Sales Directors

How many month ends have you wished for the earth to open to swallow you? When your sales TEAM has (once again) underperformed and you have to face your exco, hat in hand, trying to convince them that next month will be better?

Selling is to companies what oxygen is to people. Without sales, your company will suffocate and die. Getting the right salespeople on the bus is the #1 headache for sales directors across South Africa and as the person in charge of this bus, you need help. You need a Sales Recruitment Angel and you need to get one right now!

But before you write this idea off as an unbeliever in celestial intervention, let me assure you that said Sales Recruitment Angel is a mere mortal like you and me. This angel’s only other-worldly power is knowledge - a solid and decent understanding of the sales process, recruitment and the inner workings of your business.

A Salesperson is a Salesperson, is a Salesperson… WRONG!

Thinking that all salespeople are created equal is the very first mistake companies make when recruiting their sales force. If you are flipping a coin when making the hiring decisions for a salesperson, you will get crushed. Salespeople fall off the bus every day. Only 32% of salespeople internationally meet their targets, with the rest underperforming. Unfortunately, this figure is far worse in South Africa.

The recruitment process is CRITICAL to creating a powerful sales TEAM. If the initial ingredient is off, then the end result will be off. You have to be very careful who you choose to be part of your sales TEAM as one weak link may be all it takes to trip up your entire sales effort.

The problem here is that your key strength does not lie in recruiting people - selling is your game. A trip down to HR may also not solve the problem as human resources do not have a sales background and probably wouldn’t fully understand what it takes to make a good salesperson. This is where your Sales Recruitment Angel will have the edge. A trained professional, skilled to hunt down those ace salespeople whose input will reflect on the bottom line.

Your Angel knows the Anatomy of a Good Salesperson

The sales profession is undergoing some pretty radical changes. Technology is transforming the profession to a large extent. Some people are predicting that 15M sales jobs will disappear in the coming years. But which characteristics do good salesperson need to have in 2019?

1. They need to understand what the buyer wants
2. Sell in a buyer-responsive manner
3. Use psychology to engage the buyer
4. Establish trust with the buyer
5. Communicate succinctly
6. Act on what the customer is saying
7. Demonstrate subject matter expertise
8. Help (as opposed to close) their prospects
9. Tell really compelling stories
10. Are great copywriters
11. Sell effectively over the phone
12. Are socially active with target buyers
13. Personalize their interactions
14. Use a variety of marketing skills
15. Help prospects achieve next steps
16. Are more productive because of sales technology
17. Tie daily activities to quota achievement
18. Manage their pipeline like a portfolio
    
    (list courtesy of https://blog.topohq.com/sales-skills-18-skills-every-salesperson-master/)
    

The sales discipline has evolved with the rest of the world - selling is not what it used to be a few years ago. Heavens, selling is not even what it used to be last year. Your Sales Recruitment Angel is aware of this fact and is forever adapting your recruitment tactics to stay on top of what is needed from your sales force in a forever changing market place.

In the Arms of the Angels

Your Sales Recruitment Angel will be trained to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is difficult enough to find candidates who tick all 18 of the boxes above but to recruit salespeople who are exactly right for YOUR business, you need an insider. Your Sales Recruitment Angel is this insider.

They are someone in your business who follows a robust recruitment process - they are taught how to do sales recruitment properly. They know how to apply best practice recruitment processes and they know what a good salesperson looks like. Furthermore, they have intimate knowledge of how your business operates and they know the roles, the process and above all, they know how to measure success. They get salespeople who can produce.

Learning to Spot Talent

How do you define sales talent and how do you test it? How do you hire future sales leaders - good solid salespeople? Who do you appoint to turn your sales TEAM into a sales force to be reckoned with? You start off with the right ingredients, that’s how, but how do you know who will make the cut and who not?

A Sales Recruitment Angel can be trained to spot talent faster than a fish eagle can spot a catfish! Often it is expected of sales directors and sales managers to be the judge, jury and ultimate executioner when hiring sales talent. With some input from HR, a sales TEAM is put together largely based on personal preference. When the TEAM doesn’t perform and steps have to be taken to try and up performance, it is difficult to know where to start looking for the problem.

Furthermore, when recruiting salespeople, it is easy to fall into the trap of fitting the job description to the person. We are dealing with salespeople and one of their best traits should be to build rapport with their audience. When recruiting salespeople - you are their target audience and liking someone because of an outgoing and gregarious personality does not necessarily mean that they are the right person for a specific job even though they may tick many of the right boxes.

A Sales Recruitment Angel is trained to fit the person to the job description, measuring them to a set of KPI’s in a responsible and professional manner.

Bringing your A-game

Any sales director is just as good as the A-TEAM he has united behind him. You will agree with me that trying to train less-than-good salespeople to measure up to the demands that your company requires, is not the correct approach. You will need to carefully consider the type of person you need to appoint long before you start screening and then make 100% certain you stick to the agenda when the time comes to interview candidates. The best possible candidate for a job may not be YOUR ideal candidate.

You will need someone who can put all the puzzle pieces together to find the perfect salesperson for your specific needs. Someone who understands not only the recruitment process but is also able to spot true sales talent that will fit your company and its inner workings.

Armed with a trained Sales Recruitment Angel to recruit these people, you can focus on what you do best - managing a TEAM of dedicated, fit-for-task salespeople to take your company sales to the next level and a heavenly bottom line.