By the Sandler Training Team
Small business owners tend to stay small because they don’t install systems and processes into their business. Most owners want to hire “experienced” sales people. The mentality is to hire someone, teach them about their products and services, and then expect the person to “go sell”.
What’s the problem? If we hire experienced sales people, once they learn the product or service, they should be good to go, right?
Wrong. Why do small business owners experience so many failed sales hires? Largely because there’s too much left for interpretation between knowing the product and making sales. Owners hope “experience” will fill the gap. The truth is that a sales person’s experience in one company or industry most often doesn’t transfer to another. The problem could be a different type of customer, a difference on the level of customer one should call upon, or a different set of competitive issues. There are countless reasons that explain why an “experienced” sales person will not succeed in a new company.
What should a business owner do to overcome this issue? Creating a common set of expectations and defining the customer profile are great places to start. A customer profile may be defined in terms of geography, prospect type, industry focus and appropriate level of contact within the client organization. Clearly identifying the prospective customer base will keep your sales people focused in the right area. Holding sales people accountable to a common set of expectations ensures they’ll be completing activities that enable their success.
Further define your sales person’s role by clearly articulating how they should make contact with the new prospects. Teach them how to start a conversation with the target client. Help them understand the common problems your company solves for new customers. Challenge them to bring back quality information gathered on their sales calls. Make them qualify new prospects in terms of the customer’s ability to spend money and make decisions. The more detailed the activity, the more success your sales people will find.
Sometimes when you hire the competitions’ most experienced salesperson, you may hear a huge sigh of relief from your competitor. That salesperson may have peaked and ‘semi-retired’ in their current job, or be a poor team player and be demoralizing the other salespeople – there are a number of reasons that hiring away from the competition may be helping them, not hurting them. Someone may appear to be doing well with the competition, but they seldom leave a job that they’re really profiting from and happy doing. Be careful what you hope for here.
However, if you’ve done your due diligence thoroughly on the candidate, hiring “experienced” sales people may be a decent first step. Using specific selling systems and processes are the only way to put that “experience” to good use.
2010, Sandler Systems Inc., All rights reserved. Anne MacKeigan is the co-founder of Sandler Training’s Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island chapter. She can be reached at 902-481-0773 or by email at anne@sandler.com.
