In sales, we celebrate our top performers. The ones who exceed quota, close the biggest deals, and pull more than their weight. They are the engine of any revenue team.
And yet, they are also the most likely to leave.

Voluntary Attrition Is a Quiet Crisis

Voluntary turnover in sales is higher than many expect. While the U.S. average hovers around 13.5% across roles, sales teams often see far worse. Industry benchmarks show sales rep attrition can range from 25% to 35% annually, more than double the national average.

But the real problem? It is not underperformers walking out. It is your best reps. The ones who carry the team. The ones who don’t need micromanagement. The ones who still walk.

Why They Leave

It is not because they are afraid of pressure. It is because success gets punished.
They hit quota, and what happens next?

• Finance raises the number.
  
• Ops shrinks the territory.
  
• Enablement adds new layers of noise.
  
• Marketing shifts ICP or messaging.
  
• Leadership pulls them into every internal fire drill.

None of this is malicious. But the result is a system where the better you are, the harder your job becomes.

What Burnout Actually Looks Like

Burnout is not always dramatic. It does not always show up as frustration or disengagement.

Sometimes it looks like your best AE logging off at 5 p.m. sharp for the first time in two years. Sometimes it looks like someone who used to own the QBR now just shows up. Sometimes it is the quiet calendar block titled “Recruiter call.” And by the time you notice, it is already too late.

Burnout is systemic, not individual. It happens when internal complexity rises faster than external success.

The Cost of Losing a Top Performer

When a high-performing rep leaves, it is not just a lost hire. It is a drag on the entire machine.

• Replacing a seller can cost up to 1.5X their base salary, factoring in recruiting, onboarding, and lost revenue.
  
• It takes an average of 6 to 9 months for a new rep to ramp to full productivity.
  
• The rep you lost may have carried 120 to 150% of quota. The person replacing them may be hitting 70% in the first two quarters.
  

And here is the kicker. Every time you lose a top rep, your team loses belief. Others start asking,
Is it worth staying?

Sales Enablement Isn’t Enough

We have poured millions into sales enablement over the last decade. New tech. Better onboarding. Tighter messaging. But it is not solving the core problem. Sellers do not need more tools. They need more signal and less noise.

Enablement often becomes a layer that adds process instead of removing friction. And when sales teams are already overloaded, even helpful things like competitive intel or call coaching can become distractions if they are not delivered at the right moment.

According to Sales Health Alliance:

• 70% of salespeople report struggling with their mental health
  
• Over 50% say their workload regularly exceeds what they can sustain
  

This does not get talked about enough. But every new playbook, every tool, every update has a cost in cognitive load. Eventually, reps stop engaging.

‍What Top Reps Actually Want

It is not about more perks. Or a new comp plan. Or shoutouts at the SKO.
Top reps want:

• Clarity. What is expected? What is changing? What is not?
  
• Consistency. Are we sticking to a strategy or chasing every fire?
  
• Focus. Are we giving them the right accounts or every account?
  
• Autonomy. Do they get to run their process or are they micromanaged by committee?
  
• Support. Is there a system to reduce administrative drag or are they doing everything themselves?
  

And above all, they want to win. If they feel like the company is making that harder instead of easier, they will find somewhere else to do it.

What Leadership Needs to Rethink

If you are a CRO or VP of Sales, ask yourself:

• Do our internal systems reward performance or create more obstacles after every win?
  
• Do we measure what matters or drown in lagging indicators?
  
• Do we protect our top reps from distraction or overuse them to prop up broken processes?
  

Too often, our best people become our crutches. We lean on them to cover gaps in onboarding, broken territories, and missed forecasts. But here is the truth: If the system only works because your best rep is bending over backwards, then the system is broken.

The Case for Building a Smarter System

We need to stop treating retention as a talent issue and start treating it as a systems issue.

Smart organizations are now investing in platforms that:

• Prioritize the right accounts, based on what is actually converting
  
• Surface real-time rep performance insights, not just quarterly dashboards
  
• Remove administrative load, so reps can spend time selling, not reporting
  
• Enable continuous optimization, not just annual planning
  

This is what we are focused on at Revic. Helping revenue teams scale performance without burning out their best talent. But this is not about tooling alone. It is about mindset.

Reps Leave Because the System Doesn’t Serve Them

Top reps do not leave because they are fragile. They leave because the system around them is too heavy, too noisy, and too slow.

They do not need to be tested. They need to be trusted.

They do not need to carry the weight of inefficiency. They need us to clear the path.

If someone is consistently performing, your job as a leader is not to push them harder. It is to make sure the machine is aligned around their success.

Because if you do not?

Someone else will.