Competing on Sales Talent

Sales organizations in many sectors are suddenly finding salesperson hiring and retention more difficult. This seems to be due in part to one of the pandemic’s enduring impacts: redrawn expectations of employers from many workers. These changing expectations are amplified by the workforce’s younger-skewing demographics, and its shrinking supply. In a sellers’ labor market, sales organizations are finding sales talent harder to come by, and harder to keep.

Responding to these challenges may require more than simply raising wages. Forward thinking sales leaders are also evaluating the employment value proposition for sales workers, and data from high performing firms suggest emergent vectors of competition for high-value sales talent. These may include sales organization (and firm) culture, developmental prospects, managerial transparency, and a range of other factors affecting employment experience and quality-of-working-life.

In this session we consider how senior leaders are rethinking their efforts to attract and retain top sales talent, and the investments they’re making to favorably compete in a challenging labor market. Focus is given to the business impacts of culture, ethics, and organizational values, and leaderhip’s role in shaping them.