Growing a Sales Force?

Maury knows sales and sales people/reps. You aren't building a sales force, you are paying referrals. Just like the car salesman who tells every customer "I'll pay you $300 for every customer you send who buys a car."

And to his point that marketing is not selling: Marketing is everything that happens before a prospect CONTACTS someone in the organization. After that, it's all the sales team and closers will always win. The biggest problem I have found with online/website selling- it's all marketing and no closing.

Marketing without closing is an expense.

Marketing with closing is called SALES.

You are not alone as many small businesses struggle with this issue. Unfortunately the issue is a little more complex then where to find good motivated sales people.

What is important to a sales person is being able to be successful. To be successful the product or service must be needed by a wide variety of prospects, their is a know and valued difference to your product or service, the company is providing qualified leads and you will be able to make money.

With a good product, market, and sales system in place, attracting good sales people will be easier but giving you the chance to recruit, hire and retain good sales people.

Most small business owners are great at their craft, but lack the understanding and experience to establish a good sales organization, that's just the facts. This is why I started my company CASM, a sales and marketing consulting company.

I am a 30 yr sales executive and business owner and understand the challenges of sales in small business. My firm provides guidance to establishing a sales and marketing working plan that will produce results. Most of the time the plan will include some internal resources combined with outsourced resources. Outsourcing helps you get to better resources, improve time to market and reduces costs of sales.

I would be happy to provide further assessment, free, if you would like to discuss further .

I hope to hear from you.

After 25 + years in Executive search I think 1st and foremost today candidates are looking for opportunity, security, of course compensation but also a work/ life balance. Now the work/ life balance is something I am hearing universally from "C" level leaders down to the sales and support people. The corporate consolidation and bottom line approach has heavily encroached on workloads and ability to meet goals.

Additionally, I think it is very important to make goals achievable and transparent in terms of how they must be met. When that occurs an interesting thing often occurs; teamwork and synergy. That in turn usually creates succession planning and that should be every companies goal!

In my eight years of hiring and training sales professionals, my experience says it takes tons of recruiting to find the right people. You need to get on all the job boards and sit down with a minimum of 12 applicants per day, obviously depending on how many reps you are looking for.

That is exactly what VDI does. I personally have built teams of 20+ in several markets, including Virginia Beach, Richmond, DC, Ft Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa, and Ft Myers. I would love to meet to discuss tactics to help assist you in building your team.

Brook Sterling Hamilton

First, I would like to applaud you for using the term "professionals". Professionals will have the reliable, ethical, and consistent quality you are looking for.

Be careful with the "young" aspect. Young professionals do not always know what it means to be so, meaning you need atleast 1 or more "experienced" individuals for them to incorporate the fine tuning from. (should be over the age of 30 in my opinion)

While I agree with many points already provided... you have to take into consideration that none of these by themselves are your answer, and the answer is greater than the sum..

Yes, pay is important, and professionals want to earn what they are worth. If a professional salesman sees the potential in your companies offer, and you have accounted for the time to develop in your pay, you will gain the attention.

If you are not prepared to hire a sales manager, you need someone who HAS managed a sales team before, is willing to do so again, and is willing to prove their ability to lead. *sales managers are NOT always the top salespeople!!!* You need to be on the lookout for this person...

Top sales people are more often than not, fairly lone-wolf mentality... It is their ego that needs managing, and their drive that needs to be guided, by someone who understands their world, but also understands how to handle authority...

Professionals (whether by experience or development) need information. They need to be kept in the loop, even after the sale is done. They need to know what happens afterwards: good,bad,indifferent. This information will allow them to have conversations that go above and beyond the expectations of prospects and clients. Marketing is great, but the professional on the other end will KNOW if your marketing is better then your staff...and Salespeople are your first human impression...

When you interview, pay attention to their prior work industries, the choice of wording, and ask questions that give them an opportunity to show a thought process around sales that is more than just the close.

To give an example, I personally will not train someone how to better effect hard-one-call-closes... Professionals want the rapport process, they understand that in time they will develop a consistent monthly volume, have a book of developed unsold relationships to bring in as extra icing for the month, and clients to return too for references, and the ability to go for larger scale clients.

When I interview for experienced sales assets, I want them to tell me the minor nuances that show they truly get the process. I ask questions like: What is your personal thought around cold calling and your first week on the job? I am looking for someone to say, "Cold calling is not a problem, i'd rather get beat up as soon as possible and get it out of the way. I learn more from the"no's" than the "yes's"

To grow your sales force, you have to provide them an ability to develop themselves into something more than gladiators. They have to contribute to the marketing, understand the service side, the challenges, the resolutions. They need freedom to test, but structure keep them focused.

Create a mix of short term and long term incentives that continuously keep them focused on both... selling for operating capital, but selling for retention as well, for sustainability.

There is much more than this quick reply, and I would be happy to spend a few hours with you discussing this is you are really focused on recruiting the right team.

Sincerely,

John

Salespeople are not what you really want, what you want is more clients/customers. I know that is a given, if that so you need to learn how to market properly online. If that is right reach out to me and I will share information with you ...no charge. [email address]

The advice you have had from most of these people is correct. You are not looking for sales staff, you are looking for people to birddog leads.

Even though the potential sound huge to you, its not. Most hard core closers are selling higher ticket items with a really attractive value proposition.

What you are offering sounds more like direct sales or MLM. Once those people run out of friends and relatives, they are clueless what to do next to generate sales. So, they quit quickly and you are constantly hunting for new people.

What about branching out to seasoned older and experienced sales people as well. Ever watch the movie the Intern. A forgotten source of skills. Also, explore SalesForce.com.

Good sales people do not come ready-made. No matter how many years of experience a sales person has, they still need to be trained and coached to succeed for your business. Having said that, it is important to prepare for your team by 1. having a real on-boarding process in place, 2. make sure your training manuals and resources are ready, 3. know who you are looking for and don't depend on whether they have the "it" factor, 4. write a job description that is realistic and targets who you want, 5. learn how to interview so Mr/Ms. Perfect don't walk out the door 6. Be deliberate in your choices, 7. when you do hire, make sure they have all the resources they need, 8. make sure everyone acts as a coach 9. Engage with your new team, often, 10. Enjoy.

If you would like to discuss how to implement any of these tasks at length, feel free to reach out: xxx-xxx-xxxx or [email address].

My advice to you is plan for a 3-6 month break in period, pay them well and encourage them when they are down since it's always hard to take rejection. As far as personalities, look for people that have been athlete's.