Sales . . It’s in Style
4 Step Hiring Process for Small Business
February 22, 2009Referral Candidates – Evaluate Carefully
March 15, 2009Sales is in style this season. Sales is a classic, like a navy blazer or black dress, it never goes out of style. Yet, this season with the economy still languishing, sales is even more in vogue.
It’s rare that I hear a business owners say that they have nailed their sales process or have the superstars they need to take their business to the next level. Ask a business owner about their sales team and you’ll certainly get an earful. Like politics and religion, the topic tend to excite emotion.
“My sales people can’t sell themselves out of paper bag.”
“My sales reps are busy, but they can’t close.”
“My sales reps close deals, but they won’t prospect.”
“My sales team aren’t motivated and appear comfortable with their incomes.”
One of the biggest mistakes business owners make it when building their sales team starts at the beginning. The hiring process. There are 51 flavors of sales positions. You must know the type of sales style that fits your business and then hire talent that fits your style. If your sales reps are not producing, there may simply be a style issue. Solutions based, transactional, big ticket, small ticket, B2B, B2C, farmer, hunter, and the list of styles goes on and on.
Hiring sales talent is difficult, yet you can increase your chance of success if you develop an effective sales hiring process. This process should include assessing your sales style and thoroughly evaluating each candidate before making the decision to hire.
An agricultural equipment company engaged Safari Solutions to hire an outside sales professional. Once we discussed the style issue, it become clear that the company does in fact have a distinct selling style. Now they understand why they had to let go a couple reps that were not producing. They were hiring the wrong style. Going forward, by assessing the sales style that fits their business, future hiring will have a defined target to aim for.
