Driving Employee Experience
A few years after the start of the pandemic, there’s been a fundamental transformation in the talent landscape and how that talent thinks about their relationship with work. In addition to tenured sellers burned out with post-pandemic fatigue, recent demographic changes have ushered in a younger, more digitally savvy, and socially conscious workforce with wildly different goals than their predecessors.
The old ways of work are no longer good enough.
This paradigm shift has meant CROs must start thinking and acting like mini-Chief People Officers. Revenue leaders worldwide are competing for a new generation of sellers who aren’t singularly focused on how much money they’ll receive if they hit their OTE but on which company most closely aligns with their values.
In short, company culture and decisions around remote work have become key selling points to attract talent.
How do elite CROs attract and retain talent and then balance the people side of their jobs with the demands of the business? Here’s how forward-thinking revenue leaders think beyond compensation to the total employee experience.
Work From Anywhere and Accidental Collisions
Several organizations sent out employee surveys throughout the pandemic to gauge sentiment on Return-To-Office (“RTO) mandates, many of whom were surprised at the initial level of resistance they received. Where remote work had previously been a rare perk for skilled workers who lived too far from the office to commute, leaders now must consider the ability to work from home as table stakes to hiring and retaining employees.
While workers have come to expect flexibility in where and how they work, leaders shouldn’t confuse their team’s aversion to regular office hours with a total hesitation to meet in person. Many sellers report missing face-to-face interactions with their colleagues and prospects.
According to one CRO, some sellers lamented that they had “lost their tribe” when offices closed and that it had become harder to get some things done.
Recognizing that it’s a leader’s job to “remove the sand from the gears” for their people, the same CRO created a Sales Concierge that gave sellers real-time access to a dedicated team of virtual internal experts that could help them navigate everyday questions that they could no longer ask in an office setting.
Survey Often, Implement Transparently
Many CROs noted that RTO and employee sentiment survey results varied significantly depending on when they were taken. Some organizations acted too quickly and were surprised to find employees dismayed when they permanently closed their physical locations.
It turns out that people weren’t comfortable returning to work yet but liked the idea that they could when they were ready.
One CRO warned that surveying was only good if the organization implemented the feedback they got from employees. People need to see the connection between their input and actual changes at the company to feel like their opinion is valued and the time spent filling out surveys was worth it.
And the action has to be timely. Morale tanks and adoption of the tools used to administer and report on surveys drop significantly when organizations drag their feet on implementing feedback.
According to a few CROs, radical transparency is critical when making organizational changes. They utilize biweekly All Hands meetings to show everyone in the organization the forecast, bookings, ARR, renewals, EBITDA, survey data, and implementation plans. Doing so gives employees a sense of how the business is performing and how their contributions can help.
Value Selling In The Recruiting Process
With shifting demographics and the hyper-competitive war for talent, companies increasingly have to sell the value of working at their organization. A new crop of sellers are demanding more than just a sizable compensation plan.
Whereas in the old days a seller would join a company and be proud to ‘do it the hard way’ by hitting all of their numbers on their own, the new school of salespeople wants to work at organizations that align with their values and can put them in a position to grow and succeed. Savvy CROs use seller growth plans and broader corporate values to their competitive advantage in a challenging recruitment landscape.
How They Demonstrate Their Values:
Develop an EVP
Working with marketing and HR leaders to develop an Employee Value Proposition (“EVP”) that mirrors the value prop the organization presents to the broader market. One CRO reminded us that an effective EVP doesn’t try to appeal to every individual looking for a job; it taps into a sense of purpose for the right kind of employee.
Have Important Conversations About Diversity & Social Responsibility
Talking about these issues isn’t enough: organizations must put metrics behind them publicly on the website, where potential talent can easily find it while researching the company. With sales recruitment, CROs shouldn’t underestimate the power of showing a candidate that territory plans are equitably divvied across teams and everyone has the same opportunity at success.
Create More Development Opportunities
These opportunities can be for external, third-party training or other uses of line-item budgets. Instead of giving their MVPs trophies that they couldn't show off at an office, One revenue leader bought one-year subscriptions to Masterclass so their sellers could educate themselves on a topic they were personally interested in.
Understand the Impact of First-Line Managers
First-line managers remain the number one gatekeepers to the success of any program. CROs owe their managers dedicated training to ensure they’re adequately equipped to help their reports reach their growth targets. In addition, growth plans need to be able to move with the seller from manager to manager.
Encourage Hungry Talent
Urging new recruits to sit with other teams (like Solutions Consultants or Sales Enablement) allows them to witness the talent of the people they will be working with first-hand.
Empower Sellers to Recruit for the Organization
Every salesperson worth their salt understands the power of a referral in the sales process, and the recruitment process is no different. One CRO incentivized his team with referral bonuses up to five digits because he noticed that people wanted to work with their friends. It’s cheaper to incentivize people to bring in great talent than to pay a recruiter for an unknown entity.
Create An Environment Where People Can Grow
As internationally renowned speaker Alexander Den Heijer once said, “When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
Tenured and new salespeople alike are searching for a more meaningful relationship with work. They expect their investment of time in a company to yield more than just a paycheck. Forward-thinking CROs are taking a holistic approach to the needs of their people and how those match up with the needs of the business.
After all, happy employees are more likely to be successful, and successful employees consistently equate to higher revenue and a healthier overall business.
What is the Numentum CRO Playbook?
A community-sourced guide that enables new and existing revenue professionals to quickly get up and going, optimize existing processes, and win in the Age of Buyer Experience. These aren’t theoretical insights: all information sourced herein has been provided by experienced Chief Revenue Officers from different industry verticals and company maturity stages.
See something you’d like to comment on or contribute to? We’d love to hear from you. Shoot us an email at info[at]numentum.com with the subject line CRO Playbook. You can also contact us here.
