How To Get The Right Sales Leaders and Top Performers on Board
The key to a successful sales team is having the right people. This means having salespeople who are well-trained, knowledgeable about their role, and who have the right attitude, character, and skills to succeed.
As a global executive and top talent search firm, H.I. Executive Consulting (HIEC) is constantly looking for people who can fill sales roles for our clients and understand how to grow and win in the digital economy. This is a challenging task, as it is rare to find someone who brings all the right skills at the right time. When we see someone who meets most of our criteria, we take the opportunity to bring that person into our business network.
Through our many years of experience in executive searches, we have developed a keen sense of finding the right people for the right jobs at the right time and getting them excited about new assignments. One focus, as mentioned earlier, is the search for salespeople and leaders who understand and embrace the new processes and tools of the digital sales world.
In short, we constantly keep our ear to the ground and our eyes open for new opportunities on behalf of our clients. This is a key component for us to recruit high-performing and successful sales leaders and top performers.
Finding the right talent can be a time-intensive process and should start before they are needed
Building a sales team is different than building any other team because it's not just about hiring the right people to sell your product. It's also about figuring out if they're the right person in terms of your company culture, and if they're capable of doing what's needed and have the right attitude and mindset to get results.
An important part of our process is to find out where our client, the company, is at this point in time and what it needs to do to be successful. We examine the fit between product and market and how new buying habits, as well as technological advances, are changing the way potential buyers are shaping their buying process today. Then we determine which teams are best positioned to execute these sales tasks. Once we have determined these points, our clients can assess where their teams currently stand or what new people and skills still need to be sought.
Questions related to candidates:
#1: Do they have the right skills?
#2: Are they motivated?
#3: Are they willing and able to go the extra mile?
#4: What potential do they have for the future journey?
#5: Do they "walk the talk"?
#6: Are they accepted and respected leaders?
#7: Do they "team-up?"
#8: Are they willing to develop, learn and improve?
#9: And finally: Does this person fit my product and my company?The sooner we start with an evaluation of our customer's current situation and we can start recruiting the necessary people in sales, the more likely we are to avoid bottlenecks and staff shortages, especially when non-performing employees have to be replaced. Hiring new staff and replacing existing one’s costs money, and emotions, which are then lacking for the core business. Those who permanently face up to this task and make talent recruitment an operational function usually save themselves trouble, negative energies and loss of time.
So, when building and growing a sales team, as we can see, planning is essential. You need to make sure you know your customer base and your competitors intimately, and that you've taken the right approach to attracting and retaining people who fit your company culture. Research shows that an efficient, effective hiring process is a very important factor in improving sales productivity and profitability.
Building a strong and most cohesive sales team can be complicated because there are so many pieces to the puzzle... but we can help.
Talk to us. We look forward to hearing from you.
Lucas Schellenberg
Global Managing Partner
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