In today’s world the job market is up and down with a variety of reasons for the what can sometimes be seen as a rollercoaster. It seems there are constantly new businesses starting and the need for qualified, hardworking salespeople would be at an all-time high, but still candidates are left looking for employment and for businesses hiring can be an owner’s hardest battle.

According to a recent survey, The VP of Sales’ average tenure has steadily declined the last seven years. Once standing at a healthy 26 months, it’s now just 19 months. And although there are multiple reasons for this decline, the major reason is the percentage of reps attaining quota on the average B2B sales team has steadily declined over roughly the same time frame. Once standing at 63%, it’s now down to 50%. In fact, replacing your bottom 20% of salespeople with only average performers would improve overall sales productivity by nearly 50%. 

Here are 3 reasons we’ve seen hiring become harder than ever for businesses of all sizes, which directly impact this steady decline of average tenures :

It seems far too late to train.

Many businesses wait until after a new hire is really needed – then at full speed ahead they are trying to interview anyone that has the exact or semi-exact skillset and qualifications they need rather than look at the personal characteristics (i.e. work ethic, cultural office fit, etc) of each candidate and consider how they could be trained to match your business needs and beyond.

Small businesses often change their course and leave employees with a cloudy view of the business goals.

Hiring employees is a huge responsibility for employers and when it comes to hiring salespeople? The stress of them needing to meet your bottomline is even greater for business growth. Everything from compensations, benefits and beyond leaves employers really questioning if the risk in hiring is worth it.  Add to it, if a small business is in its infancy stage, the risk of failure is constantly on the minds of employers. Along with calculating the risk of hiring, small businesses at times hire the wrong candidates and in the end pay for their mistakes.

The market of candidates seems bare.

When looking to hire on your own, the market of candidates you have apply for any given job opening can be shocking at times. It’s time-consuming to shuffle through resumes with no experience or relevancy to the open position. Working with a recruiting service provider can eliminate the lack of qualified candidates. Recruitment providers have years of candidates in their database and know exactly what traits to look for in a candidate but most importantly know how to read and discover more about the candidates beyond what can be displayed in an interview.