Hiring Salespeople and Sales Managers – Finding and Keeping Winners

The resume looked good. The candidate sold you. The references checked out. So, why isn't your new salesperson prospecting and closing deals? What's making it so difficult for your new sales manager to rally the sales team around the company's goals and vision? Maybe, just maybe, you didn't identify and interview for the real reasons for success in sales and sales management.

SalesLeadership’s Higher Expectation’s hiring process has dramatically improved sales results by helping companies benchmark the specific position. Benchmark results align the potential sales and sales management candidate to match the behavior, culture, and skills necessary to succeed and thrive. As a result, your company will:

Outcomes for benchmarking top salespeople:

Hire salespeople who aren't afraid to call at the top
Hire salespeople who close deals consistently at full margin
Hire salespeople who prospect consistently
Hire salespeople who are internally motivated
Hire salespeople who deliver results not excuses
Hire salespeople who sell on value, not price
Hire salespeople who can help you grow your company
Hire salespeople who “play well” with other departments
Hire salespeople who understand the power of teamwork

Sales Management:

Hire sales managers who can lead, develop and grow a sales team
Hire sales managers who know how to compete and win with integrity
Hire sales managers who can communicate effectively with all types of personalities and salespeople
Hire sales managers who can deal with conflict and reach a resolution
Hire sales managers who can think big picture and still handle the day-to-day details of running a sales organization
Hire sales managers who can achieve that fine balance of corporate management and field management
Hire sales managers who understand the importance of working with other departments in achieving overall corporate goals

We practice what we preach and don't make recommendations without a face-to-face appointment or phone consultation.

STEP ONE: CREATING THE JOB TEMPLATE

Get clear on the best salesperson and/or sales manager for your company

SalesLeadership meets with key decision makers to develop a benchmark for the sales or sales management position. The benchmark serves as a measurement tool for future hires and takes the guesswork out of the hiring process. At the end of the benchmarking sessions, a job template is created that outlines:

Job specifics - Attitudes, sales activity, responsibilities, and results expected in the sales/sales management position.
Emotional Intelligence – Soft skills such as resiliency, interpersonal skills, personal accountability, empathy.
Specific selling style/communication style needed for position - Aggressive, high sense of urgency, service oriented, analytical.
Past experience - How will past experience translate into success at your company?
Company core values – The heart and driver of a sales culture.

STEP TWO: IMPLEMENTATION

SalesLeadership works with sales management team in developing recruitment materials. A key component of implementation is training the sales management team on behavior based interviewing skills. This interviewing model takes out the guesswork in hiring to determine if the potential sales or sales management candidate can and will do the job.

Develop recruitment ads for newspaper/on-line (Your advertisement is your first screening tool.)
Develop recruitment letter for ongoing proactive recruiting efforts
Design a telephone template for initial interviews
Coach the sales management team or executive team on how to effectively screen candidates over the phone
Coach the sales management team or executive team on behavior based interviewing skills
Administer objective hiring and sales assessments which measure:
- DISC: Selling Style/Communication Style Analysis
- PIAV: Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values
- EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Ability to relate to others and build relationships