There is no denying that sales is the front line of your business. Without the right sales folks, there is no one to bring your product to those who need it. Do you make any money when your products aren’t making it out the door? No. If you have the wrong sales people, you may be really hurting your business. Here are a few tried and true steps for keeping your sales team on point.
Work with sales and marketing recruitment agencies
A career in sales is easy to stumble in to, but not necessarily easy to excel at. You want sales reps who are in the industry intentionally and understand just the finesse they need to sell your product. A sales staffing agency can weed out those who stumbled into luck in their last sales role and those who truly understand the tenants of being successful in sales. After all, if business stalls because of a bad sales team, that could cost your business 5 to ten times the base salary you are pay a sales person. Not to mention, finding the appropriate person for your company’s culture and industry can be tough. It’s worth investing in a search for the right fit.
The sales career path is long and windy
Unfortunately, more than a third of sales people leave their company within the first year of being there. Some of those people may be costing your business money in which case, no problem. However, when you have talented people exiting to make another company money, you have a problem. If you work with sales and marketing recruitment agencies, they can often offer training and sales management. This could be a way of telling your sales staff that you are invested in them so that they stick around!
Create structure for checking up
Some people will say that they love working independently but there is no reason to recreate the wheel every time you get a new hire. Create some structure, like giant white boards and big calenders, for your sales people to use. This will make their productivity visible to everyone and will create a culture of accountability. You might be surprised to know that around 20% of sales leads are ever followed on. You can cut down on some of that by creating a process to check up on whether or not your sales people are doing so.
If you aren’t doing all you can to build a good sales team, you are failing your business. A smile and a handshake can go a long way when it comes to sales. Keep your sales team happy, and you will be too! Sales and marketing recruitment agencies can help you find the positive faces that will take your business far.