InterviewMarketing

How to Hire Sales and Marketing Rep

An organization starts with a founder and with his goals, mission, and an idea. An idea can change your life is the age-old adage. Same works well with the company. As this seed called idea gets nourished and fleshed out, other employees like marketing and sales rep come on ship and starts the journey. Eventually, a glimmer in visionary’s eye becomes a real product and gets ready to sell.
But the big question lies, who is going to sell? It’s the company’s sales or marketing executives who are tasked with building a demand for the product from the start. But gradually a dedicated sales rep becomes a necessity.
Then who is that salesperson whom you choose is an incredible decision you make. These representatives, unlike others, need to possess certain unique traits.  These might not be an easy task and they are not easily determined in the market.

Big mistakes of Entrepreneurs

As all this goes a while, recruiter thinks that you are sinking all this money in the hands of hire and plans to keep waiting for a while. But till when? They plan to improve the cash flows first and promote the super-smart assistant.
If this idea of recruiting a marketing or sales rep freaks you out, this article will unravel all those things which you want to learn. First things first, Mistakes are the stepping stone for success, isn’t it? Hence we will see what are the three mistakes generally entrepreneurs do when hiring a sales rep. Gradually, move on to the fixing those problems.

  • The first big mistake entrepreneurs think is they can do it by all themselves. Even though you are a gifted person, it is a time-consuming process. This makes you focus less on strategic planning and taking utmost care f your staff. This hinders you of dreaming about the next significant thing.
  • Waiting too long to hire a sales rep. Hiring a salesperson is like a major investment to the company. As a result, you procrastinate it to the next quarter. But good sales or marketing rep pay quickly and for themselves. Before dwelling further, take a seat and ask

How long does it take to make the first transaction with this targeted company? Jot down those responses and sales cycles period. Now, determine how a sales rep hiring process can. For most of the business, it takes only 90 days time. Consequently, congratulate yourself you now have an appropriate timeline for hiring a marketing rep. No more excuses please, carry on and hire a sales rep.

  • Hire someone from in-house. You may be thinking as to why not go for moving your super-smart staff over to sales? This super-staffer knows your business insights. You can train him. Here is where the unique talents won’t work. The best talent is not trained, they are hired.

The reason is excellent salespeople migrate to selling. If your super-staffer is a talented resource, they start selling it instead of a prompt. They can’t resist waiting. If this person is not selling look somewhere else.
Come out of those mistakes, make your baby steps in finding the perfect sales rep.

How to proceed with the hiring process and rectify the mistakes

Define roles and responsibilities

Clearly develop and write the job description. Analyze your current position and what you require to offload. Do you need a hunter, who gets new clients instead of growing the existing ones or for other effective roles like

  • performing cost analysis
  • Maintaining positive relationships
  • Ensure profitable future sales
  • Writing proposals etc.

Understand the needed skill sets. start by ranking them and ask interview questions based on these skill sets. The key skills you need to look out are

  • Prospecting skills
  • Negotiating skills
  • Industry contacts
  • Listening and time management skills
  • Questioning and answering skills
  • Ability to endure rejection
  • Education and technology or CRM experience

Gather this information and use it to generate a complete job description that you can share and use in hiring efforts.

Examine your sales approaches

Are you ready to hire? then you might have probably acquired some potential customers. It may come from previous business contacts. By now, you got some idea of what it takes to make a perfect sales in regards to customers buyer personas, experiences, and interests. It makes your first sale successful. Make a list of what is that you require. Edit and have some specifications such as understanding the core of manufacturing processes. Gain some experience in selling to large corporations.

Ascertain compensation range

Do you have the right compensation plan in your mind? Ensure to have one and don’t make it too complicated. Depending on the length of the period of sales, the business owner determines the split between the basic pay and variable pay. Includes both bonuses and commission. The general motto is the sales percentage depends on the cycles. The shorter the duration the smaller the percentage. The basic pay is always relative to total compensation.
Do you know, what is the motivation behind the increase in sales?

It’s the compensation.

Hence, figure out the compensation to meet the goals and sales quotas. If it is all the way a new profile you need a sharp pencil and a calculator in hand. Estimate the percentage of sales a rep can comfortably reach and close each week. Calculating per week quota makes you gauge sales more practically than monthly or annually.
At the time of the interview, state this compensation so that, the sales rep will be considering it as an added advantage. Include even the higher range if the same rep achieves the goals or exceeds the quota range.

Ask for a sample presentation

Once you have narrowed down the list your candidates should have a thorough plan of how they would pitch the sales. A 30 or 60 or 90 days plan is recommended to be in hand. If they are hired, they will definitely approach this new position. Do this for all your sales hires even if they are new to this role. See how they match the presentations and sales recipe, that you already developed. Identify the differences if any. These presentations may generate some new ideas that haven’t spring to your mind.

Decide the location

It is not at all an easy task to find the best sales rep. They have to be a go-getter who goes to the people and pitches in some sales. It might seem to be a tempting task to look into job portals. But never do that biggest mistake ever. Everyone doesn’t have that moxie to sell. Attend meetings and observe professional who are in action. Seek out for those people who outshined socially. These are the right fit and a better schmoozer.

Never underestimate the power of existing employees. They serve as a referral source. Pay referral bonus if required. Even social networking sites like LinkedIn can solve this issue. Here are some of the common characteristics of an unbeaten hustler

  • Backed by charm and charisma in selling
  • Outstanding communication skills
  • Competitive nature and a compassionate worker

Don’t forget your immediate network, that is the best place to hunt for.

Determine how productivity works

The best recipe for successful sales. As a sales manager, you need to prioritize the productivity of sales. This is the key criteria, and overall health of a business depends on it. This takes into account various mix and quantity of behaviours. This can increase the revenue for a firm. The sales rep has to work hard to increase sales productivity. They have to concentrate on becoming more effective as time grows. So have leading metrics and project that in networking meetings. Then determine the time and quantity expected for attaining this productivity. Ask relevant questions based on achieving this productivity at the time of interview.

Always switch-on the recruiting mode

Outbound recruiting is similar to outbound sales. Identify the prospective customers, qualify them and go for the close of the sales. If you don’t get at the first step, go on relentlessly ting to pitch the sales.
And if you don’t try to start looking for the right customers until and unless you really need them, you will land in big trouble. Similarly, don’t wait to strike the right balance of hiring. Hit the ground when it is wet. Start recruiting. If you start today, a list of highly-professional candidates can be found. Like sales, recruiting is a continuous process. Start brewing today, for tomorrow’s success. If you follow this, there won’t be any crunches at all.

Conclusion

Great products, execution, and strategies all outperform the companies sales. Your best hire is responsible for making this. With a strong team, a company can outgrow its customers. Hiring is especially important for developing strong marketing and sales functions. But, Most of the startup companies stuck at hiring the right sales rep. They either take the step too early or too late. Too passively or too aggressively. At last end-up in recruiting the wrong candidate. With the above steps, it can’t be a tiresome process and business people can choose the right fit.  

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