Pave data from 396K+ employees reveals the uncomfortable truth about go-to-market turnover — and why it’s actually not as bad as you think.
We analyzed turnover data across 396,000+ employees from
, and the numbers are… as expected. But also sobering.
The median tenure for Sales and Marketing hires? Just 2.5 years.
That means half of your go-to-market team will be gone before they hit their third anniversary. Compare that to Engineering at 3.7 years, and you’ve got a 14-month gap that’s costing you more than you think.
Here’s the full breakdown of median tenure across departments:
- Engineering: 3.7 years (the gold standard)
- Finance/Legal/Customer Success: 3.3 years (institutional knowledge roles)
- Data Science/IT: 3.1 years (technical but transferable)
- Design: 2.9 years (creative roles)
- HR/Product: 2.7 years (high-pressure zones)
- Sales/Marketing: 2.5 years (the revolving door)
The pattern is clear: the closer you get to revenue generation, the faster people leave.
The Departments That Actually Retain Talent
Want to know who’s nailing retention? The “boring” departments:
- Finance: 3.3 years median (19% annual turnover)
- Legal: 3.3 years median (19% annual turnover)
- Customer Success: 3.3 years median (19% annual turnover)
- Business Operations: 3.3 years median (19% annual turnover)
These roles require deep institutional knowledge and have fewer external opportunities. Meanwhile, your go-to-market functions are bleeding talent:
- Sales: 2.5 years median (24% annual turnover)
- Marketing: 2.5 years median (24% annual turnover)
That’s a 26% difference in retention between your most and least stable departments. The lesson? Retention strategies that work for Finance won’t work for Sales.
The Engineering anomaly: At 3.7 years median tenure (17% annual turnover), Engineering sits at the top not because the work is easier, but because the retention incentives are stronger — equity vesting, specialized skills, and fewer direct competitors.
4 Ways to Win Despite High Turnover
1. Hire for Speed-to-Value Stop hiring for “culture fit” and start hiring for “fast impact.” Look for reps who’ve ramped quickly at previous companies. Ask: “What was your fastest time from start date to first deal?”
2. Build Systems, Not Dependencies Document everything. Record deal reviews. Create playbooks that outlive the people who wrote them. Your CRM should tell the story even after the storyteller leaves.
3. Front-Load the Learning Most sales training happens over 6-12 months. Flip it. Cram 80% of product knowledge, competitive intel, and process training into the first 30 days. They’ll be more valuable faster and more likely to stay.
4. Celebrate 2-Year Anniversaries Forget 5-year service awards. In Sales and Marketing, making it to 2 years means they’re in the top 50% of tenure. Make it a big deal.
The Bottom Line
Half your Sales and Marketing team leaving within 2.5 years isn’t a bug — it’s the reality. And a feature of high-velocity, high-opportunity roles.
Consider these benchmarks:
- If your Sales/Marketing retention is better than 2.5 years median, you’re beating 50% of companies
- If you’re hitting 3+ years median in go-to-market roles, you’re in the top quartile
- Engineering turnover above 20% should trigger immediate action — you’re losing your product advantage
The companies that win aren’t the ones that prevent all turnover. They’re the ones that extract maximum value while people are there and build systems that survive their departure.
Your Engineering team builds the product. Your Sales and Marketing team sells it. Different missions, different retention strategies, different success metrics.
Stop trying to make your go-to-market team look like your product team. Embrace the churn, plan for it, and optimize around it.
