Are you ready for sales growth through top performing sales talent? If so, it’s a good idea to examine your company culture. If you’re looking for someone who will take the bull by the horns and work till the goals are accomplished, your company culture will play a role in attracting this type of salesperson. This blog is about understanding culture so you can assess if your company is ready for this type of fire power.
Recruiting Sales Reps in good economic times can be a difficult challenge for small business owners and managers, especially when it’s not a regular practice. When times are tough and unemployment is high, it can be downright daunting. Sales Reps present an added hiring challenge relative to non-sales employees.
In my previous blog, we discussed the critical importance of recruiting Sales Reps for your organization and the need for a consistent, continuous plan of action. For long term growth and stability of your business, you should have a pipeline of candidates at all times in the same manner that a Sales Rep has a pipeline of prospects. Create a healthy habit by considering the suggestions that I made previously.
Hitting “300” in Major League Baseball is excellent. Not so in the world of Sales Rep recruiting. So how do you drive up your average by limiting the old “swing-and-a-miss” to being few and far between? Successful recruiting of Sales Reps is of paramount importance to small business owners for a few critical reasons.
I have received a number of searches seeking sales manager evaluation criteria. Here is a list to consider in your hiring and evaluation process.
LEADERSHIP – How effective is the sales manager at providing leadership for their sales team and department? To what degree is the team working toward long and short term goals?
Cream rises to the top, oil and water separate and driven sales people will perform toward their compensation drivers. Early in my sales career a start-up wanted a fast increase in market share. To achieve this they priced aggressively and set a heavy bonus in addition to generous commissions to sell 50 units for the month. Because of the bonus, the 50th sale was worth 15% of my total monthly earnings. I kicked in my commission for the last sale (2% of month earnings) to achieve the bonus.
Good people that can sell make great sales people. Good people that can’t sell, don’t. It’s easy to be swayed by someones charisma or charm. Just because you like them and they fit in with the team does not mean people will buy from them. What you need is a crystal ball to hire good sales people, or something like one.
We just hired a new sales rep at one of our client businesses. We took our time and and followed our hiring process to find the best qualified person that was a good fit for the sales team. In a world of greed and “looking after mine”, there are still people (a lot of them) who want to be part of a team-oriented department.