Yes. That’s right. Your top sales person can leave you. In fact, he will if you fail to manage him as you should. Good sales people leave for different reasons and when it happens, it usually catches everyone off guard. Jaws drop. Managers shake their heads in disbelief—often masking blame as concern. “Poor Sheila. She was doing so well. She must’ve been misled by her boyfriend who works at the new place.” Or the classic: “They probably offered her more money.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
Maybe Sheila left because of how you treated her—and how you manage your top salespeople might just be what’s driving them out the door. Here are 3 reasons why good salespeople quit—and no, it’s not just about the pay.
1. You can’t sell – and they know it.
Sales people do not respect their manager if he cannot sell, and isn’t even curious about the craft. It is worse with your top sales person. He has zero respect for you if you cannot sell.
Depending on their temperament, they may hide it, or tell you straight to your face. Either way, tension builds, the relationship cracks, your mutual co-existence becomes untenable and they quietly start planning their exit.
Sales management is not for the faint hearted. It is a different kettle of fish from all other forms of management. It’s not HR, operations, or IT. It’s high-pressure, high-stakes, and deeply personal. “He used to lead operations teams in the bank but with his competence he can transfer those management skills to this new role managing farmers” And guess what? He does.
In fact, competent managers believe in themselves so much you will hear them say, “I can lead any team. I don’t have to be able to do what they are doing.” And they are right. To a point. The point where it’s a sales team. Then, the chink in the armour of that confidence starts showing. And the more they assert themselves with, “I don’t need to sell to lead you,” the more they push their sales people away. And their top sales people leave in search of a manager they can respect.
Point to ponder: Did you know that Governor George Natembeya was never a police officer, yet made an effective Regional Commissioner?
2. You treat them like admin -and the top sales people leave
Top salespeople don’t just dislike admin work—they despise it. Let me illustrate. Good sales people are eagles. They soar high, scanning the terrain, swooping down only to capture opportunity (large prey)—then rising again.
“When eagles walk, they stumble. They are not what one would call graceful. They were not designed to walk. Eagles fly. And when they fly, oh, how they fly, so free, so graceful. They see from the sky what we never see.” So, when you make them peck in the dirt like chicken looking for ants and worms, you choke them, in a manner of speaking.
Instead, listen and act on their insights. Because top salespeople spend all day listening to customers, reading between the lines, and adjusting to the market.
Top salespeople want to sell—not drown in spreadsheets, back-and-forth emails, and internal firefighting. Yet when they perform, the more “extra” work they’re given: “We rotate admin and sales work here. There is no one else to do it. So twice a week you will do front office work.” Or, you tell them to handle escalations, train new hires, sit in endless internal meetings, chase operations to deliver, and on and on.
And with every such task you pull feathers from their wings. It is painful and stunts their capacity to soar. They want to grow revenue. Not to become part-time customer service or internal workflow police.
Eventually, they realise: “I’m spending more time solving problems than creating value.” So, they leave—often to places where they’re allowed to do what they do best: sell.
3. You promote them into incompetence
Top sales people generally make poor sales managers. But too often, the better they perform, the more leadership thinks, “Let us promote him. Give him a team to lead. He will replicate himself.”
He doesn’t. In fact, it backfires. The nascent sales manager is visibly lost at sea. He does not know how to lead and doesn’t want to; he knows how to sell. So now he is stuck. The more when you keep reminding him that, “You cannot go back to being a sales person. Your team is looking up to you. We are looking up to you to grow the team.”
Frustrated, he starts looking at the exit sign; for a role where he can return to doing what he was great at—and respected for—without the title, but with his sanity intact.
This article explains further why promotions make top sales people leave .
So why do they say “Top sales people leave for money”?
Because it’s clean. It avoids drama. It protects relationships. It keeps the exit interview short.
But here’s what many managers miss: A top salesperson is a walking billboard for any potential employer or recruiter. Their performance is visible. Their reputation precedes them. They don’t need to send CVs—opportunities come to them. That visibility alone should make you wary of losing them. And when they do leave, people rarely say the real reason. So it gets pinned on the simplest excuse: “They offered her more money.”
But make no mistake—money is rarely the real reason top sales people leave.
Most of the time, by the time a competing offer lands, your salesperson is already halfway out the door. All the new offer did was confirm what he was already feeling:
“There’s something better out there—and I deserve it.”
Check out our short courses and other services here. Or, if you would like to have your sales team sell more, we can help. In order for us to do so we propose a free consultation meeting or a call. If in agreement, please complete the form below and we will get in touch after receiving your details, none of which will be public. Thank you.
Views – 63