How to Hire a Successful Salesperson

Some people get nervous about hiring a salesperson.?

What if they fail??

Well, that's an interesting question. As a sales director, I used to joke with a publisher that we should hire two and expect one not to work out. But with salaries higher and crushing inflation, here's a better way.

Before hiring, you should spend time selling your product, service, or platform. What works best for you? Emails, phone calls, LinkedIn conversations, buying leads, hiring telemarketers, using an SDR, working at conference exhibit halls, taking people out for coffee or lunch, working with another salesperson, etc.?

Once you've tried some things yourself and taken clients through your entire marketing and sales funnel, you should have narrowed down your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and picked some clients you want someone else to pursue.?

Here's an example of how I met and recruited Lee Coggins to work at?The Independent?newspaper many years ago. Lee was selling Citysearch. Founded in 1995, Citysearch was one of the early online?guides?that provided information about businesses in dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States, kind of like Yelp or Tripadvisor. With search engines improving, Citysearch became less relevant.

I arrived slightly after Lee at Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery, a relatively new restaurant and brewery that opened in 1996 in Chapel Hill, NC.

I was The Independent's Chapel Hill sales manager. Back then, salespeople showed up at restaurants in person, usually mid-afternoon, to meet with owners, chefs, or managers. I magnanimously offered to go after Lee, primarily because I didn't know much about Citysearch and wanted to hear her pitch.

After one of the owners said they didn't do much advertising, Lee countered by explaining that Citysearch was more like Yellow Pages and that every restaurant was listed there. She used?The Angus Barn, an award-winning steakhouse in Raleigh, NC, as an example. At the time, they didn't need to advertise but did with Citysearch. I want to remember if she closed that deal; maybe she remembers. I was struck by her friendly poise. On her way out, I introduced myself and asked her to lunch.

I was completely unfazed by Top of the Hill's stance. One of their advisors was friends with my ad director and published All About Beer magazine in Durham, NC. He sat in on our meeting. They did make me do a proposal, but I closed them shortly after.?

When the day came for me to have lunch with Lee, I asked my officemate and friend, Gloria Mock , to join us. Gloria is a very positive person, and by the end of lunch, Lee had made it clear she liked The Independent.

I swung by The Independent office in Durham and let Sioux Watson, the ad director, know. She and Lee got in touch, and eventually, Lee became my counterpart as the Durham sales manager, staying longer than I did. I had broken every sales record, and Steve Schewel and Sioux Watson wanted to promote me to ad director in six months. Then, I met my husband and was recruited by HIS newspaper. We had a little surprise for the CEO, who let us report to him. At Lee's peak, she sold 500K a year, more than I had. That's?a?lot in a small, weekly newspaper.

Back to recruiting, I've always thought the job posting, resume, and ATS routine were arbitrary, and there might be a better way. After eleven years of selling ads on two job boards and selling a programmatic solution and a managed service, I still think there's a better way.

That involves humans. Get out of your office, whether in a building, at your house, or as ours was, in a building that probably should have been condemned in Chapel Hill, NC. I think the newly retired grandfather Greg Swanson selected it because there was potential access to a T1 line from?Chuck Crewes at catalogue.com downstairs.?

Eventually, the hair salon upstairs that tinted older women's gray hair blue on Fridays before church caught on fire twice, and I finally dragged Gloria out of there to a newer office on Franklin St.

So this is my tip. Go out and listen to other salespeople. You can find them at places like your local Chamber of Commerce events. With non-competes most likely vanishing, you now have the power to attract top talent when you see it in action. Go find some. Buy someone lunch. Get to know them. In my case, I brought someone awesome to my beloved paper and became lifetime friends with both Lee and Gloria, who are now selling real estate in the Triangle.?

Since I went into business for myself for the second time, some people have offered me "positions" to sell their products, services, or ideas for commission and equity. With the advent of the Internet, I can make much more educated guesses about how to value a company. Obviously, I make exceptions if I love the product, mission, or person.

I have worked on straight commission when I built up a territory over four years, and that's different. You shouldn't offer to hire an experienced person with a solid track record without paying them a base until they have long enough to build up a book of business. Offering commission only to people who know enough not to settle for that is rude. Sales is both the easiest and most challenging job I've ever done. If you think most sales come in over the transom, you should take a few months to work in sales.

Or, as Gloria and I used to say, some call it work. With a great company, a product market fit, and a mission, sales is indeed fun.?

Enjoy the free tip.

I am open to working full-time in sales management, sales, nonprofit development, or communications.

-Jessica L. Benjamin

#Sales #Recruiting #MeetingInPerson

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