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The £180,000 Mistake You Keep Making
The average cost of replacing a sales person is three times their annual salary. For an AE earning £60,000, that's £180,000 in lost pipeline, recruitment fees, ramp time, and team disruption.
After conducting over 1,000 interviews with sales professionals leaving early-stage companies, I've identified five recurring patterns that explain why your top performers are quietly updating their LinkedIn profiles.
The uncomfortable truth? Most sales attrition is self-inflicted. You're not losing people to better opportunities. You're pushing them away with preventable mistakes.
1. The Progression Promise That Becomes a Resignation Letter
You tell an SDR candidate: "Hit your numbers and you'll be an AE in six months."
Eight months later, they've crushed quota every quarter. But your team isn't ready for another AE. Deal cycles are longer than projected. The promotion isn't happening.
They hand in their notice.
The fix: Replace time-based promises with competency-based frameworks. Be honest: "Promotion happens when you hit quota for two consecutive quarters, can run discovery calls independently, and we have available territory. That typically takes 12-18 months, but it's driven by capability and business need, not a calendar."
Candidates respond better to transparent frameworks than optimistic timelines.
2. The Compensation Plan That Requires a Spreadsheet
Your comp plan has accelerators after 80%, decelerators before 60%, different rates for new vs. expansion, thresholds that reset quarterly, and complex clawback policies.
You thought this showed sophistication. Your sales people think it's designed to confuse them.
The fix: Design comp plans that can be explained in under two minutes and calculated mentally. The best plan I ever had was simple: base salary plus 10% commission on all revenue closed, paid monthly. No thresholds, no accelerators, no confusion.
If your reps can't estimate their earnings within 10% accuracy without opening a calculator, your plan is too complicated.
3. The Unrealistic Targets That Guarantee Failure
You over-promised to investors. Now those aggressive targets land on your sales team's heads with zero proven data on achievability.
Your AE needs to close £500k in their first year. But your average deal is £25k, your sales cycle is 4 months, and you haven't documented a repeatable playbook. They'd need a 100% win rate.
The fix: Set targets based on actual pipeline mathematics, not investor expectations. If your AE needs to close £400k, your average deal is £30k, and your win rate is 25%, they need 52 qualified opportunities across the year.
Work out if that's actually achievable. If it's not, either fix the pipeline or adjust the target.
Use graduated quotas: 50% target in quarter one, 75% in quarter two, 100% from quarter three onwards.
4. The Equity Mistake That Costs You Your Best People
Your first sales hire is betting their career on your idea. They're taking calls at 7pm, iterating messaging, building your sales motion from scratch.
Yet you offer them 0.05% equity.
The fix: Give meaningful equity. Your first sales hire should get 0.5-1%, not 0.05%. Your first sales leader should get 1-2%. Yes, that's dilutive. It's also fair.
Frame it honestly: "You're joining when we have 5 customers and £10k MRR. If we reach £5m ARR in three years, this equity could be worth £200k. That's your mortgage deposit for believing in us early."
5. The Market Rate Denial That Loses Loyalty
They joined three years ago at £50k as your first SDR. They helped you get to Series A. Market rate for their experience is now £100k. You're still paying them £60k.
That person knows your ICP better than anyone. They've closed deals in every vertical you serve. Replacing them will cost £180k and six months of lost productivity.
The fix: Conduct annual market rate benchmarking for your entire sales team. If someone is more than 15% below market, fix it immediately. Don't wait for them to get a competing offer.
Build a transparent compensation framework tied to company stage and individual performance. When you raise funding or hit revenue milestones, proactively adjust salaries.
Frame it as investment: "You joined when we had nothing. You helped us get here. This raise recognizes that."