John Kenney, CPRC, CEO, Cotney Consulting Group
When you start your own business, you typically wear several hats to help get it off the ground, including promotions and sales. But the time will come when you will need to focus on the core business and hand-off your sales efforts.
From the very first hire, your salesperson can be the life or death of your business, so choose wisely. Having someone besides yourself selling your products or services can be scary, so finding the right person for the job is essential. Find someone you can fully trust to represent you and grow your company.
How do you even know where to begin when you are not a sales professional and have never hired one? As a company founder, you have been out in the trenches talking to potential customers, facing failures and improving your products and services. But when it is time to turn these duties over to someone else, focus on learning from your own experiences. You will know from those experiences the kind of salesperson you need to hire for your business. You already have a strong understanding of your target customers and their needs and have already developed a sales process.
Before you begin your search, define who the right candidate will be. Prepare a candidate profile of experience, achievements and characteristics you believe will fit your company, including what benchmarks you want to establish. You may seek many characteristics not listed on a resume and may not know they exist until you conduct an interview. Resourcefulness, coachability, attention to detail, likeability and teamwork are among them. When preparing your profile, include company focus, sales cycle, subject matter expertise, role focus and achievements. Rank them according to priority. The best salespeople may not be on the job hunt, so you need to use various approaches.
Before you seek out sales applicants, define your process. Do not put this off. By specifying and documenting your procedureso you will not risk forgetting specific vital attributes you want in a salesperson.
Write a job description outlining what your potential candidate needs to know about the position’s duties. Think through what the candidate might want to know, like their title, appropriate compensation and to whom they will report.
Define sales goals. Let a perspective candidate know where they will find leads and how much travel may be involved. Tell them if you expect them to have an online social media presence. And, if they will be using software, let them know what it is and if you require them to understand how to use it in advance.
Consider this: once an applicant applies, have them fill out a written screening, then make a phone call to speak with them in person. Have them come in for an interview or set up a Zoom interview. If they make it through that step, offer them a company cultural discussion, either in person or again, via Zoom and include other employees. Test the process and note any changes or tweaks to improve it for future interviews.
Hiring a recruiter to find the talent you seek works for some but not all companies. So, you have to decide if this is a desirable option for you. A recruiter keeps it simple for you because they have the talent pool to fill your sales role, but it can be expensive.
Referrals – This can be tricky since there is typically some pressure to hire a candidate with a connection to your team, even if they may not be the best fit. Be very judicious in vetting referrals, just as you would candidates for other positions in your company.
Job board websites – Available candidates will use job boards to circulate their resumes faster. They are not typically actively promoted or recruited, but that does not mean you will not find suitable candidates. Consider searching job boards, even if it does not ultimately
produce the right candidate.
Recruit directly – Find candidates you think are a good fit for your company. LinkedIn profiles help find people with the right experience and talents. It is easy to make contact.
Even if someone is not actively seeking a new position, use your coercive powers to find the right person. Instead of waiting for candidates to come to you, you can find them, saving you time.
Understand a candidate’s background and experience to evaluate their style and communication skills later. Ask questions about their skills, such as what a customer’s buying process might be or how they determine who makes buying decisions. How do they approach customers and what might they ask them? How far will they go to make a sale? How often do they follow up with potential or repeat customers?
Schedule more interviews than you think are necessary. Repetition can be helpful because you can cut to the chase to identify the best candidate. Always check references and ask for them if they are not listed on their resume. Do not rush to make a candidate a job offer unless you are confident they will be a good fit
If you research using your own experience and that of others, you will find the right candidate to fill your sales position, but it will likely take some time. Your reward for the research and patience required to complete this process correctly will be adding a sales
superstar to your team.
John Kenney, CPRC has over 45 years of experience in the roofing industry. He started his career by working as a roofing apprentice at a family business in the North-east and worked his way up to operating multiple Top 100 Roofing Contractors. If you would like any
further information on this or another subject, you can contact John at jkenney@cotneyconsulting.com.
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