The silver lining in this uncertain time is that talent, especially potent revenue-driving sales talent, is open to considering new opportunities. If you are a CEO, this is a good time to review your current sales team as economic indicators are on the upswing. You need to be poised to accrue all of the clients you can support!
The important questions to ask yourself
These questions should give you a head start on this strategic initiative.
- Were some members of your sales team hired during stronger economic times? Many companies, in those better days, had to hire whomever they could hire, possibly including staff who were not “the perfect candidate.”
- Has your business grown or changed? Could your organization benefit from a re-assessment of the ideal salesperson profile?
- Is each member of your sales team nearly reaching, reaching, or surpassing quota? If someone is not keeping up now, how will they fare when the company wants to add many clients quickly?
- Is it time for you, the CEO, along with the VP of Sales, to step back and reflect on the ideal traits, skills, background, and industry expertise that would make someone ideal to present your solution to potential clients?
- How important could it be for an Account Executive to arrive at work with your company on Day One possessing a history and relationships with key contacts built up through a career of integrity?
- What is the best level of contacts for your account executive to have? Chief Learning Officers? Directors of IT? Training Directors? VPs of Human Resources? CTOs?
- In your experience, would your Account Executives have been more successful if they had prior experience selling in the HR Technology space? Assessment, or LMS? LCMS? Simulations? Soft skills?
- In more robust times, did you have success hiring the best talent in your local market and bringing them up to speed on the specifics of your industry?
- Does that still work today? (For some vendors, the answer will be, “Yes.” For others, it will be, “No.” Only you know.)
- Have you focused your sales team geographically, vertically, or both?
- Have you felt the need in the past to have all members of the sales team working out of the corporate office? Do you now feel ready to expand, and to hire remote virtual salespeople in other major markets in order to have them closer to customers?
- Would it decrease the sales cycle if your Account Executives had direct experience, either working in the vertical target industry (i.e. transportation, pharmaceutical), or proven experience selling into these verticals or others?
- What is your current average sales cycle? Target sales cycle? Do you hire reps accustomed to working within that time frame?
- Is your solution best suited for the Enterprise accounts? Or mid-market prospects? Did you (or would you) like to hire candidates who are proven in that market?
- To reach your overall direct sales revenue targets for 2010, what quota must each Account Executive bring in? Can you do it with fewer sales champions who can carry higher numbers? Or larger territories? Or vice versa?
Remember these key points when interviewing
Other things to remember when recruiting and hiring Sales Athletes:
- Remember the culture and size of your organization, and be sure the person you hire has proven success working in a similar organization.
- Explore the freedom you allow to Sales Athletes. The nation’s top producers will succeed only with autonomy, and the effective sales manager for this type will serve primarily by removing any roadblocks in the way of the sale, not by micromanaging.
- Be sure to hire based on a person’s ability to do the job, and based on a track record of consistent success, demonstrated by consistently attaining goals.
Despite the fact that job seekers who need a job will be behaving one way, remember that the top 5% of sales producers in your sector will likely not behave the same way in an interview situation, and above all, please remember these Salespeople are not “applicants” or “job seekers.” They represent REVENUE to you and need and deserve TLC (Tender Loving Care), romancing, and wooing, or whatever you prefer to call it. They deserve to ASK a lot of questions about the company.
These salespeople want to probe potential employers so that they know the real truth about the company they are joining, warts and all. Is it product weakness? Is it disgruntled customers? Is it funding? Is it that the company cannot support the sheer volume that the person can actually sell? Generic “company speak” answers usually and understandably portray everything as hunky dory but this won’t be taken at face value by the savvy salesperson. Every company has weaknesses. We all know it. These salespeople just want to make sure they know what it is, upfront, so they can determine, personally, if it bothers them enough wherein they believe it could hinder their sales success there or not. It is far worth it for you to risk losing that salesperson in the discovery process prior to hire. The more likely scenario is that you will win a company champion who trusts you and your candor.
Where will you find them?
How do you find this top sales talent, now so ripe for the picking?
Job boards are risky and time consuming, but can yield talent. You risk losing time as you comb through thousands of resumes. You risk hiring salespeople who are not making quota, and those who suspect they are about to be released. You may encounter those who are chronically dissatisfied in their jobs. The very best sales talent you are seeking is likely so successful they would not dare let it leak out into the industry that they are open to hearing about new opportunities.
Referrals are great, but even then, you are hiring the best of what you see, friends of friends, and past co-workers of co-workers. Yes, this can be a good way to get strong people. But be realistic on how far out your network goes. Does it go out far enough that you can be sure there isn’t someone stronger that perhaps isn’t known by someone in your network?
It can be a costly mistake not to expand your pool of candidates by utilizing a professional recruiter.
“Business as usual” too often spells “out of business” for companies that do not take a hard look at each contributor role in the sales organization. There has never been a better time to upgrade your sales team than today, and not doing so could be a significant handicap going into next year.
