What’s your reputation in the market as an employer of salespeople?
Do you have bad Glassdoor reviews? How do you respond to a negative Glassdoor review? If past employees are making horrible comments about your company on online employer review websites, you’ve got problems. In today’s tight job market, good sales folks have many options.
All those great sales candidates you want to recruit? Guess what? Your competitors want them too. Recruiting new salespeople doesn’t start when candidates see your ad or hear from your recruiter.
How to respond to a negative Glassdoor review
Your Online Reputation Matters: Sales job seekers form an impression of your firm before they respond to your job post. They’ll research your company online if they haven’t heard about it. They will speak with friends and people in their network. Salespeople do know how to network.
Great sales candidates will pass you by if posts on job websites (such as Glassdoor) are consistently negative. The best folks have many options, so monitor how people talk about your company.
Options for Responding To Negative Comments On Glassdoor and Other Review Websites
You have three basic response options if you get regular negative comments about your company.
Grow from it (our preferred approach)
This is the “own it” option.
If people complain about a sales manager, find out who it is. Coach them to be a better manager. If folks consistently complain about your culture, carefully consider the complaints. Fix problems.
Also, hire the right folks for your environment. If you have a hard-charging environment, don’t hire order-takers.
Once you identify the issue, post a response. Explain your remedy in response to the comments.
Overwhelm it
This is a very “art of war” approach.
Encourage your existing staff to post positive comments. Your goal: get many more positive comments than negative comments.
One CEO of a top-ranked company promises his staff small bonuses if evaluators rank his firm as a top place to work. The conditions at the firm are very draconian, but job seekers see mostly cheery comments online.
This may work for a while, but eventually, the truth will get out. Job seekers do talk to their networks. And, you risk damaging morale if you have problems you don’t fix.
Just Ignore it
How to respond to a negative Glassdoor review: The “not worth it” approach
Many very large companies with very high turnover take this approach. These firms get the reputation as a body shop and they’re OK with that.
Execs believe their company’s name, size and benefits will continue to attract new employees. It’s a dangerous approach to use in a tight market, but it can work for big-brand firms. If you’re not a big brand, it’s a very risky strategy.
Contact us if you need help addressing sales culture issues.
Get Our Free Guides on Sourcing, Selecting and Hiring Sales People
We created a series of guides on how to test sales applicants, ask the right questions, hire the right salespeople, and onboard them correctly.