One of the biggest challenges for businesses is deciding when and how to hire their first sales team. If you take an overly aggressive approach or fill roles with the wrong people, it can cause operational problems and hinder your sales and growth. However, failing to hire more people when you need them can keep you from experiencing the growth your company needs.
As long as you spend time and energy developing the proper process, you can set your business up for long-term success. These tips from Mindset for Success can help you start strong!
Evaluate Your Legal Structure and Business Name: First of all, as you add new people to your team, you’ll want to make sure you have the appropriate legal structure in place. For example, do you need to set up an LLC or a corporation? You won’t be able to expand your team without operating under the correct entity.
Also, consider creating a “doing business as” (DBA) name for your business. This could help your sales team and simplify adding new services or products to your offering because you will be able to service your customers under a different name. Plus, you can market your company under another name if there is no available domain.
Define Your Goals: Before starting the hiring process, ensure your company knows how many new customers you need to acquire to meet your growth goals. You should also determine how much you can afford to invest in sales resources to hit your goals; many companies pay about 15-25% gross profit to compensate for sales. You want to ensure that you maintain a healthy cash flow and can invest what you need back into your business at each stage.
Build Your Job Descriptions; As you begin to identify your business needs, you will need to create job descriptions based on them. Time to Hire notes that you must determine the qualifications, skills, and qualities candidates should demonstrate for each position.
For instance, are you hiring someone to make cold calls or primarily work out in the field? Will they be targeting new customers or developing new relationships with existing ones? After deciding what you need, look at online job boards to study job descriptions for similar roles; you can even use these descriptions as a template for your own.
Focus on the Details: Your job descriptions need to inform candidates about everything they need to know about the position. As Recruiting.com points out, they need to see the job title, who they will report to, and the minimum acceptable revenue for the first year. They will also need to know where their leads and customers will be located, whether they will need to travel, and any social media requirements they will need to meet.
Attract the Best Candidates: If you want to save your company a lot of pain and time in the hiring process, use the right job boards and be selective. With that said, it won’t hurt to speak to some candidates who don’t meet all of the criteria you’ve established. Try to keep your talent pool narrowed down to highly qualified salespeople to avoid building a team of people who fail to meet expectations. And if you’re thinking of improving company diversity, don’t let a culture gap be a barrier. There is information online to help with everything from best ways to provide payment to workers abroad to searching for a Korean translator.
Execute a Thorough Interview Process: Plan on spending a lot of time and effort on interviewing. Think about how much time and training resources you will need to use by firing someone and then hiring someone else and training them. Take each qualified candidate through several steps to determine who they are and how they can help your company reach its goals.
Thoroughly review resumes and cover letters, arrange a phone screening, and set up an in-person or virtual interview. You may then schedule additional interviews with a role-play element to see how they might respond in the workplace. Moreover, be sure to check references and evaluate how much interest each candidate has in the position.
Hiring your first sales team is an exciting new chapter. You want to make sure it goes smoothly and keeps your business in an excellent position to grow. Just remember to evaluate your business beforehand (including your business name), write great job descriptions, and give good interviews. Keep the tips above in mind as you prepare for the process, and keep learning other ways to build a healthy sales team that moves your company in the right direction!
You can reach the author At https://bizhelpcentral.com
Life coach and speaker Zoilita Grant of Mindset for Success uses her experience in the power of the mind to illustrate techniques to create a life with less stress and more meaning. Contact Zoilita today for more information! (303) 834.5040
