Author: Jerry More Nyazungu
Author’s role: Author and sales leadership educator, The Chartered Vendor
Key takeaway
Investigate regrettable exits by manager, territory and tenure, then fix hiring, onboarding, quota fairness, commission clarity and coaching before recruiting faster.
Before you recruit another salesperson, examine the conditions your team has been asked to sell under.
A sales director tells me, “Jerry, these young people do not want to work.” He has lost several representatives and wants to recruit tougher people. I ask to see the job profile, onboarding plan, territory potential and commission rules. Those documents tell a more useful story than the complaints.
High sales turnover is not always a leadership failure. People relocate, careers change and unsuitable hires sometimes leave. But when capable salespeople repeatedly exit the same team, leadership must investigate what the business made difficult, unclear or unfair.
Challenge: identify the exits that actually matter
Start by separating voluntary resignations from dismissals and other exits. Then identify regrettable voluntary turnover: people the business had good reason to retain. A single overall turnover percentage hides whether you lost strong performers, unsuitable new hires or people assigned to commercially weak territories.
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Segment resignations by manager, territory, recruitment source and length of service.
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Review the reasons captured in exit interviews alongside objective performance and pipeline records.
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Compare employees’ written job expectations, targets and incentive terms with what actually happened.
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Look for clusters rather than declaring that an entire generation lacks discipline.
A 2025 study of 313 business-to-business salespeople and 142 managers linked perceived quota difficulty to fairness, organisational support, trust and intentions to leave. It does not set a Zimbabwean turnover benchmark, but it reinforces an important management point: the way targets are assigned can influence whether good people want to stay.
“When good salespeople keep leaving, first inspect the job you are asking them to stay in.”
Fix the sales system before blaming the salesperson
1. Hire for the real sales motion
“Hungry, self-driven and target-oriented” is not a hiring specification. Define whether the job requires prospecting for new accounts, expanding existing accounts, technical demonstrations or managing lengthy procurement cycles. A relationship manager and a new-business hunter may both be talented, but they do not necessarily perform the same job.
Use a hiring scorecard covering target buyers, territory, typical sales cycle, prospecting evidence, product learning demands and CRM reporting. Ask candidates to explain deals they won and lost, show how they built pipeline, and role-play an actual customer conversation. This creates a stronger test than enthusiasm during an interview.
2. Validate the territory before issuing the quota
An empty territory cannot be repaired with motivational speeches. Before assigning a target, check how many reachable buyers exist, which accounts are active, how long journeys take, what stock and credit terms the business can support, and what competitors already control. Targets should stretch a credible opportunity—not assume every prospect will buy.
In a composite distributor example, two new representatives are placed in unfamiliar territories and given identical revenue targets. One has established accounts and usable leads; the other spends the week finding decision-makers. If both miss, the same performance label would conceal two very different management problems.
3. Onboard for the first effective sale—not a training attendance sheet
A new representative should leave onboarding knowing the product, ideal buyer, discovery questions, quotation process, credit policy, delivery commitments, CRM stages and escalation route. A manager should accompany early customer interactions and review what the salesperson actually did.
Measure time to first meaningful customer meeting, time to first sale, pipeline quality and time to stable productivity. Phase revenue targets in line with realistic buying cycles. If a corporate customer normally takes several weeks to approve an order, demanding full monthly quota immediately can punish a rep before their pipeline has matured.
4. Make commission rules transparent
In Zimbabwe, section 12(2) of the Labour Act requires written employment particulars, including remuneration, its calculation and payment intervals, and particulars of bonus or incentive schemes. The Labour Amendment Act 2023 amended other parts of the employment framework; the written-particulars requirement should not be presented as a new rule invented in 2023.
A useful sales commission plan states exactly what qualifies as a sale, when commission is earned, how cancellations or returns affect it, what happens when accounts are reassigned and how disputes are reviewed. Explain and document changes prospectively, and obtain specialist advice where proposed changes affect contractual entitlements. A verbal promise followed by a different payday calculation is a preventable trust problem.
5. Hold managers accountable for coaching
Inspect the conversations managers have with their teams. Do they review buyer evidence, help unblock procurement obstacles and coach the next action? Or do they ask only for a bigger number? If regrettable turnover concentrates under one manager, the management method deserves review before another recruitment campaign.
A practical sales retention scorecard
| Measure | What it reveals | Management response |
|---|---|---|
| Regrettable voluntary exits | Whether capable people are leaving | Investigate reasons by manager and territory |
| Early-tenure attrition | Whether hiring and onboarding match the role | Review induction, expectations and first 90 days |
| Time to first sale | How quickly reps become effective | Coach stages where new hires stall |
| Quota attainment by tenure | Whether targets respect ramp-up | Rebase quotas against real territory capacity |
| Commission disputes | Whether incentives are understood | Correct ambiguous rules and payroll hand-offs |
| Vacant-territory days | Where customers are going unattended | Plan coverage and qualified handovers |
A 30-day leadership reset
In week one, classify the last year of exits and speak to departing or recent employees where possible. In week two, inspect job scorecards, territory capacity and new-hire results. In week three, observe managers coaching real deals and review commission queries. In week four, assign named owners to the three biggest causes of regrettable exits and set review dates.
Do not start by buying a generic retention programme. Fix the specific bottleneck your evidence reveals. Better leadership means the business can ask more of its salespeople while giving them a fairer chance to deliver.
Frequently asked questions
Is high sales turnover always a pay problem?
No. Poorly designed territories, confusing commissions, inadequate coaching, unsuitable hiring and weak onboarding may also contribute. Review pay alongside these operating conditions.
What turnover measure should a sales director track first?
Start with regrettable voluntary exits, then segment by manager, territory and tenure. An overall exit percentage cannot show where your sales operation is losing valuable capability.
Should new sales representatives carry a full quota immediately?
Not automatically. Set an evidence-based ramp period linked to the customer buying cycle, training requirements and the actual territory pipeline.
Can a commission plan change during the year?
Changes should be handled through clear written terms, advance communication and review of contractual and legal obligations. Do not retrospectively change rules for earnings already accrued.
THE CHARTERED VENDOR | NEXT STEP Your salespeople are watching what happens after a deal closes, a target is missed or a commission query lands on the manager’s desk. That is your sales culture. Before recruiting faster, review the system that is losing good people. The Chartered Vendor can help your leadership team examine hiring, onboarding, quotas and frontline coaching.
