Writing about sales IN MEDIA

Imagine this situation: as a manager, you’ve explained all the nuances of customer work to a new sales manager, but a week later, it turns out they only remember half the information. Or worse – they pass this knowledge to the next newcomer in a distorted form. Sounds familiar? This is the classic “broken telephone” effect that costs companies lost revenue. The solution to this problem is creating a structured sales playbook (also known as a training book for newcomers) that becomes the single source of truth for the entire team. It’s not just a set of instructions, but a real foundation for scaling the experience of your best employees. In this article, we’ll explore how to create a sales book that will turn a newcomer into a productive team member without your constant involvement.

Have you ever wondered how much it costs a company when a new sales manager quits? The statistics make you think hard: about 70% of newcomers leave the company not because of the complexity of sales, but due to poorly structured adaptation processes. Let’s calculate the real “cost of the mistake.” If a manager leaves after three months of work, the company loses: the salary paid (on average 700-800 euros), taxes, recruitment costs, and lost profits that a trained employee could have brought (totaling at least 3,000 euros). That’s a lot of losses due to poor-quality onboarding

The transition to remote work is often perceived by employees as a breath of freedom, and by business owners as a loss of control. The truth is somewhere in between. A remote sales department is not just an office team in a Zoom conference. It’s a fundamentally different structure with its own dynamics and requirements.

High employee turnover in sales departments is a real headache for businesses. The numbers speak for themselves: replacing one departed manager costs a company an average of 1.5-2 times their annual salary. And when you factor in the lost profits from missed deals and resources spent on finding and training a newcomer, the amount becomes even more significant.

Have you ever noticed that after interviewing candidates for a sales manager position, you get the feeling: “The person seems good, but whether they’ll sell or not is unclear”? Many managers make decisions about hiring salespeople based on intuition or liking, focusing on charisma, “the light in their eyes,” or the ability to speak eloquently. And this becomes a problem when, after a month, it turns out that the charismatic candidate doesn’t know how to close deals or doesn’t show the necessary persistence in working with clients.

When you ask business owners about the main problems in their sales department, many immediately recall unexpected resignations, long vacancy closures, and downtime that lead to failed sales plans. You build ambitious plans, but the sudden departure of a key manager can undermine all efforts, and finding a replacement takes weeks or even months.

In 2024-2025, the job market in sales has transformed into a real competition for talent, and hiring a strong salesperson faster than competitors has become a new advantage for businesses. Good salespeople make decisions about new jobs in 1-3 days, not weeks like before. The reason is simple – crisis times, market changes, micro and macro economic factors, and of course, the shortage of professionals and high competition for them between companies.

To answer the question of where to find a good salesperson today – imagine looking for a needle in a haystack, except the haystack keeps moving. The job market in 2025 has become unpredictable: strong salespeople either hold firmly to their positions or set high demands for employers. Companies increasingly complain about a “talent shortage,” and this problem is particularly acute in sales.

In the search for the perfect sales manager, leaders often face a dilemma: a person excels in the interview, impresses with their knowledge of terminology, but then fails to deliver results. Why does this happen? The fact is that the skill of closing deals – a key competency of a salesperson – often remains unchecked during hiring.

Sales hiring often happens based on intuition. And despite years of talk about changing approaches, the situation with hiring sales managers remains unchanged. “I like this candidate,” “he has charisma,” “he made an impression” – common phrases from hiring managers. But a likable candidate doesn’t always become an effective employee. Subjectivity in hiring costs businesses dearly – you spend time and money on adapting someone who might not show desired results after a few months.