Hire the best sales people you can

Sales managers should make it a point to hire the best sales people they can and avoid hiring only those that you can afford. Depending on the company your with, you may need to fight to get that accomplished. It can often be a difficult hurdle to overcome but it is one well worth fighting for. If you think you can pay low and get a high return on your investment, you’re very mistaken. You will get what you pay for. If you hire extraordinary sales people and pay them what they are worth your business will grow substantially. You will get back way more then you anticipated.

Some companies tell me how well they do without paying salespeople top dollar, and I always look at their business and see that they don’t know how much more they could generate in revenue if they paid someone well. I compare them to those companies in the same field that do spend the money. The companies that don’t hire the best are simply happy with mediocrity and frequently don’t know it. Many of the great start-up’s of the past forty years made it a point to hire the best and pay them well. That’s one of the reasons they have marquee names today. Remember that people will give back when they get.

Quick Tip # 7 – Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)

If your a sales manager one of the best things you can do for your team is to lead with PMA. Some sales managers do not lead the charge this way and I don’t subscribe to it. If you have PMA your team will have PMA and they in-turn will demonstrate that positivity to their prospects, family and all who they come in contact with. Being positive leads to revenue generation and a healthy happy team.

Quick Tip # 6 Customers

Never forget that your customers are your evangelist. When they are happy with your product/services they become your unpaid salespeople. Move your business forward by  asking them to tell others about your business and ask them for referrals.

Sales Management – Hiring Talented Sales Pros

One of my most frequently asked questions is “What should we look for when hiring a sales pro”? I always recommend that one make sure that the sales people they hire have an outstanding personality, good organizational skills, good communications skills and maturity. You will need to identify what your looking for in a person based on what you are selling and the length of the sales cycle. Decide on what you want the person to accomplish and what level person your looking for in advance.

Here is a list of things that you need to look for during the interview process:

- Prior experience (number of years)

- Outside or inside sales experience (hunter or farmer)

- Team selling or individual selling experience?

- Analytical Skills?

- Computer Skills?

- Competitive Selling Skills

- Strategic Thinking?

- Can they cold call and qualify (how)? Even if you have someone else do this, you should make sure that the sales pro can do it. In bad times many companies let go of the internal or external lead generator and expect the salesperson to do the job.

- Type of territory?

- What type of customer base?

- What did they sell before?

- Outside interest

-Why do they like sales and do they see it as a profession? Are they proud of being a sales person?

- Presentation skills (what and how) Ask them to present your product or one from their prior experience. Make sure they don’t rely too much on PowerPoint.

- Technical Skills (if technology sales)

- Type of company they worked for and it’s culture

- How were they managed? Are they good at working on their own

- Compensation (base and commission structure)

Remember that whoever you hire will have to fit into your corporate culture and must have the ability to understand and sell your products. There’s more but we will discuss in a later post.

Sales slumps occur for many reasons

On the train coming back from New York City one day a few months back I ran into a guy I worked with 20 years ago and had seen two years earlier. He told me he had changed jobs in the past year and that he was now an individual contributor selling enterprise security software for a major vendor. When I asked how he was doing, he said “great”. I noticed that he was not as exuberant as one would expect when someone says “great”- so I drilled down a little over the course of our train trip and found that he felt that he might not make quota for the first time in a long time.  He had always been a super star and made a great deal of money, but was unable to bring in any significant business for his current employer. I proceeded to ask him many questions to find out what might be affecting his performance. I asked about his territory – he thought it was fine, his quota was fine, he was making the right calls, had the right number of meetings, but his performance against other sales professionals was terrible and he lost a few deals. We talked over the course of the next few days and we mutually came to the conclusion that he had a territory problem. The problem was a serious one: product-over saturation. The saturation included his companies products as well as the competitions. He could not see the problem nor could his boss. To make matters worse, this problem had a negative impact on his ability to overcome the competitions sales strategy. The past 8 months of selling had turned into a metal road-block for him. He needed a territory re-alignment and some training on how to compete more effectively.

We all can and will hit sales slumps in our careers but if you keep on top of the learning curve you should be able to see the forest for the trees. As a sales professional you should be continually learning about your profession throughout your career. You can’t always depend on your sales manager as the one who will see a particular problem and help to guide you in the right direction. When you encounter a problem, take charge and find someone who can help. Get in the habit of continually looking to improve your skills.  Do what sports figures, doctor, educator do – in order to keep on top of their game, they  continually train. Find a sales trainer, professional sales coach or attend seminars or workshops. Learn about different sales methodologies and select the one that makes the most sense to you and mix and match until your comfortable with it. Make sure it fits your style of communicating. Whatever training is offered, take it with gusto. Don’t sit there and think you know it all. Remember training keeps you sharp and successful.

By the way, as of this week, my friend is back on track and will make quota for the quarter. He’s talking about a very promising pipeline and as I know him – it’s accurate.

Quick Tip #5 Focus on Opportunities

For all executives and especially those in sales here are some Peter Drucker comments: Problem solving , however necessary, does not produce results. It prevents damage. Exploiting opportunities produces results.  Above all, effective executives treat change as an opportunity rather than a threat. They systematically look at changes, inside and out side the corporation, and ask, “How can we exploit this change as an opportunity for our enterprise?”

10 Things managers should never do!

1)Blame others

2)Play favorites

3) If your a sales manager don’t try to be one of the guys/gals

4) Berate team members

5) Be arrogant

6) Be disrespectful

7) Take credit for others work

Pit people against each other

9) De-motivate by being negative

10) Bully

Feel free to add your comments. I’d love to hear from you!

Quick Tip #4 Sales Managers and Sales Methodologies

Sales managers should not force his or her team members to stick with any one sales methodology. If you have the team get trained in a particular method, you should let them know that you want them to use it but that it is not cast in concrete. There are many good methods and they should be combined and tailored to fit the situation and the sales professionals comfort level. Overtime most successful sales people figure this out anyway.

10 Biggest Mistakes Managers Make

1.) Not being accountable

2.) Picking favorites

3.) Not Listening

4.) Not understanding what the needs of the team are

5.) Not delegating enough

6.) Micromanaging

7.) Not staying informed

8.) Not building the right business network

9.) Creating an environment of must win (being right) every time instead of winning when it’s appropriate

10.) Not communicating goals well

Quick Tip #3 Office Politics

How often have you heard this statement “our company does not have office politics” – Let’s get real – it would not be an organization without them. There’s nothing wrong with office politics – successful people contribute, educate and negotiate with fellow employees to accomplish their goals 24/7.