Your sales team is the foundation of revenue generation for your business. Their talent, skills, and aptitude are the primary determinant of your overall sales performance.
The best sales strategies, leads, and products are of no value to you without the right team to bring in new business. Hiring people with the right skills and, more importantly, the right attitude, is critical.
Here are three tools you NEED for successful hiring courtesy of the Sales Arbiter experts.
1- A detailed job description with specific expectations
Start by establishing a comprehensive set of needs and expectations for the new position. These expectations should be clear to you and to any prospective applicants.
It is a good idea to include a “day in the life” description of the job. This gives potential applicants a precise picture of what the work entails, preventing misunderstandings or dissonance about expectations.
Starting the search process with a clear picture of your ideal applicant makes the task of hiring more efficient and effective. This strategy allows you to search only for the skills, experience, and personality traits that match the position.
Good potential fits for the position make a quick rise to the top while those who are not sort themselves out of your applicant pool.
Sometimes an applicant might be “good on paper” but in practice, the job isn’t a good fit for them. You save time for both you and the applicant by making the job description as detailed as possible.
2 – A comprehensive compensation system
Compensation isn’t everything when it comes to job satisfaction, but it’s an important part.
There are two key reasons it’s important to be straightforward about compensation.
One, you want applicants to see a direct link between compensation and their job performance. An effective compensation system incentivizes quality work from your team. Keep the structure simple so applicants and current team members are clear about their priorities.
The second reason is to prevent disappointment down the road. It’s tempting to play up the benefits of a position, but don’t make any promises you don’t intend to keep.
The last thing you want is to have a high-performing team member burn out a few months in because their expectations of success weren’t realized.
Keep your compensation system simple and directly tied to business objectives. You want it to be something a 12-year-old could understand.
3 – A process for them to assume their new duties with ease
Before you put up job postings, start thinking about how to onboard your new hire.
Once you’ve found the right fit, you want them on the team and at full capacity as soon as possible.
You want your new hire to know what to do from day one. Confusion leads to frustration. Make sure you’ve considered the details of the training and positioning the new hire.
In short, build the ideal position for the ideal applicant.
Put these tools into practice to ensure you find the right applicant and bring them onto your team without any slowdowns or issues.
Remember:
People, not processes, create sales success.
