It’s impossible for a business to grow without a great sales team. These are the people who play the role of cheerleaders for your products and services and keep a constant flow of clients to the business. Instead of looking for quick deals, a great sales team will collaborate with other departments to find opportunities to improve the business.
Your sales team, in addition to recruiting new clients for your business, needs to be able to collaborate with other internal departments such as finance, marketing as well as R&D to come up with products and strategies that will help put your business on the fast track to success.
Because of the important role salespeople play in business, it is important that you ensure that only the right people are hired. Blue Collar People has put together a list of the strategies you should use to ensure that you hire a sales team that will take your business to the next level.
- Screen for skills and attributes demonstrated by your stars.If you already have several top sales people working for your organisation, use assessment tools to identify the skills and traits that make them succeed at their job. Make these traits the standard hiring guideline for your future stars.
You should also use an assessment tool to craft a behavioural interview process to screen for the competencies and traits a candidate needs to succeed in your organisation. This will ensure that the salespeople you hire are the right people from the start as innate traits are very difficult (if not impossible) to change.
- Find sales people that are both helpers and closers.In the current times where information and alternative choices are readily available, customers expect more from their salesperson. They don’t want someone who just sells and moves on but rather someone who has an understanding of their business and can provide advice and insight even for things that have nothing to do with what they are selling.
When hiring salespeople, it is important that you look for people that think of themselves as teachers and helpers as they will have a consultancy role to play for both the customers and the organisation through collaborations with other internal departments.
- Look for data skills.As increasingly more aspects of business become reliant on data and data analytics, the line between a sales representative and analyst is fast becoming blurred. Look for candidates who can mine and evaluate data to find prospects, deals, customers and even sales techniques.
- Look for digital marketing skills. Your sales candidates need to be able to use social media and other tech tools to share their insights as well as ideas from other people and inform companies how they can use that information for themselves. Regardless of what they are selling, a good salesperson needs to have a digital mindset.
- Provide competitive compensation. Provide competitive compensation to your candidates to get an edge over other suitors. Make sure that you pay at the current market rate or above to attract and retain top sales talent. Other than the fixed salary, salespeople should also be offered bonuses and incentives to keep them motivated and engaged.
Behind every successful company, is a great sales team. That’s because even the best of products will not sell if there aren’t capable people convincing reluctant consumers to try them out. Dedicate adequate time and resources to ensure that you hire a robust sales team that will take your business to unprecedented heights.
