Serial entrepreneur Tom Fender shares his views about the qualities of great sales people.
Learn why Tom knows great sales people need
📜 total belief in their products
📜 authenticity
📜 resilience
📜 creativity and they never blame others for their occasional lack of success
Have you got what it takes? The good news is you can learn and develop those skills with my help.
In this guest blog James describes 5 key core characteristics to look for in a new candidate. James Fray is a highly respected and experienced recruitment consultant. He is an expert placing high performance sales people in demanding sales roles.
Are you in knots hiring quality Sales candidates ?
Remedy; Look for “Big Waves” !!
When interviewing Sales candidates there are 5 key core
characteristics required , candidates needs to demonstrate.
These can be labelled as W.A.V.E.S
W; When “Rebuttals” happen – can they cope ?. Rebuttals are not a
sign of dis- interest, in fact can be the exact opposite. Is there
any facet of any kind of sales that does not encounter them ? –
No chance !! Rebuttals are rungs on the ladder to sales success.
Testing this characteristic is critical with Sales candidates and understanding how candidates handle these rebuttals on a regular basis.
A; Application; Any sales individual that assumes half efforts can be
effective need to be eliminated immediately. ” A small jump is easier than a large jump, but no one wishing to cross a wide ditch would cross half of it first”.
V; Visualisation; “The block of granite which was an obstacle in the path of the weak, becomes a stepping stone in the path of the strong .”
High quality sales people spend time “Visualising” a successful sales
process, from introduction to closing the deal. A hundred metre world
champion sprinter will be able to visualise every stride of the race until they cross the line as the winner. The champions keep reliving their success as should successful salesman.
E; Expert ;Top Sales people must be experts in their field. In depth knowledge of Product/Services, pricing, USP’s, strengths, weaknesses, development needs. Can they demonstrate these qualities in the interview process ?
S; Standardised Presentations; Top Sales people virtually eliminate inconsistent performance on physically or emotionally “down” days.
If your selling is based on your personal brilliance, your results will plummet and be inconsistent on your “down” days .
” The wind and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators “
Email; james@jfcmc.co.uk 07720 832183
This short recruitment idea, suggests how non-experienced candidates should be selected for sales roles. For high sales growth, adding sales capability and experience to a sales team is a key strategy. Sales will grow faster and new standards of performance can be set.
Unfortunately, good experienced sales people with a proven track record are hard to recruit. In addition they are can be expensive and demanding too.
It can better and easier to find a great candidate without the experience or track record but with a history of achievement in other fields. Not only would he/she be likely to be more coachable, they would also be less expensive to hire and you can develop them in line with your vision.
So how do you find these attitudes in the a fresh graduate, school leaver or the girl in ops who has shown some promise?
Below are 5 suggested questions you want answered The answers identify the traits many successful sales people share as well as an insight in the candidate attitudes.
1) Can you give an example where you kept on going, even if it looked success was unlikely?
This question explores sales resilience, the ability to deal with rejection and move on.
2) Can you give me an example where you had to put yourself through tough training or education in order to achieve a goal? What did you have to sacrifice to achieve that goal?
This answer explores the ability to focus on an outcome and keep going despite hurdles.
3) What was the toughest role you have had in the past?
This answer will help to compare the person’s perception of ‘tough’ and how much of a shock the sales role would be for them. If the perception and reality are widely different, the sales role is not for them.
4) What motivates you to achieve other than income and bonuses?
Money is a motivator for many sales people, yet additional motivations like public recognition or providing for one’s family, are powerful and support sales resilience.
5) Can you give me an example where you took advice from someone and made a change that help you ?
This question explores how open the person is to training and coaching. Stubberness and resilience are not the same. I work with sales people every day and some are like sponges whilst others hear, yet do not listen, let alone act to become better.
When I use these questions, I ask for real experiences rather than theoretical scenarios. The idea is to understand how the candidate responded to a real life situation.
There are plenty of other questions to ask of course and the litmus test ” would I see our customers buy from him/her?” applies just as much.
I help companies growing the sales teams capability including recruitment and selection. To find out more about how I might be able to support your growth, feel free to get in touch.
#salesresilience #salesfocus #recruitment #saleshabits #salescompetencies #salesmanagement #highsalesgrowth
This sales idea is a short-read reference for business leaders who are thinking about employing a sales team.
When businesses are in start-up mode, processes related to hiring and firing a sales team may not be firmly established. Often business owners do the selling themselves. Maybe they decided having some independent sales people as the next stage.
Yet, further down the line the following encouraging signs indicate the need to build a company sales team:
More, worrying, signals are:
Timing is crucial. Hire the team too early and your cash burn rate will increase. The less positive signals above could mean you have some catching up to do.
The best sales people are hard wired to make sales. They are not strategists or product developers. Give them a ready-made product to sell that has at least proof of concept and demand.
Before starting to recruit ask yourself what kind of sales team your business needs most. Here are key considerations other than defining who your customers are and how they want to buy:
– Hunters and farmers. The sales hunter is best suited to a business where finding new customers is the priority. An additional benefit of the hunter is that they are not lead dependent. They create their sales leads.
Farmer sales people focus on the longer-term customer relationship to maximise sales from existing customers. They are experts in developing existing relationships and retaining them against the competition. Most start-ups need sales hunters much more before they need sales farmers.
– Field sales. Some products and services need face to face selling and relationship management. Product complexity, uniqueness and deal values are drivers for this. Field sales people should spend most of their time doing one of the following: finding new customers, quoting and signing new deals.
– Inside sales. When your product is simple to explain use and lower in value, an inside sales team may be all you need. The job is very similar to Field sales yet, sales are made from the office and face to face meetings are very rare.
– A combined field and inside sales team can be useful where the initial sale is made by a Field seller. The ongoing relationship is with an in-house sales person or team. The in-house sales team can also qualify sales leads before the field sales team gets involved.
– Partner sales. If selling to partners, who sell your product on your behalf, is your strategy, your sales will develop more slowly. Sales farmer qualities in a sales hunter are useful here as this is a relationship-based sale.
Once you know what your sales team structure looks like, the next step is to devise a reward system that encourages each team member to overachieve in their role. Compensation schemes can be tricky to design so here are two tips:
– keep them close to your company strategy,
– make them as simple as possible to understand.
Now it is time to hire your top team. A simple hiring process will pay off as you are likely to have to interview a good number of candidates to find the very best. The following guide will help designing it.
– Use an agency to do pre-selection or do it yourself. The main advantage of using an agency is time savings. You may well have to go through 100 cv s or more so let the agency do the job and it will save you a lot of precious time. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you know everything there is to know about your business. (Hiring the best means you will have to sell the job role to the candidate you want)
– Have a clear role description. You can share a role description with candidates/agencies. Include key responsibilities (use numbers where possible), role scope, location, benefits, why your company exists, how it works and what is sells. It is good to state what experience you seek in candidates’ track record.
– Define the hiring steps and time frames such as: 1) CV review, 2) Telephone/Skype interview, 3) F2F interview with CEO, 4) Decision.
– Have a set of similar questions for each candidate to avoid going by gut feel only. Stay with role specific questions like: “Tell me about your best sale to date. How did you go about it?”
– Ask for proof of previous sales successes. Commission statements are a great way to validate a candidate’s past successes.
Once you have made successful job offers, there are three strategies to keep your team fired up and motivated:
– Knowledge: Keep building the team’s product and market knowledge. Your customers see them as experts in their field
– Skills: Whilst the best sales people have a very special talent, most must learn and develop their sales skills in prospecting, engaging prospects, needs discovery, product presentation and closing skills.
– Attitude: Personal motivation, passion and drive are just three elements of what creates the right attitude for successful sales people. Keep feeding their passion for the company cause.
There are a lot of considerations as you move forward with building a sales team from the ground up, but it’s worth taking the time to develop a plan that will take you forward. Following the above steps and honestly evaluating whether you’re ready to start building your sales team, will help to ensure that your is positioned for maximum growth.
I have built successful sales teams in the past and am very happy to share my experience whether you sell traditional goods or state of the art service solutions.
Gert Scholts +4438010170
Winning is a habit and that is exactly what highly motivated teams are all about. The various strategies to motivate team ensures that the team members are ways ready to push their boundaries. There is a common cause, team members know why, what is expected of them and everybody knows how they are progressing. The team members support each other to achieve and are having great fun on the way to continued success. It is fabulous being on the receiving end too in whatever capacity. The customer experience is second to none. Stuff gets done! A highly motivated team consists of individuals who have their own specific drivers to make it happen day in, day out. The strategies to motivate team, in general, gives people the required nudge to achieve the set targets. An effective manager knows these drivers and uses them to keep performance high. Here are 5 simple strategies every leader should consider when building a highly motivated team.
Team members need to know the scope and purpose of their roles as well as the overall purpose of the organisation they contribute to. Strategies to motivate the team makes the team members aware of their responsibilities. Here are some questions they would need answering to perform:
Everybody in the team deserves the best tools and training to perform in their role and strategies to motivate team works towards that end. Relevant product training, process training and skills training are all strong motivators and enablers to top performance. It shows the leader is serious about investing in the team and its members. I recommend we make the knowledge gathering fun and an experience never to forget. Good training is not an just an event.
At one time, we were all very young at heart, and life was full of fun. Why should work be any different? When you play together, you stay together. One of the sales teams I work with came to life when we repackaged cold calling activity to a dress-up day themed “From Arctic to Equator”. Every completed call warmed us up a bit. It was great fun and the team were motivated to perform. To that end, it is important to note that strategies to motivate team need not follow a given pattern. Any pattern which might be fulfilling the need can be made use of.
I call this the “Sat Nav” for teams. Sat Nav is great in the car. Type in your destination and off you go. along with useful, motivating information on the way like ETA, average speed and suggested alternative routes. Team members will get motivation from knowing how well they are doing and how far there is to go. Thus providing feedback become essential. Charts, chats, ringing the sales bell or a flash email all helps. 121s are perfect too,
yet remember: “praise in public, reprimand in private”
Success is infectious for teams. Celebrating and recognising individual team and customer success is a huge motivator for all in the team. It pulls everyone forward to more success. One team I work with celebrates every time a customer says: “wow, you guys deliver fab customer service!” Lead your team using these strategies and their motivation will rocket. So will their results. Every team should help driving the whole business forward. I’ve known Gert Scholts for many years. If you want a high performance sales team, he is your man!
gert.scholts@thebestsalescoach.co.uk
#attitude #belief #winning #why #how #what #performance #emotionalstrategy #intellect
How often have you seen a sales job advertised where the essence of the job has been left out?
Where is the WHY, the very unique reason the company exists for its customers?
I know great sales people will be attracted when they find core inspiration in the advertised role. They want to read statements like this:
John Chuck started Fishbone in 1983 because he believed there was a different way to prepare sea fruit. He invented the unique seapikker making life much easier for food processor staff.
We are as passionate about this today as he was when he risked everything and started his own business. Our fun and focused no nonsense approach to business is as fresh as our food.
Sales people want to be part of the founder’s dream and make it happen too, no matter how many free “Friday Fridges”, “Fitness Clubs” or pension schemes are on offer.
Come on recruiters and HR professionals; tap into sales people’s passion for the company cause, recruit them and they will perform without the need for endless training sessions, drawn out performance reviews and micro management.
Needless to say that you also want clear evidence of past sales success.
These sales people are not easy to find and certainly worth the wait.
#recruitingsalesmen #motivation #Why #SimonSinek #Motivation #Training #salesteammotivation #salesteammanagement
