How To Build A Strong Sales Team And Set

Yourself Up For SuccessEric Heidt

Building a business is hard. Building a strong and successful business is even harder. Where do you begin? Which positions should you fill first? You will eventually need a Chief

Financial Officer and Vice President of Operations; however, according to a recent

article featured on Entrepreneur.com, one of the first specializations you need to focus on is Sales. Sales drive a company’s growth, so during the initial stages of building your

business, adding to or improving your existing sales staff is essential.

The article is broken up into three parts: !

1. Evaluating Your Sales Force

2. Measuring Sales Productivity

3. Hiring Salespeople

Evaluating Your Sales Force !

Ask yourself this – what do you want your sales team to do for you? It’s important to ask yourself this

question because if you don’t know what you want your ideal team to look like, how you want it to

function, etc., then chances are you’re going to have a tough time hiring said sales team. Dig deep and

come up with a clear concept. Once you do, measure your existing team’s productivity – check their

performance against the requirements. If you decide that you are content with your existing department, you may still want to look into additional/on-going training. You may also decide that although you’re

happy with your current department size, you want different people filling the positions. The key is to

not lose sight of your concept while you’re evaluating.

Measuring Sales Productivity !

Measuring your team’s productivity by the actual dollar amount each salesperson brings in is the

simplest way. In addition to that, it’s really easy to come up with a figure. “Just divide the volume of

sales by the number of salespeople on staff [and that will give you] the average sales productivity figure and let you know how the average salesperson in

your organization is doing”. However, keep in mind that although this data will give you a general

overview, it won’t give you an accurate representation of each individual salesperson. There is always the possibility that some are working more

than others and are; therefore, carrying the less productive team members. Due to this, it may be

more helpful to find out how each individual team member is doing compared to the average.

Of course there is more to sales productivity than the mere dollar amount being generated.

It’s also important to look into the types of sales that are being made. Are your

salespeople making false promises? Are they perhaps selling a multitude of product but at

the cost of poor customer service? Keep in mind that the quality of sales directly affects your team’s sales productivity and thus, their

metrics.

Hiring Salespeople !

Clearly, there is the right person and the wrong person for the job. Therefore, the article stresses that it is important to understand, that “there may not be

any truly bad salespeople. There may just be good salespeople in the wrong positions”. This is why it is necessary to have a clear picture of the role you are trying to fill – know your ideal candidate. Once you do, there are multiple ways to find your candidates:

Look internally Encourage employee referrals Check with your local college

Work with headhunters Engage social media Try online advertising

Lastly, the article reminds the reader that as your business grows, your sales team

will need to grow right along with it. After all, the bigger your sales team, the bigger

your generated sales will be.