The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Top-Notch In-House Sales Team

The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Top-Notch In-House Sales Team

Newsflash!

You can't run and grow a successful company on your own.?

If you want to expand your company, you'll need to hire salespeople at some point. However, how do you go about doing so?

There are best practices and not-so-great practices when it comes to developing a sales team. Recruiting salespeople is only the beginning.

Every team should have a sales process in place with goals that can be measured and tracked. While attending to other important aspects of their business, sales managers and executives must coach their staff on these processes.

Why is the typical process of growing a sales team failing?

Many of us avoid the hiring process while putting up a sales team. We take it for granted and don't devote the necessary time and effort to completing this crucial stage properly.

Rather than being assured that they're in the correct role and being accountable during the interview process, we hope that a new recruit will just "get it" and flourish as soon as they've struck the ground running.

It's difficult to integrate new salespeople successfully. Less than half of new salespeople meet quota in their first year, according to 31% of sales managers.

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Fortunately, there are ways to optimize your hiring process, keep your top-performing salespeople, and build a cohesive sales team that consistently succeeds.

And, while it may appear complicated at first, putting together a winning sales team is critical to your company's success. It's not something that can be put off until later.

Let's look at the actions you can take to attract the most outstanding sales reps and establish a world-class sales team with that in mind.

How to build a high performing sales team

  • First, consider an internal hire

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Bad hires are costly, so take your time and do it right the first time.

When it comes to developing a sales team, the best place to start is with the resources you already have. Internal sales hires are usually the most successful. Why??

These folks are already familiar with your company's brand, policies, expectations, and return on investment.

They're already familiar with your service and product; therefore, the learning curve is significantly shorter than if you hired someone from the outside.

Before looking outside the organization, advertise the position internally. Ask around for recommendations if you need to.

Perhaps someone in operations would like to try their hand at sales.

If someone doesn't have direct experience, don't dismiss them. The best salespeople are sometimes those who can be trained from the ground up.

  • You Should Know Who You Want

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You must have a clear understanding of what you want your sales force to do for the organization before hiring someone.

Yes, you want them to be able to market your product and turn leads into loyal clients. But, do you like this new salesman to be visible, or do you want them to only work with significant accounts?

Understanding your requirements will assist the team in establishing a baseline.

  • Create a Hiring Process

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Create a consistent hiring process that can be used across the board.

This will make each person's judgment equal, allowing you to compare prospects more effectively.

Consider the questions you'd like to ask to receive the information you need to make an informed decision and don't be afraid to be precise.

Consider administering a personality or skills exam to your candidates.

Some businesses are unable to fill positions due to a lack of resources. To save time, they collaborate with a headhunter or recruiter from outside the company.

Recruiters are well-versed in the vetting process and have access to an extensive database of prospects.

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  • Coach and Motivate?

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Engagement is the key to developing a capable sales team.

You must keep your employees enthused and motivated.

Set aside the time and resources required to actively learn the profession and explicitly define goals and benchmarks.

Creating key performance indicators (KPIs) that are reviewed weekly or monthly also aids in team motivation.

You might also try to make your workout more fun. This is a fantastic approach to getting a group of people to learn new skills.

It incorporates numerous gaming aspects, such as a points system or leaderboard, to encourage rivalry.

It empowers sales reps to take ownership of their education and can be used to implement new training tools.

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  • Use time-saving and efficiency-enhancing tools.

Salespeople used to have to sift through the Yellow Pages for contact information, as previously noted. Those days are now gone, and your team should be set up to make use of all of the incredible software that is now accessible.

Personal email sequences, for example, send an automated series of templated emails to your contacts and disengaged sales representatives even at critical times, which does exactly what it says: Whenever you click a phone number in your database, the call will be automatically made and recorded. When the call is finished, it is recorded for future reference.

Today's salespeople may use automation tools, collaborative software, remote access to sales materials, and cloud-based CRMs to make their tasks easier and faster than in the past, thanks to ever-improving technology.

Make sure they have the necessary equipment for the job!

  • Offer incentives

Sales can be a difficult job, and if you've worked as a sales manager after starting out as a salesperson, you're well aware of this.

Some days are just plain bad, full of rejection and stumbling blocks. So, why do individuals continue to report to work? Why would you continue to show up for work?

Even when confronted with constant hurdles, humans want inspiration to keep pushing ahead.

Offering incentives for reaching and exceeding goals, going above and beyond, and uncovering new lead sources for their pipelines will help motivate your sales force.

  • Progress and success should be measured.

How can you tell how well you're doing in sales if you're not keeping track of your progress and results? If you don't measure and optimize your processes on a regular basis, all the calls in the world won't result in more sales. But here's the twist: You should be tracking actual numbers rather than just "how many calls were made today?"

There are a few things to bear in mind:

Calls do not generate income. Which is a better indicator of how well your salespeople perform regularly: calling 1,000 people and making one sale or calling 100 people and making five?

Leads aren't all made equal. Make sure you give your sales staff a healthy sales funnel with real potential clients, not just a list of names. Spend money on targeted advertising, purchase lead lists of contacts in your target industry, or use an inbound marketing campaign to produce leads organically.

Existing customers can make sales easier. What happens once a sale is completed? Is the client going to vanish, never to be seen or heard from again? Or did your salesman build a rapport with them that encouraged them to return whenever they needed something? Keep track of your client retention rate to see how well your sales team is doing.

  • Create a Positive Workplace Culture

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No one wants to work in a windowless room with yellow lighting, at desks shared with five other people, for a horrible boss, and for less money than they could earn elsewhere. So, what can you do to foster a workplace culture that motivates employees to show up and give it their all?

You can give them some essential items, such as:

  • Work from home options are available.
  • Salary increases regularly disengaged sales representatives.
  • Classes for professional development.
  • A culture of open communication at all levels of the organization.
  • Encouragement and feedback
  • Their accomplishments have been recognized.
  • Events, tournaments, and games for the entire company.

Good corporate culture begins at the top, and you are at the helm. You're the one who wants to build a successful sales team, and you'll be the one in charge of assisting them. If you have to hire constantly and onboard new employees, a regularly lousy business culture can lead to higher-than-average staff turnover, affecting your sales and company dynamics.

According to Glassdoor's 2019 Culture Survey, more than half of respondents believe that corporate culture is more important than money regarding job happiness.

Bottom line

Building a great sales team will take some effort, but the time and effort you put in will pay off in the end. If you apply some of these tips for your sales team, you will be able to hire the best people, reach and surpass your sales targets, and have a happy, healthy workforce.

Trust us, we know—we live and breathe sales every day, and Nutshell is meant to aid you in achieving your goals.

References

Gaviningham.com

Copper.com

Builtin.com

benchmarkone.com


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