HARDISON’S TIPS – DECEMBER 13, 2021 – Faster & More Profitable Sales Hires
What’s your approach when hiring sales reps?
Companies often hire sales reps who have knowledge of, or even a passion for, the brand’s product or industry — which is great because it gives you a team of “walking brochures” who can spout off all the benefits of your product.
There are drawbacks, though.
While you can teach people about your product, you can’t teach them how to sell.
OK, that’s an exaggeration. But only slightly. It is possible to teach people how to sell, but it takes a lot of time — more time than you probably have.
Which is why it‘s much better, faster, and more profitable to hire a skilled salesperson, then teach that representative about your product or service.
When you hire for product passion, you can end up with teams that lack good sales techniques because they’re so focused on product or industry knowledge.
The truth is, customers can glean product information from your sales packet and website. It takes a skilled salesperson to offer unique solutions for customers’ pain points and move prospects through your sales cycle.
So what’s the secret to hiring sales reps who can turn into star performers? In this article you’ll learn:
- What to look for when hiring salespeople
- The best training for new sales hires
- Recruiting ideas for a high-performance sales team
What to Look for When Hiring Salespeople
When hiring a new sales representative, it’s in your best interest to hire people who fit four criteria:
- They are a cultural fit for your organization.
- They have a proven track record of selling at the level of your buyer — for example, manager, president, etc.
- They have a sustained track record of success, such as exceeding quotas.
- They are successfully able to nurture personal relationships.
Again, you can train someone to do this, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Great salespeople develop their skills over many years. It can take decades to learn how to qualify prospects, build rapport, and earn a prospect’s trust.
It’s impractical to think you can train a salesperson for a couple of months and expect immediate success.
On the flip side, it takes a small fraction of that time to become comfortable with a new product or industry.
The Association for Talent Development’s 2019 State of Sales Training report finds that companies spend an average of $2,326 on training annually per salesperson. On average, sales training costs companies $954,070 every year.
Research findings from the Sales Management Association show that new sales hires spend about 10 weeks in training. However, it can take more than 11 months for them to become productive.
So, if you want to save money and time, the best solution is to hire a technically skilled salesperson and use training time to teach them about your brand and industry.
