Lead Generation + Lead Nurturing + Sales Execution for Small Business
EPOCH blog- everything marketing and sales alignment for small businesses


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Why Epoch?

ep⋅och               | ep-uhk, or ee-pok |

1. a period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics

·   the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something

2. a point of time distinguished by a particular event or state of affairs; a memorable date

About Teicko

Driven by my passion to see others succeed, I use my high energy, no nonsense style to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in achieving marketing and sales effectiveness beyond their wildest dreams.

Teicko Huber

I've Actually Read 'Em

Innovation Games book

Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play

Serious games provide an unparalleled platform for gaining insight into people, processes, systems, and structures. Oh, and they make business way more fun!

Courage: The Backbone of Leadership book

Courage: The Backbone of Leadership

Punk Marketing book

Punk Marketing

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball book

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball: Find and Sustain Your Life's Work [RULES OF THE RED RUBBER]

The Red Rubber Ball at Work book

The Red Rubber Ball at Work: Elevate Your Game Through the Hidden Power of Play [RED RUBBER BALL AT WORK]

Blue Ocean Strategy book

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant

 

Make Wining a Habit is one of my favorite pragmatics reads about complex selling. 

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How do I hire good sales people that provide an ROI?

Posted by Teicko Huber on Wed, Dec 16, 2009 @ 11:50 PM
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As a small business owner or CEO, you're given the challenge of trying to hire great salespeople. Actually, the word 'great' is probably not the adjective you would use to describe the ideal sales candidate. How about 'rock star salesperson?' Without the sex, drugs and rock and roll of course. All you want is for them to simply provide the best ROI for your small business as quickly as possible.

CHALLENGES OF HIRING SALES PEOPLE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Small Business Owners have little to no training in sales management

Entrepreneurs are experts at creating and seizing opportunities that lie before them. However, successful ongoing sales management requires a special skill set that likely needs to be acquired through proper training from a sales force development professional.

Most Business owners do not have a hiring process, thus they make critical mis-steps during the hiring process they pay for down the road. The effectiveness of a company's recruiting process determines the effectiveness and consistency of the sales organization. Sales processes must include (but are not limited to):

  • A Formal Recruiting Process
  • Candidate Pipeline (Bench Strength)
  • Sales Specific Pre-Employment Assessment (highly recommend www.objectivemanagement.com)
  • Use of Automation in the Sales Recruitment Process
  • Time Specific Start-Up Plan (60 days, 90 days, etc)

They have not defined the role of the salesperson in terms of daily, weekly and monthly expectations.

Most do not have good systems for accountability, coaching, and motivation in place, etc.

Rather than just holding salespeople accountable for their revenue targets, it's also your responsibility to make sure they are doing what is necessary on a daily basis to achieve your business objectives. I'm not referring to the negative connotation of 'micromanagement,' but the simple truth is, if you cannot measure the activity, it doesn't exist. 

Most Have Not Defined What They are Looking For....Herein Lies the Problem

Instead of advertising the responsibilities of the sales position in which you are hiring, you should describe the traits of the person you are looking to fill this coveted position. For example, you could ask questions in your job posting such as:

  • Are you consistently above your sales objectives month after month?
  • Has it become the norm that your family knows you take off for a few days a year to attend this thing called 'The Chairman's Club? 

It's been said you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But it's also true you can't teach someone to love the process of selling. It's either in in their blood, or it's not. You are the one that needs to make this determination, and if you miss the mark too often, your ROI could suffer greatly.
 
If you are not managing your sales team, you're sabotaging the rate at which you can see a return on your investment. Individual talent is not enough for you sales people to be effective.

Click Here if you would like to build a high performance sales team! 

 

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

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