The Secret to Retaining Sales People

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>> Gerhard Gschwandtner: Hi, my name is Gerhard Gschwandtner and welcome to SellingPower TV. Today we have the pleasure and privilege to, of speaking with Sanford Brown. He's the vice president of sales of Heartland Payment Systems. Welcome, Sanford.

>> Thank you, Gerhart; pleasure to be here.

>> What's the secret to retaining sales people?

>> I think the secret of retaining sales people is, is really a question that you have to divide into three parts. And the very first part of it starts actually at the inception of the hiring process. A lot of people, I think, make mistakes in misaligning hires for their organization by not properly planning for and creating a strategy on how to attract people and select people that they bring into the organization first and foremost in that regard.

>> So what does the on-boarding process look like? What is, what is your system?

>> On-boarding for Heartland is definitely a process in our particular world. We start, by the way -- I think it's important to, to point out -- by treating every single individual in the sales organization as a professional. If you want professional results, if you want people to hold themselves to a professional standard, you have to treat them as a professional with dignity and respect. We do that right outside of the gate when we hire someone, and we let them know that by basically reaching out to them at a very high level in the business. Either myself or other executives in the organization or high-level managers specifically make it a point to call out and show how much they value the professional sales by welcoming that new hire into the business first and foremost. Secondly, we do have a specific process for how we bring people into the organization. We start with an orientation that's done by an unbiased party. It's really designed to help people get their business up and running. Little things: do they know how to navigate through our mass of information? do they know how to navigate through our IT systems to get tools to help them do the job better? Silly things: have they gotten their business cards? and things of that particular nature. From there, we actually put them into a four-phase process where we introduce them to the company -- the products, the services and the culture of the organization that are Heartland -- where the sales representative will actually touch every level in the hierarchy of the management group at Heartland over about a 120-day period in four major sessions of training.

>> So they all get inculturated where you get them on board, you welcome them, you train them, and you also deprogram them, right?

>> We do, we deprogram and debug them of some of the bad habits that they've had in the past. In an organization like ours made up of so many entrepreneurial-type people, maintaining a positive attitude is critical to maintaining momentum. And a lot of sales professionals that come to Heartland are sort of met with, we're sort of met with skepticism: can it really be this good? can people really be that happy? And ultimately, at the end of the day, they find out -- after seeing it in action for a while -- it can really be that good and they can be that happy at Heartland.

>> So the first step to increasing loyalty is the on-boarding, the inculturation process. What's number two?

>> I think the second part of, of the equation has to be creating a really good opportunity for people to excel at, and explaining it very clearly. You have to design a compensation plan that's clear; you have to design a compensation plan that's objective. The worst thing that you can ever give a sales person is a subjective compensation plan. They should know, in my view, how much they're going to be able to earn for the value they provide for the business before I do.

>> Out of curiosity, what, what do people earn at Heartland in their first year, on average?

>> Heartland Payment Systems professionals that make it with us past the first year -- and I say that 'cause it's an important disclaimer; some people don't choose to pursue entrepreneurial sales -- have the capability to make up to six figures in their first year. On average, they would earn somewhere in the 65 to 75 thousand-dollar range in cash and other compensation for successful performance.

>> So that also creates a, a loyalty factor because people want to stick with the opportunity they, they can reach.

>> They do. The same amount of work that they do in year two is accretive to their income in year one.

>> Right, right.

>> So they're give themselves a pay raise every single year just by doing what they did in inaudible --

>> So they get residual income.

>> They get, they get residual annuities --

>> Right, right.

>> -- for what they do.

>> So that creates loyalty, too.

>> It creates significant loyalty.

>> What's number three?

>> I think number three is you have to have incentives outside of just cash compensation that recognize good performance. I think they have to be personal in nature, both in what types of incentives you give and how you deliver them. For example, every month I reach out to somewhere between 40 and 50 sales professionals myself and create personal challenges to drive them to some level of achievement. First of all, they're shocked that they ultimately get the phone call or have the conversation, and then they're incredibly inspired. And what you'll see happen is the team will find out about the challenge and rally around that salesperson trying to help them.

>> Sounds like Heartland is a company that has a big heart; also a lot of fun and great opportunities.

>> I think that's very true.

>> Thank you so much, Sanford.

>> Thank you, Gerhard.

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==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====