Is it the Right Time to Hire My Sales Team?

This one question would have crossed the minds of Most Entrepreneurs with Start Ups, at some point or the other of their entrepreneurial journey. There is no right or wrong answer; but you may apply a heuristic to assess your expansion readiness. But before that, let’s take a look at the Start Up Hiring Hesitancy Factor a bit closely.??

Startups fall into 3 categories.?

In the first category, are the ones that are experts at solving a challenge or fulfilling a defined set of needs? Let’s call them?Expertenuers. They bring value to the table, and their set of clients trusts them with part of their work. The business grows based on word-of-mouth. Things work out smoothly, until the?Expertrenuer?gets bitten by the ambition bug. Scaling-up of business becomes essential, but here lies the catch: the?Expertenuers?find it hard to believe that they can find anyone who can replace them, and so continue to do Business Development themselves.?

The Second Category of Entrepreneurs includes the ones who are clear about scaling up. They believe that scaling up would lead to value creation, though some of them may be bootstrapped. They accept that sales and marketing are integral parts of their execution plans. Let’s call these guys?Scaleprenuers. The question for them is “When should we hire the first salesperson on the team?”?

The Third set includes founders who are Sales-averse. They consider sales to be a function that should rather be outsourced to someone else, inside or outside the organization. For ease, let’s call them?Averseprenuers.?They may believe that they do not understand sales or its value. The only question that they have is, “Is it worthwhile to invest scaling up the sales teams?”?

Whether you are an?Expertenuer, Scaleprenuer or Averseprenuer,?hiring a sales team requires you to answer the following 10 questions.

1. Can you create a?comprehensive, detailed and written-down version of the process through which you acquire new clients?
2. Where do you see this new set of clients coming?from, and scaling up of which part of the sales process would aid in acquisition?
3. What unique and differentiated Capabilities you and your organization have that would make you stand apart from competition and attract these clients?
4. What is the level of performance that you would need for?offsetting the?additional hiring and Business Development Costs? How easy or difficult does it seem???
5. What kind of?a?person would understand the target Industry dynamics, and what would it take to attract them to join you and your team?
6. What would be the competence-set required for him or her to handle this part of the sales process? Think Knowledge, Skill and Attitudes.?
7. What is your Onboarding Process, and how long would it take for a person to become fluent?
8. What inputs (training, material, process and infrastructure) would it require them to succeed?
9. How often would you review him/her? What parameters and appraisals does your organization have for their review?
10. What would early success look like, and how would you know if the salesperson hired is successful or not?

If you have the answers to all of them, then you are all set to hire a new sales team.

Achieving Scaling Up success is not as difficult as it seems. All you need is a detailed understanding of your expectations, resources, and control systems.??

Happy Selling!!??