With the tight labor market over the last couple of years many organizations have wrestled with the challenge of finding enough employees, much less finding superstars. Yet it is virtually impossible to build an exceptional organization with anything less than exceptional people in key roles.
Whether it is an entrepreneurial company hiring their first salesperson, a well-funded technology startup, or a more established organization, the sales and marketing function may well determine the ultimate success of the entire organization. This is not to minimize the importance of the many other contributing members of any effective technology company. Too many companies fail to adequately hire, develop and manage the sales function. Just think about the Mac versus the PC or VHS versus Beta. When it comes to profits and growth, great sales and marketing will generally trump superior technology.
New York Yankees or Detroit Tigers The challenge that all growing companies face in this area is whether to hire experienced, proven salespeople (expensive free agents) or to hire less experienced salespeople with a plan to develop them. It’s a question of both philosophy and economic reality. Can you afford to be the New York Yankees with the biggest names and the biggest payroll in baseball, or must you try to be the Detroit Tigers with lower cost no-names, but often better results?
Many well-funded startups have invested heavily in hiring the top free agent salespeople with substantial six-figure guarantees. While there are certainly success stories with this model, there are many more failures. The successes can be spectacular, but the failures can be equally spectacular. The drive for immediate sales success has caused a literal bidding war for some of the best sales talent, especially those with well established relationships in larger target accounts. Not to be critical of those who play at this level, but the bulk of the companies simply cannot or will not take this approach.
The current economic reality for many companies is that they must grow sales and profits by hiring less costly salespeople. To succeed there are three critical areas that must be mastered:
1. Effective recruiting and hiring to find salespeople who not only can sell but WILL SELL, 2. Developing and growing the individual salespeople, 3. Managing the sales organization.
Recruiting and Hiring It would be easy to fill books with all of the challenges in this area, but some of the most common questions for technology sales include:
Q: Is it better to teach a salesperson to understand our products and services or is it better to teach a technically strong person how to sell?
A: While either is possible, it is generally more effective to take a good salesperson and teach them about the products and services. Effective selling is about developing a relationship with the prospect, uncovering their needs, learning about their budget and decision making process, and then presenting solutions that fit best. Salespeople must be technically competent enough to ask about and understand needs, but that doesn’t mean they need to be experts in the field. On the other hand, some engineers and technical people do have the potential to grow into superstar salespeople given the right training.
Q: How can we hire people who actually WILL SELL versus those that know how to sell but don’t?
A: Establish a system for hiring salespeople that models your selling environment. For example, start with a phone interview if they will be primarily selling via telephone. Think about how you expect them to sell and then create the same obstacles and roadblocks in the interview process that they will experience in the real world. How else will you know if they can really do what will be expected? ALWAYS use a validated sales assessment to help in the screening process. There are good tools available that can help prevent costly hiring mistakes.
Q: Should we pay mostly with salary or commission?
A: This is an age old question and really has no single answer, but stronger salespeople will generally want higher commission potential, even at the risk of a lower base salary. The more a candidate focuses on the base salary, the less likely she is to sell.
Q: Where do I find good candidates?
A: There is no one answer, but beyond referrals or recruiters, the internet is a good place to start. A well written posting on the internet job boards can bring a surprising quantity of good applicants. Don’t neglect your own website as a good source for candidates. Display ads in newspapers seem to be less effective than in the past. You may also find success with less traditional forms of recruitment advertising such as radio.
Development and Training Have a plan for developing people (not just salespeople) from the moment they start. Beyond product training, look for quality outside training resources. With good training, coaching, and mentoring those new hires should be able to grow into top performing superstars. A good rule to remember is to hire for what you can’t train. In other words, it’s probably unrealistic to hire someone for technical sales if they struggled through high school math or they can’t use a computer. Of course, theoretically they could be trained in these areas, but the cost of doing so and the time it would take are probably too much. But training people in sales and technology should be a normal part of the process. If you don’t have the internal resources or expertise, find a competent outside training company. Talented people that you develop tend to be much more loyal.
Manage the Organization Whether you have one salesperson or a whole team, management is an important part of the process. Well run companies have processes and systems for all areas of the company, INCLUDING sales and marketing. In addition to sales goals, determine the “metrics” for the behavior expected in the sales organization. This may include number of calls, appointments, presentations, and proposals. Establishing standards in these and other critical area will allow the sales process to be managed. It is nearly impossible to manage what cannot be measured.
Finally, whatever approach you ultimately use to build your championship team, remember the basic principle of beginning with the end in mind. The sales and marketing function in any technology company is worth as much thought and effort as the engineering function. Don’t settle for mediocrity when it is entirely possible to build a superstar sales team.
Kevin Hallenbeck is President and founder of BestSalesPeople.com, an affiliate of Sandler Sales Institute, located in Bedford, NH since 1994. He can be reached at kevinh@bestsalespeople.com, or via telephone at 603-472-9195.
BUILDING A CHAMPIONSHIP SALES TEAM: Should You Hire Superstars or Develop Raw Talent? - To learn more about this author, visit Kevin Hallenbeck's Website.
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