Today's Sales professionals are voicing a lack of confidence in their company leaders and a desire to seek out greener pastures. Thirty-three percent of Sales professionals recently surveyed by CareerBuilder.com said their corporate leaders are ineffective in motivating employees. At the same time, one half of Sales professionals say they can do their supervisor's job better. The CareerBuilder.com survey, "Life at Work 2004: Sales," was conducted from February 19, 2004 to February 29, 2004 and included more than 130 Sales workers.

"On average, one-in-five Sales professionals has worked for ten or more companies," said Mary Delaney, Chief Sales Officer for CareerBuilder.com. "High voluntary turnover rates and unmotivated staffs are often associated with poor management practices. With the economy and job market improving, Sales managers will need to take steps to prevent the loss of talented representatives -- and revenue -- to competing organizations."

The first step in keeping great employees is understanding how they view their current work experience. Sales professionals say they feel overworked and under-appreciated. Sixty-nine percent report feeling burnout due to heavy workloads and 44 percent say they do not feel valued by their companies.

What is also discouraging to these workers is the lack of support from their direct supervisors. Thirty-one percent of Sales professionals say their boss does not make time to address their job concerns and 26 percent said their boss does not help them to develop or improve their skills.

To help Sales executives gain a greater understanding of what is on the minds of their workers and apply this information to manage them more effectively, Sales and Marketing Management and CareerBuilder.com are sponsoring a free Webcast titled "The War For Sales Talent." Special guests Andy Cohen, Editorial Director of Sales and Marketing Management, Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Carnival Cruise Lines and Trevor Maurer, Executive Director of Sales for CibaVision North America, discuss the results of CareerBuilder.com's recent survey of Sales professionals and share proven strategies they have used to recruit and retain top talent. The Webcast is now available 24 hours a day and can be accessed through August 6. To register, go to http://www.itworld.com/itwebcast/smm_talent/index.html .

Survey Methodology

The CareerBuilder.com survey, "Life at Work 2004: Sales," was conducted from February 17, 2004 to February 29, 2004 of more than 130 sales workers. To collect data for the survey, CareerBuilder.com commissioned SurveySite to use an e-mail methodology whereby individuals who are members of SurveySite Web Panel were randomly selected and approached by e-mail invitation to participate in the online survey. The results of this survey are accurate within +/- 8.4 percentage points (19 times out of 20).

About CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com is a leading online source for maximizing recruitment dollars and optimizing job searches with superior products, customer service and technology. With a unique combination of national, local and niche audiences, CareerBuilder.com makes it easy for recruiters to reach the most qualified candidates with industry-leading market research data and support. Job seekers can search for the right job from more than 400,000 continuously updated postings, representing more than 25,000 of the top employers in virtually every industry, field and location. Together with Gannett Co., Inc. , Tribune Company , and Knight Ridder, Inc. , CareerBuilder.com includes the Web's top newspaper sites -- the most trusted employment sources in recruiting. For more information about CareerBuilder.com products and services, call 888-670-TEAM or visit CareerBuilder.com at http://www.careerbuilder.com/ .

   Media Contact

   Jennifer Sullivan
   Director, Corporate Communications
   (773) 527-1164
   jennifer.sullivan@careerbuilder.com.

SOURCE: CareerBuilder.com