a call and I’ll get this closed for you?”
Your best AEs know what they are doing.
They want this deal more than you do.
In fact, they will earn more out of this deal than the manager will (simple maths based on their commission rate and the manager’s)
Every time your managers overrule your top AEs in order to make their own forecast story look better your sellers think about life elsewhere.
4. Poorly executed or non-existent 121s
In my time as a seller my 121s with my manager were the most valuable time of my week.
When done well it is a time to talk through how I’m feeling, what I’m struggling with, where I think the best opportunities are, and how work is fitting in with my overall life and family.
I loved that time and it put a shot of adrenaline in me for the following week.
But in a busy sales team, especially a remote one, the 121s quickly become one of the first things to get postponed or cancelled in favour of customer calls or senior leadership planning.
“Sorry can we shift our 121 this week?”
“I haven’t got anything to discuss since last week”
“Can we shorten to 30 mins?”
“Lets use our 121 to discuss the ACME deal”
I might be an outlier, but I can tell you my heart sank every time I heard that.
And for many sellers I speak to, they haven’t had a ‘real’ 121 with their manager for many quarters.
If a manager of 8 people can’t organise their calendar well enough to plan a professional 121 with each of their team at least every two weeks then why should your AE keep working for them?
5. Being ‘enabled’ by people outside the arena
This is a tough one as I believe in good ongoing enablement through coaching, training and content.
But I can see the faces of top AEs as they get ‘enabled’ on how to sell something by colleagues that are not in the ring themselves.
They are thinking, “I’m sorry - but when was the last time you were in front of a CFO…"?”
Instead, your top AEs want to learn from other AEs to hear what is working.
So focus your enablement efforts on building these networks between your top sellers, of sharing decks and call recordings of what is working and having a format for top sellers to present into other teams and walk them through their process.
How to fix it
Bold statement - as we’re not going to fix it, but at least we can delay their departure.
Build a commission plan that allows people to win
It is harder to sell right now.
Quota attainment reached an all time low.
Companies have had to perform layoffs.
You have to show your sellers the path to over achievement.
That comes from building a commission plan and quotas that allow a larger proportion of your sellers to achieve it,
And by clearly demonstrating to sellers the outcomes they can receive through over achievement.
I do this by recommending a commission calculator canvas.
Your sellers with their managers can walk through their OTE, their quota, the commission plan and map out the different levels of earning for each level of achievement.
Very few sellers can tell you what they will earn if they hit 225%, or how many opps they need to create each month to get there.
Work through it with your seller.
Print it out.
Show them the way.
15 years ago I worked for a company where the CEO would end every call with the phrase “Winning is fun!”
It stuck with me because guess what - winning is fun!
Winning turns into more winning - so figure out a way to start that flywheel spinning.
Coach your managers in running proper 121s
Delivering 121s is a non-negotiable part of the manager’s job.
Don’t leave it to chance - in a world of remote selling most managers just don’t have the skills or experience to handle a regular one hour conversation that is part counselling, part inspiration, part coaching.
“121’s are your must-do meetings, your single best opportunity to listen, really listen, to the people on your team.”
The meeting agenda is your AEs - it is their time to discuss what is on their mind.
Don’t fill the space with deal reviews or forecasting or whatever is on the manager’s list.
Some more suggested questions from Radical Candor:
“What is top of mind for you?”
“What else?”
“How can I help?”
“What can I do or stop doing that would help?”
“What are you working on that you wish you weren’t?”
“What are you not working on that you wish you were?”
Learn from your AEs
Embrace the feedback that your top AEs have from customers.
What are they hearing?
How is the proposition landing?
Why do customers choose to delay, stay with the status quo or go with a competitor?
Too often we worry this opens up a can of negativity - but your AEs are hearing this from customers so show them that you also want to hear it and are using it to inform your product and brand positioning.
Have an open discussion about what they feel about working here
Take a look at your own company’s listing on RepVue.
Subscribe to RepVue as an employer and get even more detail on how each of your teams feel about the culture, the lead flow and the ability for them to hit their quota.
Ask about which other companies their peers talk about as being the best sales orgs to work at.
What can you learn and evolve in your own company to improve your proposition to top AEs?
Instead of just telling your AEs you want them to be successful, show them that you are listening and how you are going to make that happen.
Slowing the attrition to improve performance
We live in a world today where we’ll have ten or more jobs over our career.
We’ll never remove voluntary attrition - but if we can keep our top sellers with us for just 6 months more, that is nearly 30% additional productive time.
It is worth focusing on.
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