Guide to Building an Effective Sales Team.

Pareto Law: The authority on sales, no less, since 1995.

GUIDE

When it comes to growing and developing your business, the foundational piece of the puzzle will always be your sales force. Adding to sales headcount, improving performance and ultimately generating more sales are essential for driving business growth. But just what is the recipe for a world-class sales team?

Our guide explores the five key core ingredients needed to mix up your perfect sales team, helping you to translate ambiguous business objectives into concrete steps required to drive sales excellence.

STEP ONE: EVALUATE, ANALYSE, ASSESS.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS.

The first step is to figure out where we are now. Sales needs analysis can take the form of a comprehensive assessment to measure current skill levels and identify behavioural gaps within your team; alternatively, it could be as simple as asking yourself a few questions:

• How many sales people do you have and how many do you need? • What is your approach to generating and closing sales? Short-term one-off sales opportunities or long-term and strategic account management? • How do you sell? Do your sales people close the deal face-to-face or over the phone, or is the majority of selling done by the customer through mail order or online? • How are your sales team performing, both at team and individual level? Do you have stronger performers who are carrying the weight of those not delivering on targets? • If there are skill gaps or areas of underperformance, are these due to the individual, or perhaps insufficient training or poor processes?

Once you have an idea of where you stand, you can map out specifically where it is you want to go. The creation of succession plans and clear competency frameworks will ensure that when it comes to creating and training your perfect sales team, you know exactly what it is you’re looking for.

It’s clear that when it comes to hiring your sales people, quality over quantity is paramount. So when you start looking, consider the following criteria and means for fishing out the best:

• Internal. They know the company, they know the market. Could the best people already be right under your nose?

• Product knowledge/industry experience: It’s often regarded as a fail-safe and will see many managers look straight to the employment history, but in reality, it could simply be narrowing your options to a very small pool of candidates. Those who excel in the world of sales will usually have transferrable skills and thrive in any given industry or environment:

the ‘wildcards’ of the recruitment process, they may not have the experience you’re looking for, but will deliver the results regardless. Consider stepping outside your comfort zone and casting a wider net. • Employee referrals. As Richard Branson observed, personality counts for a lot in the hiring process, and in the world of sales, is arguably a foundational requirement. A CV gives you the credentials: employees can give insight into the real-life personality of your potential recruits, a quality that is hard to determine even at the interview stage.• Gut feel: Many may regard it as a cliché, but never underestimate the power of your own experience

and gut. You know your business, your current team, you know your product and industry: you know what you’re looking for. There’s a reason why most CVs receive just 7 seconds of attention and many decisions to employ are made within the first 5 minutes of interview.

The Right People: A CV never tells the full story. When it comes to reviewing applications, every salesperson has ‘smashed target’, ‘increased revenue’ and ‘delivered results’. You won’t find anyone admitting to missing target or ‘getting fired’ on paper; in reality, a CV is just the contents page, and can only hint at the bigger picture. What’s more, references in a modern-day business market can offer little help: in an increasingly P.C. environment, previous employers are now bound as to how much information they can relay, placing themselves at risk of being sued should any information backfire in the application process. With so much red tape, how can you avoid committing a ‘hiring howler’ and trust that the person you are bringing in is the ‘right one’?

STEP TWO: THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT PLACES.

When it comes to hiring sales people, the process is two-fold. First, you need to find the right people for the job. Then, you need to ensure they’re in the right places.

“You will not be successful unless you have prospectors prospecting, closers closing, and inbound lead qualifying done by people in a dedicated qualifying role. If you do that, usually companies triple how fast a qualified leadis generated.” – Aaron Ross, author of the bestselling book ‘Predictable Revenue.’

• Track record: It may appear that your potential recruits have a great track record, but consider what you would do if a sales superstar tried to leave your payroll: you would fight hammer tooth and nail to hold onto them. If your recruit has a track record of ‘smashing target’ in organisation after organisation, alarm bells should ring.

• Network and passive recruitment: The introduction of LinkedIn has taken networking to another level, but the fundamental concept is no less valuable. Don’t rely on the active market alone: the best talent may already be within your professional network and not realise they want a new opportunity, until you offer it to them. As outlined above, the best people rarely move: they need incentivising.

• Professional associations: If you operate in a niche market and your sales people require a certain degree or skill set, it can help to look to the professional associations linked to that area.

• Online advertising: Proceed into the online market with caution. It won’t help your cause to push out adverts everywhere and accumulate a towering stack of CVs; consider posting on specialised job boards tailored to sales or your industry.

• Head-hunters and agencies: The price tag tends to be a cause for shying away, but never underestimate the return on investment by bringing in an external expert, particularly if you can’t spare the resources internally or your business needs are specific. They are practiced in sourcing exactly the right people to match the needs and culture of a range of businesses, and can save you time, money and reduce the risk of investment.

If you have a pattern of hiring average guns, it’s important to review how you’re missing out on the top guns. Is your industry simply recycling the same small pool of mediocre performers, passing them back and forth? It’s time to consider what makes a top sales person and cast a wider net: and consider what makes a top sales person join YOU.

If you are coming up short on recruiting middle-level sales talent, the introduction of an organically-grown sales development programme could be the answer. Bringing in entry-level talent who are developed, trained and moulded in your business image will produce tailor-made sales people who are experts in your product. As they grow with the business, they provide the best experience and background to step into management, delivering a greater long-term return on your recruitment investment. Broaden your potential pool by re-vamping your recruitment model and taking a long-term approach to growing your sales

team: look to raw sales talent with the core competencies to become sales leaders of the future.

The Right Places: There is an abundance of job titles in the sales sphere, yet almost all will typically come under one of the four key steps of selling: • Prospecting• Qualifying• Closing• Retaining

If you have a small sales force and need ‘all-rounders’ who can step up to the different challenges presented by each area of the sales cycle, it’s vital you recruit the right people at the outset and train them according. For the larger business, it helps to have individuals placed in a specific role where they can develop skills suited to their personality and ability. Adopt a flexible approach to re-structuring your sales team should individuals demonstrate particular competence within a specific area.

STEP FOUR: MANAGE A vital component for sales team success is an effective management structure. Sales managers drive motivation, ensure accountability and are

responsible for creating a culture of excellence that will breed results. However, the best sales people don’t necessarily make the best managers: though progression is essential to personal development, not every sales person is made for management.

Consider recruiting sales managers with experience, or providing internal applicants with specialised training to equip them with the unique skills required to manage successfully. They should demonstrate knowledge and experience across all areas of the sales cycle and be able to engage with the challenges your sales people face. The very best managers are coaches: hands-on and fully integrated into their teams, they

have those barriers or tasks that traditionally steal time removed, enabling them to spend time with their teams. Review their performance regularly and ensure role responsibilities are well-defined.

• Internal or external? You are the experts on your product, but when it comes to the soft skills required to sell, do you have the resources or expertise to equip your sales people with what they need?

• A process, not an event: Training shouldn’t be considered a one-off initiative at the beginning of a new role; a programme that seeks to continually up-skills your sales force and returns to evaluate progress will address skill gaps and prevent underperformers from slipping through the net.

• Results-focused: Give your training a set of outcomes and measure against those objectives. If you simply train and forget, you have no way of determining if that training has been successful.

• Accreditation and review: Too many delegates switch off during training sessions and fail to implement their learning. Introducing an accreditation element will engage your sales people, ensuring they translate those skills into the workplace and are afforded recognition of their success. Review progress regularly and re-train or supplement where skill gaps occur.

An induction is not the same as training. One introduces the new employee to the business and market, their team and superiors, gives them insight into the product and shows them where the coffee machine is. Training develops those skills necessary to perform, equipping your new recruits with practical tools for prospecting, negotiating, getting past the gatekeeper, closing a sale and more. Research shows that new recruits demonstrate higher levels of productivity and performance when undertaking a structured training programme. So when developing training for your sales team, consider:

STEP THREE: INDUCTION, TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT.

A WINNING TEAM

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A world-class sales team requires continual review and development. Building a winning team, like training, can not be considered a one-off process: like the industry itself, it requires on-going investment to ensure success. However, with these five steps in mind, you can be confident in laying the best possible foundation for results.

The introduction of target boards, visible records of sales made or leads generated all play to the competitive nature of sales and increase motivation. Celebration and recognition of bringing in a sale or nailing a pitch are also essential. Review incentive packages annually and consider alternatives to cold hard cash. Holidays, vouchers, gifts, ad-hoc rewards or a company car for a month: all mix up the benefit boat and help success.

In addition, recognition should take the form of progression and development of the individual, ensuring they continue to feel valued and can see their career progressing. Salary reviews, movement up in the business and investing in accreditation, training and development at both internal and external level will avoid feelings of boredom or complacency that can quickly develop into job dissatisfaction, poor performance and high staff turnover.

STEP FIVE: REWARD AND RECOGNISE

As a profession, sales has the highest rate of staff turnover of any area of business. Countless rejections from prospects, long hours, tough targets and slow periods in the marketplace can all impact results. Offering an incentive package is standard practice but in a competitive market where head-hunters are liable to whisk your top performers away at a moments notice, a nice car or a quarterly bonus is rarely enough.

Recognition of success should be a transparent affair and combine financial reward with personal acknowledgment from senior management. In addition, it is important to remember – especially in the early days – that success can’t be measured by the number of sales alone, and productivity or activity deserves recognition also. Newcomers will concentrate their early days on building a pipeline of prospects and can quickly become demoralised if the more experienced members are seeing all the rewards. Equally, it can become easy for senior members of sales teams to hide behind repeat business: incentivising activity could motivate increased productivity levels.