| In my experience great salespeople are grown. As a | | | | outlined in this article as well so they know what to |
| business owner with customer service and/or | | | | expect and set the various "stages" for mastery of |
| administrative staff you have a unique opportunity to | | | | the competencies that go with them as goals. These |
| 'grow' salespeople - however you need a process! | | | | are described below. |
| Assuming as an end result you want salespeople that | | | | 3) Hire them into the position and pay them a base |
| can prospect, qualify and close deals, here's a formula | | | | salary and provide them with an opportunity for 8-10 |
| for success that will require you to keep an open | | | | hours per week to prospect. Pay them a commission |
| mind. Because it is a process there is a beginning, | | | | for leads generated as a result of their prospecting |
| middle and an end. The beauty of it is that if you | | | | as well. Set weekly and daily prospecting goals with |
| want to continually grow a sales team you can just | | | | the and coach daily initially and then weekly. |
| continually repeat this process. | | | | 4) Gradually make the position more telemarketing |
| Now before we get to the actual steps of the | | | | oriented as they become more and more |
| process there are a points and a real world example. | | | | comfortable and successful. Simultaneously but rather |
| We all know that people learn things better when | | | | infrequently adjust base pay down by mutual |
| they are "chunked up". It's true even with the family | | | | agreement as hours allotted for telemarketing go up. |
| dog - which in our case is Pekinese. I spent a month | | | | 5) Create opportunities for them to go out of the |
| teaching it to jump up in the air to get a biscuit. Next | | | | office to networking affairs, trade shows and talks |
| month I taught him the proper way to beg. Here is | | | | to gather leads and follow up and turn leads over to |
| the part I did not tell you: he flunked dog school. | | | | outside sales. As before, continue to train on new |
| They tried to teach him too many things at once. | | | | skills/competencies needed for these new activities. |
| The only thing he learned how to do was play around | | | | Ride Alongs with you are very helpful for training |
| and play dead with the big dogs - not a recipe for | | | | purposes. A Ride Along is where you go with them |
| success. But it did keep the little fluff ball alive - a | | | | to a networking affair, for example, to demonstrate |
| competency many mediocre salespeople have | | | | how to network. |
| learned as well. Anyway, in terms of training | | | | 6) Have the new hire start making some face to |
| salespeople to be great salespeople, the same | | | | faces sales calls and begin to completely eliminate the |
| principles hold. To train the skills they must be | | | | administrative or customer service duties. Schedule |
| "chunked up". If this is not done, all you'll end up with | | | | Ride Alongs to some sales calls for training and |
| is someone who has survival instincts, but no Killer | | | | coaching purposes. Continue with weekly coaching |
| Instinct. So here is how you select and grow | | | | sessions in the office where you review prospecting |
| someone to greatness in sales! | | | | behaviors and results as well as call results. Coach |
| 1.) Start by finding an entry-level, money motivated | | | | them for better conversion ratios on their |
| person who will work in a position with a lot of | | | | prospecting and face-to-face selling activities. |
| interaction with customers such as customer service | | | | Role-play with them as well. |
| or administrative assistant. Make sure you assess | | | | 7) Completely eliminate any administrative or |
| your candidates to see that they have some | | | | customer service duties. Once this is done they |
| dominance in their personality style. There are lots of | | | | become a full fledged outside sales person. Adjust |
| good assessment tools available. DISC is one of the | | | | compensation accordingly. |
| best for this. | | | | Congratulate them - they made it and so did you! |
| 2.) Discuss the idea of advancement to Outside Sales | | | | You trained them and reduced your risk all at the |
| with them before you hire them. Make sure they are | | | | same time. That's it-that's how you do it. The |
| committed to eventually being in Outside Sales and | | | | process can take 4 months to 12 months. Start to |
| the incentive based income opportunity that comes | | | | repeat the process by hiring another in step three or |
| with it. During this discussion, go over the skills that | | | | four. Remember recruiting and developing is a |
| they need to be competent in, in order to be a | | | | on-going process. |
| successful Outside Salesperson. Share the plan as | | | | |