Sales Hiring Managers and their firms face the dual challenge of successfully recruiting and training a top-performing sales team while meeting ongoing business and revenue goals. Marie Warner has authored articles with tips and techniques to help with these critical objectives:
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Best sales interview questions and sales behavioral interviewing
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Successful sales recruiting
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Sales Forecasting Accuracy
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Sales Territory Planning
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Prospecting, Cold Calling and Gaining Access to Decision Makers
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Selling out of an Economic Slump
In addition to these authored articles, links to useful Sales Recruiting, Sales Training, and Sales Process Management sites are provided.
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Sales Recruiting and Management
As a Vice President of Sales with experience spanning over two decades, I hired, trained and led over a dozen national, regional, strategic, telesales and industry sales teams. I now realize - and wished I had known then - that every top sales performer on my sales teams had five key qualities.
How can the hiring sales manager help ensure that the extensive effort and cost of recruiting a sales professional will result in adding a top sales performer to the sales team? One way is to improve your interviewing skills to include behavioral interviewing strategies.
Whether in a weak or strong economic market, finding and hiring superior sales talent remains a challenge. Yet I have found that many sales managers unknowingly sabotage their own recruiting efforts, setting their hiring clock back to zero. Here are four common mistakes I have witnessed that derail sales recruiting efforts, and send that scarce and valuable resource - the experienced, proven sales talent - off to work for another company.
How can the sales hiring manager interview to find winners so that your sales team isn't staffed with "cellar dwellers" - the non-performers from your competitor? The first step is to change your preliminary screening interviews.
A critical factor in your CRM success is to hire and develop Sales Reps who will embrace the CRM as one of their most valuable sales tools. Not every sales rep is comfortable with CRMs or with sales process and some will actively short-circuit your CRM, sales reporting and forecasting. How can you spot CRM-friendly sales reps and hire them to help you attain sales success? Here are some interviewing tips that will pinpoint CRM-savvy sales candidates. These questions employ behavioral interviewing techniques.
Sales Process Management
For Vice Presidents of Sales in technology firms, the pressure to hit revenue targets has never been greater. With reduced sales staff, and the demand to accurately forecast sales revenues quarterly, monthly (or even weekly), the top sales executive must feel like the lone sheriff in a final shoot-out with Billy the Kid.
Many sales organizations frequently redefine sales territories, at times changing sales rep assignments every other month. Not only does this damage revenue, it also destabilizes the customer and prospect relationship. None of your customers want a revolving door of new reps. It creates a climate of instability that slows sales and that your competitors will exploit.
The effective sales executive must aggressively push to meet the firm's long term goals, while nimbly changing course and swerving to avoid immediate pitfalls in tactical execution. I offer three guidelines for "victorious" sales management in the emerging growth company.
Selling Tips and Techniques
Will sales reps cold call - and learn to like it? Yes, if shown that cold calling is effective in gaining access to decision makers and Key Player executives. This prospecting technique that has been shown to have 84% effectiveness – What sales person wouldn’t use it?
It is very clear to anyone who sells for a living that selling technology, telecom or any complex product or service is fundamentally different now compared to just 12 months ago. The impact has been most severe on the sales of new products or services - whether these are sold to new or existing customers. Yet 35% of companies surveyed in the 4th quarter indicate budgets for purchase of products and services will increase next year. How can you be certain your deal survives?
Many sales organizations - perhaps yours is one of them - initiate their first sales contact to a prospect with an invitation to attend a webinar or web-based demo. This popular yet misguided sales activity is most likely a waste of sales effort, company resources and, worst yet, may ultimately result in a potential opportunity lost forever.
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