The current phenomenon of “quiet quitting” has been gaining attention recently. It refers to the growing trend of employees who leave their jobs without making a formal announcement or creating a scene. Unlike traditional resignations, where an employee might submit a letter of resignation and have an exit interview, a quiet quitting involves simply leaving without any fanfare or explanation.
A 2021 survey by Achievers, an employee engagement platform, found that 52% of respondents said they’ve considered quitting their job without telling anyone at their company. Additionally, a 2020 survey by Glassdoor found that 60% of employees who resigned during the pandemic did so quietly, without making a formal announcement or holding an exit interview.
In this article, you’ll learn:
Let’s dive in.
There are several reasons why quiet quitting is becoming more common. Often, these employees have been feeling disengaged or dissatisfied with their job for some time and have decided to move on quietly rather than try to resolve the issues.
The rise of remote work has made it easier for employees to disengage from their jobs without anyone noticing. Without daily face-to-face interactions with co-workers and managers, it can be easier to slip under the radar and quietly disengage from work.
Some also point to the pandemic causing people to re-evaluate their priorities and goals. Another contributing factor to the quiet quitting trend to the tight labor market, which has given employees more power and leverage.
In sales, quiet quitting can be devasting. To achieve their goals, sales teams rely on collaboration, communication, and teamwork. When an employee quietly resigns, it can disrupt team dynamics and leave the remaining team members to pick up the slack.
Retaining top sales talent is crucial for the success of any business. Losing experienced salespeople can negatively impact revenue, customer relationships, and team morale. It’s important to identify why salespeople may be leaving and take proactive steps to prevent it.
If you’re a manager with disengaged salespeople, here are some tactics you can use to improve motivation.
If you want people to perform better, you reward them. Right? Bonuses, commissions. Incentivize them. That’s how sales works. And research has shown that commission-based incentives can effectively motivate salespeople to increase their sales performance. It’s because the direct financial reward of the commission provides a clear and immediate incentive for the salesperson to work harder and sell more.
For example, a meta-analysis conducted by the International Journal of Management Reviews in 2018 analyzed 52 studies that examined the effects of financial incentives on sales performance.
The meta-analysis showed that financial incentives, including commission-based plans, significantly affected sales performance. The study found that incentive plans increased sales performance by an average of 27%.
But there are significant limitations you should consider with commission plans. First, the positive effects of incentives on sales performance were stronger for individual incentives (such as commission-based plans) than team incentives. Studies also found that the specific structure of the commission plan can impact its effectiveness. For example, a meta-analysis of 25 studies published in the Journal of Applied Psychology in 2004 found that complex commission plans can decrease motivation and performance in salespeople. The study noted that salespeople who needed help understanding their commission plan or felt that it was unfair had lower motivation and performance levels.
More importantly, research in sales and management supports the idea that commission plans may not work well in certain situations. A study published in the Harvard Business Review in 2012 found that commission plans can be counterproductive when the product sold is complex or requires a long sales cycle. It’s because salespeople may need to invest significant time and effort in building relationships and nurturing leads before a sale is made, and commission plans may need to provide more incentive for this type of long-term selling effort.
So, there may be better responses to low motivation in some cases than tweaking your commission plan. In fact, some quiet quitters don’t care about money.
Motivating a sales team is a complex process involving various psychological, social, and organizational factors. Here are six common factors that motivate salespeople (note the MOTIVE acronym):
To read more about motivating your salespeople with the MOTIVE model, click here.
More employees quietly resign or quit without a formal announcement, and sales teams are not spared from the trend. The reasons behind quiet quitting include disengagement, dissatisfaction, and remote work.
As a sales manager, you’re ultimately responsible for creating an engaging and rewarding work environment for your team. You should identify why salespeople may be leaving and take proactive steps to prevent it from happening to retain top sales talent, which is crucial for the success of any business.
Salespeople who feel valued and supported are more likely to be motivated and engaged. It means understanding what motivates each team member, whether it’s money or some other factor.
Sales managers can use different tactics to improve motivation, such as the MOTIVE framework, which includes opportunities for growth, teamwork, and recognition, among others.