Hiring GOOD Salespeople
Somebody’s Got To Do It!
Companies spend enormous amounts of money on things intended to generate revenue. Things like, Rent, Advertising, Signage, Displays and Merchandise. Too many times they then expect these things alone to bring in the sales. The most they can do is attract a customer. What’s now needed to make these expenditures pay off is a good salesperson doing a good job. It all comes down to that. You can have a great location with great merchandise, wonderful advertising and beautiful fixtures and signs, but a poor salesperson can undo it all. Likewise a great salesperson can succeed when these other things are marginal. Your biggest challenge and most important priority should be in building and maintaining a first class sales sales team.
Hiring
Recruiting is a process, not an event; it never stops. Don’t wait until you think you need a salesperson. That may be too late. Always be on the lookout for someone better that your weakest salesperson. Weak salespeople talk to customers and miss sales that a strong one would make. Even worse, they turn customers off forever. For HR reasons, companies these days are afraid to hire and afraid to fire, but both are needed to be the best that you can be. The Dead Sea is dead because there is no outlet. Rain water comes into the lake and then stagnates. Life cannot exist in a stagnant environment. As soon as it becomes apparent that you have made a hiring mistake you should make a replacement. In order to do that you need a “bench” of people ready to go to work for you.
The Bench
In sports the bench is obvious. Talented athletes are sitting there waiting for their chance to get in the game. You most likely will not have the budget to hire people that are sitting on a bench. Your “bench” is your ad in the paper and a steady flow of applicants. The better your team becomes the more difficult it is to find someone better that your worst one. That’s a nice problem to have, and much better than “grasping at a straw” when someone quits and leaves. We hate it when people quit and leave, but it’s worse when they quit and stay.
Hire Attitudes; Teach Selling
Customers form a fast opinion as to if they like a salesperson or not. When they don’t, they don’t buy. Think the same way when recruiting or interviewing. Look at the applicant as a customer will. Too many times companies pour over a resume to see if the applicant has the ideal experience. They say things like, “She doesn’t have enough sales experience” or “He has had too much sales experience, he has moved around too much.” Some of the best salespeople you will find will come with no sales experience at all, and when they get it from you will be loyal and stay with you. Hire the right stuff and be willing to teach the easy stuff.
