Overview: This guideline will help you figure out the right time to get a corporate salesperson for your start-up business or agency .
Some entrepreneurs think hiring a corporate salesperson is a wise decision to boost sales and convert their business into profitable revenue. They’re not wrong. However, some businesses wait too long to hire a salesperson for their corporation, resulting in missed opportunities and/or lost revenue.
Since many first-time business owners simply aren’t aware about when to hire a corporate salesperson, we’re addressing some of the most important factors to consider.
FINDING THE RIGHT SALESPERSON FOR YOUR BUSINESS:
There’s no pre-defined times when a business should hire a salesperson; however, there are seasonal patterns that define when the sales duty should be transferred to someone else.
While we can expect economic ups and downs, that shouldn’t stop us from planning to recruit a salesperson — you just don’t know how the economy will shift your business. Below are a few factors or changes in your business that might urge you to consider hiring a salesperson.
1. Increasing Sales: Perhaps this is one of the simplest, yet reasonably sensible reasons to hire a salesperson. Whether sales are organically increasing or you need sales to increase, a professional salesperson can help your business reach that goal.
2. Missing Opportunities: If you’re finding yourself burdened with multiple responsibilities and have missed a number of business opportunities at the expense of others, it might be time to add a salesperson to your team to help you manage potential opportunities.
3. New Direction: If there’s a business idea that you’ve been eager to try but lack the specific knowledge to make it happen, it’s definitely time that you consider hiring a salesperson.
4. Lack of Resources: While running a business requires your focus on multiple levels, it could hold you back from other tasks that are just as demanding. Similar to point #2 in this list, hiring a salesperson might be wise so they can handle all the smaller (or bigger) aspects of the business while you can focus on everything else.
What to Consider Before Hiring a Corporate Salesperson:
One thing to remember is that hiring a corporate salesperson means hiring someone who will be the “face” of your business. Think about the type of person who you feel will appropriately represent your business in the best light.
The Interviewing Process:
This is always an excellent opportunity to examine how good candidates are at selling (after all, you can’t hire a salesperson who can’t even “sell themselves” during an interview). Consider the following 5 key traits to look for when interviewing:
• Social: Are they friendly, do they communicative, and can they form strong bonds with ease?
• Resilient: Can they bounce back harder in the face of rejection?
• Persuasive: Have they mastered the art of getting people to understand their point of view… and act on it?
• Enthusiastic: They have to be excited (like, really excited) to want to boost your sales.
• Self-motivated: Will they take initiatives or wait for you to tell them to go?
With the points above, we include the fact that if a candidate is unable to sell their own skills or abilities, they simply aren’t the right person for your corporation.
And, of course, you want to ensure that the potential salesperson can explain how they helped their previous employer to grow. As simply telling someone to buy something because it’s good isn’t enough.
You have to look for the candidate who can sell with professionalism and charm, even if the product is subpar. This might sound challenging, but it becomes second-nature to a true salesperson.
How to Find the Right Salesperson:
There are many methods you can use to find the right salesperson for your agency. Besides applying the interview techniques we talked about earlier, actually going on the hunt for the right person is sometimes a job in and of itself! So here are some pointers we recommend to make the search easier:
Referrals:
Generally, internal referrals result in more effective hiring outcomes than job boards. Employee Referral programs are structured programs that companies set up to find talented people by asking their existing employees to recommend potential candidates.
In today’s digitally constant evolving world and space, there are opportunities for employees to reach out to their acquaintances and friends who they feel might be a good fit for a role.
One report from Jobvite suggested that internal hiring is 18x more effective and employee referrals are 5x more effective when selecting a good candidate, with these methods resulting in employees with greater job satisfaction and longer roles.
>> READ MORE: 7 Benchmark Metrics to Help You Master Your Recruiting Funnel
Job Boards:
Known as one of the most valuable tools for job seekers and recruiters to attract more talent, job boards are widely known advertising tools and user-friendly for both parties. In this regard, Glassdoor and Linkedin are super social platforms that are used for employers to interact with potential employees.
When to Hire a Salesperson (4 Factors to Consider):
Now that your business is growing and you want to increase your workforce by adding more potential customers, let’s understand how to choose the right salesperson.
Identify the specific needs:
Before drafting a lengthy list of details for the salesperson, review your business needs and assess experience gaps in existing department. If you have a previous salesperson who wasn’t ideal, asses the areas of opportunities for the future candidate. Also consider a realistic budget that you can put aside or their position.
Write the salesperson’s job description:
Now it’s time to set expectations. Be clear, concise, and honest about what they will work on. While you might be tempted to putting up a glamorous narrative of the role, it’ll turn into a disaster if the expectations don’t meet the reality.
Develop a clear interview process:
1. Shortlist the candidates that fit the job description and are as enthusiastic to boost your sales as you are.
2. Interview candidates thoroughly and analyze their potential; clarify each point to avoid misconceptions.
3. Begin with an informal chat (perhaps about their hobbies) so they feel at ease.
4. Have a series of personality- and skill-based questions to understand the psyche and approach of the applicants.
a. EX: Are they persistent? How do they manage their time when juggling various tasks. Can they share a time when they had to adapt to change… what about take responsibility for their actions?
In Conclusion:
While there are reasons that support your idea of hiring a salesperson for your corporation, you shouldn’t hire one if your target customer can find everything they need to make an informed decision online.
Remember when people used to knock on doors to sale products? Or staple advertisements to wooden light poles? The purpose was to find people, communicate with them, and see if they could get buy something. But this is hardly the case. There are more effective ways to generate leads.
The internet has changed the sales game. Buyers are informed of prices and the quality of products online; they’re just a few taps away from a purchase, so reaching out to a salesperson isn’t always necessary based on the business/industry.
We say that if it’s no longer benefiting your customer to help them find their “why” to add value, you don’t need a salesperson.