Every business leader wants superstar salespeople, but can they keep them? If you find yourself with a star that is committed to growth and has high desire, you need to stay ahead of their self concept of success, else you will lose them. Star salespeople are constantly growing "conceptually", meaning their concept of what is good, what is a lot, and what is a good income will change and grow. Those that don't experience this growth can be good role players but won't be superstars.
Leadership is often too busy to notice these conceptual growths until it’s too late. Someone is prospecting your best people just like they are prospecting for their next sale. You must stay ahead of this star as their concept of the type of game they can play in grows. Smaller (less than $50M) companies are particularly vulnerable to this happening.
Staying ahead of the next conceptual level can be achieved with promotion, money, recognition, equity, stock, travel, special assignments, or collaborative career planning. This may seem simple, but often the manager or leader projects their own beliefs about what would make someone happy onto their star, and that can be a big mistake when that assumption is inaccurate.
TIP: Assign personal goal setting as an assignment, or hire a 3rd party resource that works with your people and can indirectly identify disconnects in what a star wants or desires and what they are getting. Before its too late.