How to recruit sales talents who can create results (essay materials

The Myth of Recruiting Experienced Salespeople

When most companies recruit salespeople, the main criterion is usually to see whether the candidate has many years of sales experience in the same field. and a proven track record of sales performance.

However, if you think about it carefully, you will find that these are not the key factors to measure whether a salesperson will perform well.

In fact, a key reason here is that the market we are dealing with is constantly changing every day. You'll notice: Customers are becoming more knowledgeable and demanding Competition is becoming more intense The products or services you sell are becoming more complex

In some markets, Changes within 5 years can be dramatic and beyond expectations.

So if you hire based on past experience, how do you know that what worked in the past will work in the future? The same factor may have brought you success in the past, but it doesn’t. You can guarantee that it will be the same today and in the future.

So, you may ask: What about a good sales performance record? Of course, if a salesperson has stable and excellent sales performance, he may still continue to create excellent sales performance.

But, unfortunately: unlike many other professions, sales is a profession where you have to deal with failure before you can be tempered into a successful salesperson. No successful salesperson can claim that he/she has never been rejected by a customer or that he/she has never lost a piece of business. In fact, as in many negotiations, good salespeople know when to "give up" and look for other, better prospects, while failed salespeople spend too much time working with prospects who will never make the purchase. of customers.

So if you see a salesperson who seems to have a "perfect" sales performance record, meaning they always meet or exceed their sales goals, in a sense it could be: Selling in a monopolistic market environment, that is, consumers have no other choice but to buy from a specific salesperson. Entering the market at a relatively early stage and gaining the largest customer base in the market. Sales are A brand that already has a good image and sells to the brand's existing loyal customers does not require a lot of effort to convince them to buy.

However, the above statement does not mean that having relevant experience and a good performance record are not important in evaluating a salesperson. Just saying that having a few years of sales experience and a strong track record is not an indication of what future performance will be like.

The Critical Behaviors that Drive Sales

Key practices to improve sales

When companies always focus on sales numbers to determine the success or failure of their sales teams, In fact, most of the time it is the sales process (for example, how you sell) that determines the sales results you obtain. How good your sales process is depends largely on the habits and sales practices of each salesperson.

Different companies will have different sales processes for different customers purchasing different product lines in different regions. Therefore, the key practices for successful sales are different for different situations. The sales process that the company should have can include:

1. Only sell to those customers for strategic partnership, (then) the sales staff must establish complex relationships to make all customers in the internal organization of the customer company Levels of people are buying from you.

2. Continuously develop new sales opportunities and allow new customers to continue to purchase

3. Find a balance between new business development and existing key account management , sales staff can not only enable newly developed customers to purchase from them, but also prevent existing customers from being lost.

In reality, the sales process can become much more complex because different customers in different markets have different needs and different methods of meeting their requirements. When you're not sure what sales process your next salesperson should adopt, here are some key practices that apply to most sales processes (and are most lacking among most salespeople): Continuously develop new customers, Make sure your sales pipeline remains full. For most salespeople, no matter how experienced they are, they prefer doing business with existing customers rather than finding new ones. However, if a salesperson uses standardized practices to try to acquire new prospects, this actually indicates good sales habits. Continuously explore customers' "pain points" or the problems they face, and actively look for solutions and suggestions and provide them to customers to help them solve those challenges and problems. Make sure to build relationships with all key influencers within the client's company, rather than relying solely on your friendship with one person. Moreover, salespeople who can do this are often able to establish better relationships with less influential people to gain more customer "intelligence." Learn from mistakes and customer rejections and strive to improve next time. When a client is no longer worth the time and effort, it's also a good idea to know when to give up and spend your time finding new and better clients.

So, when you are interviewing your candidates, you can try to start with the following questions: "If I am a potential customer and you want to do business with me, then you What would be the first way to get in touch with me?” (Role-play and ask the candidate what he or she normally does) “What will make your customers buy from you instead of from Where are other people? Why don’t some other customers buy from you?” (Note: If the candidate gives a general answer, such as “because I provide a good service”, then dig deeper and ask him/ What is her good service?) “Typically, how many people do you need to communicate with before you get a sale? Can you give an example of where you need to go through a lot of contact before you get a sale? How can a sale be made through collaboration and communication between people?" (If necessary, ask the candidate to draw an organizational chart of his client) "Is there an example where you thought you might have made a sale, but somehow in the end it didn't happen? Didn’t get it? What do you think you can learn from examples like this?” (Note, some very confident candidates will tell you that they know their customers very well) “Are there situations where you had to give up a sales opportunity? ? How would you reject the customer if you encountered this situation?" (Be careful of those who always claim "I will never give up on any transaction!" This is actually a sign of unclear priorities)

Developing Competent Sales People

Developing Competent Sales People

The strange thing is: most candidates may not be able to answer the above questions you asked during the interview. Give an answer that satisfies you. Even the salespeople the company already had couldn't give a good answer. (Otherwise sales consultants like us will soon be unemployed!)

Then the next question will be: If we set the bar so high that few candidates can really Does performing as expected of us mean we shouldn't hire these people?

Of course not! In fact, key practices like these can be taught and learned. In fact, high-performing salespeople spend their careers learning how to become high-performing salespeople. Only a very small percentage of high-performing salespeople are "born" to know how to sell and to be good at it.

So, while most candidates are unlikely to know the key practices that will help you grow sales, you can select candidates who understand some, if not all, of them, as well as those who want and are willing to Candidates who learn some new ways to improve their sales results. Such salespeople are sure to be successful in the near future.

Some companies are unwilling to invest time, energy, and money in developing their newly hired salespeople. There are several reasons for this:

1. "We expect new sales recruits to have immediate and outstanding performance, so we will recruit based on their experience!"

2. “We don’t have the time or resources to support salespeople who don’t perform well.”

3. “If we teach them too much, they’ll probably turn around and help us.” Competitors (serve our rivals)”

In fact, these companies have realized that if they can recruit sales people who can produce good sales results immediately, they do not need to have any formality. training or coaching. This is indeed very good. However, there are very few salespeople like this in the market, and even if they can be recruited, they usually demand a very high salary package. Regardless, since previous experience and sales performance tracking are never a guarantee of success, companies can train and develop their newly hired salespeople into key sales habits and competencies.