Salespersons are an important component of your entire sales process.
In this post we will examine how to hire the right sales reps for your business.
There are millions of SDRs, AEs and other sales-related jobs in the entire U.S. The roles are often filled by professionals who are experienced and know the job.
When you are trying to find the best salesperson this can be a huge advantage.
It’s healthy knowing some of these stats below:
If you want to hire someone to sell you probably have some customers already.
Some of this business comes from previous contacts and you already know what it takes in terms of experience and skill set to sell what you have.
Make a list of what’s required in the sales role and get all the necessary specifics beforehand.
Many businesses never spend a moment with their customers and ask them how they want to be sold to. The more you find out about your customers, and the environment that vendors face, the better is your sales process going to be. Your customers will feel pleased that you bothered to ask them.
Using what you learned from steps 1 and 2 write a good job description. Make it specific and not general.
The biggest mistake someone as a business owner can make is when they’re hiring salespersons and underestimate the amount of effort it requires them to sell the offerings. If you believe the product will sell itself then don’t hire a salesperson. But this is only delusion doing the talking and you’re divorced from reality. In this age, where there’s so much competition, it’s difficult to make the product sell itself.
Now that you know the requirements of the job and have your concise job description ready, you only need to find someone who matches the ideal characteristics you are looking for.
It can be so that your extended network already has someone who matches the job description perfectly. A referral from a colleague is more likely to be a great candidate than someone who simply answers your ad.
Not every business school offers sales courses. However, they are more popular now than before. The graduates from these programs have a high success rate compared to kids from other programs. They’re better than raw new hires.
If you’re interested in schools that have these programs check out the University Sales Education Foundation site.
If you’re still stuck on finding someone who matches your job description you run the risk of inundating your mailbox with plain no match resumes from every Tom, Dick and harry who wants a job by running ads. But that’s the remaining way out and once that’s done you can filter out the applicants.
When you call in someone for an interview you know that that persona matches the basic job attributes you’re looking. Try and find employees whose personal experience exhibits resilience that will allow them to go past disappointments.
Unless your hire is someone with zero experience you must ask how much did the candidate sell in his previous position. Ask the candidate about the compensation he has had from sales. You can ask for their W2 form.
Find and talk to references he or she sent. You can also look at LinkedIn. If there are inconsistencies, you may disqualify the candidate.
Hire on a trial period
If the salesperson is going to work for you it’s better to hire him for a trial sales period.
Assign numerical measures of success that help you identify if the candidate is meeting those metrics.
Other things to pay attention to:
Before you jump on the hiring bandwagon and start the recruiting process, ensure it’s the right time to hire and you have the resources for the same. Good sales professionals can make a positive contribution to your company. However you should have the capacity to both onboard and train them.
Building out the right infrastructure for sales coaching.
Take a look at the current sales flows. Should you optimize your funnel further using new tools or test new CRMs?
Could you stand to get more out of your team with the help of streamlining and additional development?
These are all factors to look at before you hire.
Before you start posting ads or doing interview rounds, visualize your ideal candidate.
Based on the current team, what kind of individual would add to the team’s capabilities?
Whenever you conduct interviews, ideally include sales managers from the current team or include sales leaders for the interview questions. It’s important to listen to their concerns as well. And then use that to form your own opinion.
