Hiring the RIGHT Salespeople the First Time Saves Cash and Jack's Up Revenues

In my blog Titled, “4 – Steps to Hiring Salespeople that will Skyrocket your Profits!” I talk of identifying your company’s expectations and definitions of a GOOD salesperson. 

Hiring the RIGHT people in any position is vital to the health and future of ALL organizations. When hiring salespeople, we only have one opportunity to GET IT RIGHT! 

If you had or currently have an “Ideal” salesperson, outlining this person’s attitudes, skills and actions will help in your preparation of this vital step. Whether you are deep into building your sales team or  you are just getting started with the hiring process, you will want to follow along as this could be of great assistance with your organization. 

What are the company’s expectations and definitions of a “good” salesperson? 

Reaching Goals

·       Sales Revenues always seem to be at the TOP of the business leaders, expectation when building a sales team or just hiring one salesperson. Let us start with outlining what is most important for this NEW salesperson to accomplish…

·       Revenue Targets

§ Expectations for year 1, 2 and 3

§ What has your current or previous successful salesperson achieved? Match these numbers to your expectations

·       Career Goals

§ Do your expectations of building a career match the candidates desires for their future?

·       Life Goals

§ Does your candidate have an ambitious plan their future?

§ How does this match up with your work ethic expectations?

·       Culture Goals

§ If hired, would this person “FIT” into the culture you have designed and built for your company?

§ Will the candidate have a positive experience and be or become a beneficial part of your culture?

Consistency of Communication

·       Has your candidate demonstrated the communication skills you desire for the position?

·       What forms of communication are you expecting the candidate to use?

·       Written expectations

·       Oral expectations

·       Body Language

·       Voice of your company / product / service           

·       This person will become the voice of your company. Imagine how this person would fit into and communicate your message. 

§ What training do you have outlined for this person to learn how to communicate in with the targets?

§ Does this person or the job requirement NEED a person who is experienced in the industry, or not?

·       Follow Up

·       Are they a master at follow up with every lead, past client, current client and lost prospect? 

Reporting (CRM or alternative program)

o  Is your CRM fully developed to track, measure, and provide sales training solutions?

o  If not, here are a few suggestions:

§ Get a CRM and budget for programming to your needs

·       Many are free if you just want to track with limited reporting; if this is your strategy, expect to follow the activities weekly and record them into a separate sales dashboard

§ Use an Excel spreadsheet

·       Place it in a cloud-based program so each team member has access, and the data is updated in one place

§ You are utilizing a CRM, but mainly for customer service and not sales

·       If you imagine a strong growing company and the future looks bright, start using the CRM as a tracking tool for activities at the bare minimum

·       Program the sales-steps for the salespeople to easily follow the process

·       KPI’s (See Below) need to be programmed into the system so the salespeople understand what is expected

Activities

·       Define the actions which need to be accomplished to begin and successfully finish a sale

o  Probably the easiest step in developing a strong sales process

§ Focus your attention on the people or person who has been most successful selling your products / services

§ Follow their actions or steps which has made them successful, from beginning to the signed contract or PO

§ Place these actions or activities into the CRM for your team to follow and for you or your sales manager to track

Key Performance Indicators

·       Ah, KPI’s… easy to define, right? Perhaps not.

o  Keep it simple – What Key Performance Indicator NEEDS to take place for a sale to come walking through the door? This outline is thorough, you may not need to answer each categorical question.

§ Start at the beginning à

·       How do we find targets?

·       How do we qualify them?

·       How do we contact targets to get their attention?

·       What steps are necessary to get the target to agree to meet or to take time to participate in a product / service presentation?

·       Prospect NEED analysis: What is their Desire, Needs or Pains?

·       How do our products resolve their issues?

·       What are the best closing practices?

·       How many meetings does it typically take to close a deal?

o  What steps are needed to follow up after each meeting?

·       When a prospect says, “NO” what do we do with them?

o  Abandon lead

o  Move to data base

o  Marketing “drip” campaign

o  Sell the information

o  Taking into consideration of the outcome of each of the above activities, defining the KEY steps which are VITAL to your sales process. Hiring the RIGHT person who can perform these steps to your expectations reduces STRESS and increases REVENUES.

Benchmarks or Milestones

·       Once hired, what benchmarks or milestones are you expecting them to accomplish their first 30, 60 and 90 days? Or even 6 months and 1 year

o  These “benchmarks” can be revenue based, but I would suggest using other indicators like:

§ Product / Service testing (What do they need to know and understand)?

§ Initial actions or activities accomplished

§ Attitude towards both internal people and external prospects / customers

§ Understanding of the internal sales delivery processes

§ Documentation – What are they capable of understanding

§ What NEW skills need to be learned or developed

§ Number of successes in early KPI’s

Personality Traits

·       Introvert, Extrovert or Ambivert?

o  Again, look at your past or present “Ideal” salesperson and decide on your needs:

§ A gregarious outgoing person?

§ Introverted inside salesperson presenting to analytical decision makers via video conference?

§ A focused Ambivert who can develop a new territory?

o  Driven to succeed

§ Ambition is how ALL businesses start, and lack of is how they fail

§ How ambitious of a salesperson are you looking for?

o  People pleaser who needs to look at both sides of the selling equation to develop new business

§ Typically, the Amiable type

o  A salesperson who LOVES meeting people =

§ outside sales

§ new territory development

§ breaking into a new market with stiff competition

o  Analytical salesperson who can connect with transactional products which are sold to similar types of decision makers

·       Match the personality style to the activity expectations à Place the correct person in the job where the SALES activities are something they LOVE to do

Profiling the Position

·       Now we can zero in on profiling the position - Who do we look for?

o  Looking back on all the answer to the questions which pertain to your organizations needs when hiring a salesperson or developing a team, we can now profile the position

o  What are the traits of an individual who meet the following expectations:

§ Goal Setting and accomplishments

§ Communication style and consistency

§ Ability to record

§ Activities which come easy to them

§ Attitudes which lead to the KPI’s you expect

§ Focused desire to achieve milestones, performance oriented

§ The TYPE of personality needed to accomplish your desired outcomes

Overlooking the preparation of this step can lead to a crushing blow to cashflow and profitability. 

Defining your expectations and getting a clear understanding of what you are looking for in your next sales hire will catapult you forward. 

YOU CAN READ THE ENTIRE BLOG ON MY WEBSITE AT:

https://eurekaperformance.com/hiring/4-steps-to-hiring-salespeople-that-will-skyrocket-your-profits/