How to Build Highly Efficient Sales Structure 4 | Vector Sales Advisors

How to Build a Highly-Efficient Sales Structure
Part 4: Recruiting, Hiring and Onboarding Top Sales Performers

Summary

Building a highly-efficient sales structure is complex. And one of the most complex, yet critical, components of implementing and maintaining an efficient sales structure is in the selection, hiring and integration of new salespeople. There are many moving parts in this vitally important function (series of related functions, actually), including: defining the sales position to be filled, determining and working the right recruitment channels to find top candidates, selecting the best candidate, making the job offer and successfully onboarding the new hire. Each of these components has clear benefits when done well, and very real dangers when done poorly.

One consideration that complicates a traditional perspective on hiring is that there are many new methods and tools available for candidate recruitment and assessment. These are mostly technology- or Web-based solutions that promise greater reach for recruitment and greater accuracy and insight for candidate evaluation.

An area too often taken lightly in the hiring process is onboarding. You can make all the right moves and hire a great salesperson with true potential, but ruin their attitude and experience by ignoring the importance of onboarding and thinking the process is over when the hire is made. Every new employee needs to feel confident in the decision they just made. They decided to leave their previous employer to join you and you get one opportunity to make a first impression and validate that decision. Good onboarding helps make that happen.

Above all, it is important to remember that hiring is a process; and it is a process that must be planned, managed and executed with great care and diligence. We’ll explore that in detail in this White Paper.

This White Paper is the final installment in this 4-part series from Sales Xceleration. For more information about how Sales Xceleration Advisors can help your company with sales strategy, process, and execution, contact us today at 1.844.VP4SALES.

Hiring is a Process

A sales structure for any organization cannot truly be efficient or effective without two essential elements: people and processes. And those two key components intersect most keenly during the hiring phase.

Hiring not only IS a process; it must also be a process that matters, a process that is given the attention and respect it deserves. After all, what other process in your organization can so critically make or break your success? This is why it is so mystifying that so many companies take the hiring of new employees so lightly; they treat it as a necessary evil, a bitter means to a hopeful end. And because of this, too often it is the end result that is bitter, with failure after failure to hire, onboard and retain top sales talent.

The Dangers of Making a Bad Hiring Decision

Management, Leadership and Success guru Peter Drucker has written that: “One-third [of hiring decisions] are outright failures. In no other area of management would we put up with such dismal performance.”

Poor hiring decisions result from many factors; we will explore ways to successfully hire a top performer in this White Paper. But what are the risks of making a bad hire? Beware of these traps:

  • A corporate “revolving door” due to employee turnover
  • Constant hiring and training – with unending related costs
  • Employee overhead and related costs being incurred while the em- ployee is being trained and before becoming productive
  • Loss of sales pipeline while transitioning to a new salesperson
  • Loss of customer confidence due to repeated turnover and exposure to one new salesperson after another
  • Misdirected management time due to constant focus on hiring new salespeople to replace ones that “didn’t work out”

The Benefits of Using an Effective Hiring Process to Find Great Salespeople

But by placing the proper attention and effort on designing and executing an effective hiring process, you will be able to:

  • Avoid hiring “from the gut”
  • Reduce turnover, which will send an informal message to all of your employees that your company is a good place to work
  • Standardize your efforts so each job candidate can be evaluated on a level playing field
  • Determine what variables need to change if your efforts do not result in good hires
  • Make the task of hiring easier and less frustrating each time the pro- cess is followed
  • Become known for having thorough and fair hiring practices that re- flect well on your organization to new hires as well as future candi- dates and referrals

So, with all these benefits (and more), why do so many companies take shortcuts and hope for the best? Well, because creating an effective and manageable process takes a lot of upfront effort. Even so, the time and energy it takes to develop and manage a great hiring process is time you won’t have to spend dealing with a succession of sales employees who don’t live up to your expectations. When you think about, these “do overs” are wasted time and put you back to square one. On the other hand, if your process makes sense and works (to find, hire and integrate a top salesperson) more than it falls short, you can spend your time managing your sales operation. Isn’t that how you would rather spend your time?

Where do you start? With the big picture, of course:

What the Hiring Process Involves

The hiring process, if done well, takes some time to develop. It should be methodical, measurable and manageable. It should be a start-to-finish series of activities to be undertaken with one goal in mind: bringing a superior salesperson – for mutually beneficial compensation – onto your sales team to increase sales and improve your overall bottom line.

Here are the hiring process components necessary to make that happen:

  • Defining the position
  • Writing a job description and a job advertisement
  • Using outreach and sourcing channels to find a pool of candidates
  • Narrowing the field
  • Assessing and interviewing the top candidates
  • Selecting the best candidate and making an offer
  • Onboarding the hired salesperson

We’ll explore each of these areas in this White Paper. But first, you’ll need to identify who in your organization will be responsible for each component – and/or for the entire process. If your company is smaller, this could be the Owner or Sales Manager controlling all facets of the process. In a larger organization, of course, individual parts of the process could be managed by different people within the larger scope, all reporting to a single responsible manager. Either way, you’ll need to make sure all parts of the process are valued and managed.

Before you undertake any of the first parts of the process however, make sure you have a solid onboarding system in place. So let’s start there:

Have Your Onboarding System in Place

While everyone else in your organization could be considered overhead, a salesperson’s performance is directly linked to revenue. That’s why a carefully designed and implemented onboarding program is so critical to have in place before you execute the hiring process. It can help you protect your investment, ensure a high return, and keep a solid sales performer in your organization for years to come. Onboarding is also a Process Effectively onboarding a new salesperson is one of the most essential precursors of success for any sales organization. Some smaller businesses, however, do little, if any onboarding, while others treat onboarding as an event or a short-term orientation. At its core, onboarding is the process through which a new employee – in this case a new salesperson – gets “up to speed” by gaining necessary information and insights and becoming proficient with the tools and methods necessary for success in the organization. Onboarding is not – or at least shouldn’t be – a haphazard series of missteps and lessons learned “the hard way”. In any successful organization there will emerge over time (and through the efforts of knowledgeable and talented leaders), traits and practices that have proved successful. Onboarding is taking these proven elements and systematically making them available to new employees. In that sense, then, onboarding is not just a process, but also a system. The Benefits of Onboarding Here are just a few of the essential benefits a well-crafted onboarding process can deliver:
  • Clear expectations. In other words, everyone – the salesperson, the Sales Manager, company leaders and customers – knows what is expected in terms of methodology and results. Onboarding can help eliminate misunderstandings, mistakes and embarrassing missteps.
  • Greater confidence. The new salesperson who comes on board to a supportive sales team will quickly gain confidence that he or she made the right decision in joining the company. Bolstered by a wealth of shared knowledge and effective processes, that confidence will enhance chances for quicker sales success.
  • Optimized performance. Clearly defined and understood sales methods are good insurance to help sales personnel operate effectively and efficiently. And by providing the proper tools, removing obstacles to success and clearly showing the way to reach that destination, the new salesperson can be expected to perform and excel.
  • Less vulnerability. Because the company has shown it can move forward with another salesperson if the need arises, the organization is less at risk. Any talented salesperson would surely be missed, but if that salesperson moved on, the loss would be less disruptive or catastrophic for the company if a good onboarding plan is in place.
  • Time saved. The organization will be dedicating time upfront to orienting the new employee, but allocating that time to a structured onboarding process will almost certainly save the company much more time down the road.
  • Money saved – and earned. Time is money; therefore, making it quicker and easier for the salesperson to build a pipeline and start producing not only saves money on non-productive time early in the salesperson’s tenure, but also makes the return on your investment happen more quickly.
The Onboarding Basics Onboarding doesn’t have to be difficult, but it should be systematic and, again, developed before it is needed. Recognizing that any plan should be flexible based on the needs of the incoming salesperson, an effective onboarding plan should typically include:
  • An agenda (sent in advance to the new hire) describing what the first day, week and month will look like
  • Clearly articulated expectations (written form is best) for the sales role
  • Essential company information and background
  • Essential target market, customer and prospect information, including sales cycle and pipeline info
  • Essential company sales messaging, as well as access to key company sales and marketing collateral
  • Clearly understood compensation plan
  • An explanation of company roles and the organizational hierarchy so that the new employee knows where to turn for answers and other support
  • An explanation of company systems, resources and tools, as well as what training is available
Implementing an onboarding plan should include upfront dedicated time and information followed by real-world applications of that knowledge, reinforcement and adjustments as needed. And make sure that all persons who will be engaged in the onboarding process are aware of their roles and when they will participate in the process. There is nothing worse than having a new employee sitting in a room waiting for the next person in the onboarding process and that person does not show up. Orientation Every minute your salesperson is on the bench and not selling for the company, he or she is merely a cost on the books. Your new salesperson brings high expectations and potential, but still lacks company and, perhaps, market information possessed by others in your organization. To help ensure sales success during the learning and orientation phase, make sure your team educates your new salesperson about:
  • Your products and services
  • Your Unique Selling Proposition
  • Unique characteristics of your market, including what your market values
  • What your competitors offer and promote (and how your company stands apart)
  • Available tools
  • Internal resources to go to when prospects or clients have questions your salesperson can’t immediately answer
Continuing Support Sales success requires not only focused onboarding as described above, but also continuing support for constant learning. Just as you shouldn’t bring new salespersons on board and immediately cast them adrift, neither should you assume that they will know everything after 90 days. Offer continuing support and you will make their success – and your company’s success – more likely. To learn where that support is most needed, you should conduct 30-, 60- and 90-day reviews after the hire. This will help you correct issues quickly so you can put – and keep – your new salesperson on the path to success.

Defining the Position

Before you can hire the right salesperson for your sales team – either by recruiting or promoting from within, or by hiring from outside the company – you’ll need to have clear definition of the available position. If you have an established sales team and the position is essentially the same as one previously defined, you may be set. But if your job description hasn’t been updated in years, it’s probably a good idea to revisit how the position is defined.

On one end of the scale, you might need to do a thorough needs assessment or a “gap analysis” for your department or organization before hiring. On the other end of the scale, your new position definition could be as simple as “tweaking” an existing description to account for differences between the new position and current sales positions, either by market served, territory represented or other key factors. Either way, make sure you involve other primary stakeholders in your organization to learn of any new factors or forthcoming changes that could affect how the position is defined. By reaching out internally, you might even learn of qualified candidates looking for a new opportunity within the organization.

One thing to avoid, especially when hiring to replace a top sales performer, is setting your position requirements based on traits specific to that sales superstar. Consider if your current or future needs call for a different skill set to take you to even higher achievement – eventually. Also, avoid the trap of basing your position requirements on traits or qualifications your prior salesperson lacked. In other words, whether your departing salesperson was particularly good or bad, keep your new position definition separate from how that individual fit an outdated definition.

What to Define

What are some major components of the sales position to be defined? Here are just a few:

  • Primary responsibilities
  • Required core competencies and functional skills
  • Necessary education, background and experience
  • Where the position fits in the organizational structure (particularly in terms of reporting relationships)

While aspects like these can be somewhat static in nature, other elements might be more fluid. When filling a sales position, consider (and provide details for) current conditions and needs, such as:

  • Present opportunities, challenges and workload
  • Current organizational culture considerations, such as the management style of the person to whom the new salesperson would report
  • Sales approaches, methodologies and roles (i.e., specialist or generalist, hunter or farmer); see Part 2 of this White Paper series, Establishing Your Sales Territories and Sales Responsibilities, especially the section on Aligning Your Sales Team Responsibilities.

Determining Your Recruiting Sources and Outreach Channels

With your onboarding system in place and your sales position clearly defined, it’s time to start recruiting, right? Well, not just yet. First, of course, you’ll need to determine the best channels to reach the best pool of candidates.

In today’s electronically connected, real-time culture, you have many more options than in days past when you simply wrote an advertisement and placed it in the local newspaper. In fact, that method is seldom a successful route to hiring a skilled salesperson. It might still work if you are hiring someone local for an entry level support position, but proven sales talent must typically be found using more modern means. Using a job search website like CareerBuilder or Monster.com is akin to yesteryear’s newspaper search, but with the added benefits of a much larger pool of job candidates who can be systematically connected to the position you post. Still, that might not be enough, especially when hiring for a top-level sales position in a niche industry.

A Multifaceted and Systematic Approach

Any way you approach it, successful recruiting today is normally a multifaceted and systematic venture. For example, you might use a combination of Web-based, video, phone and face-to-face methods at certain phases in the recruiting process. Because candidates today use so many information channels, you should consider using those that are particularly prevalent in your industry. Are there industry forums that are widely used by upper echelon sales performers? Online trade magazines? Websites with rich articles and blog posts that knowledgeable salespersons frequent and leave comments on? If so, you can scour these sources to find potential talent; or you could consider placing an online ad on those platforms.

With a potential candidate’s name in hand, you can almost always use Google, LinkedIn, Facebook or other social media sites to learn more and reach out to interesting candidates; LinkedIn even sells a LinkedIn Recruiter tool. But beyond this, you might also need to consider and utilize a specialized recruiting firm or “headhunter”. Paid recruiters can plumb new depths in searching for sales talent. They typically have more sophisticated tools and an expanded network of proven channels from which they can locate candidates you might not be able to find. Using a headhunter – in particular, an industry-specific headhunter – can shorten your search in many cases, but might also add considerably to the expense of filling the position.

When seeking new sales talent, it is natural to constrain your search to those candidates within your industry. But don’t overlook the benefits of searching beyond your industry for salespeople with transferable skills. As we explained in Part 3 of this White Paper series, Defining Your Sales Team Requirements, in the section on Looking Beyond Your Industry, these benefits include:

  • Avoiding candidates with bad habits and industry burn-out
  • Attracting candidates who can “fish in any pond” versus counting on an industry insider to bring you current clients (this expectation sel- dom pans out, by the way)
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  • Finding fresh talent in related (and relatable) fields whose top perform- ers mirror the traits needed for success in your industry
  • Landing flexible, adaptable and results-focused sales performers who consistently exceed sales quotas because they have transferrable sales fundamentals and a disciplined work ethic
Two final channels for sourcing possible sales position candidates: your internal corporate network and your external personal network. Don’t be shy about letting your co-workers, customers, friends, family and professional associates know that you have a position to fill. Your connections run only so deep; you can expand those connections exponentially by letting people know you need help.

5 Ideas for Creative Recruiting

Not having much luck using traditional recruiting channels or methods? Get creative!

  1. Single out prime candidates and invite them to a “Learn More” open house event. There are two big benefits from this approach: 1) those that show up are clearly interested, and 2) you’ll get to interact with applicants and see how they relate with each other in a group setting.
  2. Invite prime candidates to a group session to interact with your current sales team where you can observe how the candidates impact current team chemistry. Rather than just having your current staff scrutinize the candidates, try role-playing exercises or strategic sales activities so you can assess the candidates’ knowledge, personalities and interpersonal skills.
  3. Select your top candidates and personally invite them to speak with you. If you have trouble connecting, send them a packet of individualized information or ask them to visit a personalized Web URL; the site can include a facilities tour, a video introduction/invitation, a personalized podcast and more. This kind of “jobcasting” can show the candidate that he or she is valued, and that your company takes a creative approach to getting what it wants!
  4. Consider past job candidates to see if someone you didn’t hire previously is a good match for your current requirements. For example, let’s say you didn’t hire someone a few years earlier because their experience level was lacking. Guess what? They now have more experience! Seek them out and see if they are available and interested.
  5. Offer a finder’s fee or other incentive to current employees if you end up hiring someone they refer to you. Just be sure the fee is paid only if the new hire stays on the job a specified minimum time.

Writing a Better Job Description and Sales Position Advertisement

With your sales position defined and your recruiting channels selected, you’ll need to craft a sales position “advertisement” that both describes the available position and makes it attractive to potential candidates. The nature of this content may vary somewhat based on the channel you use, but in general, the best techniques for writing effective job advertisements are the same as for other forms of advertising. In this case, the job is your product; and the readers of the job advertisement are your potential customers. Remember: the aim of the ad is to attract interest, communicate quickly and clearly the essential points, and to provide a clear response process and mechanism.

Here are some ways to sharpen the focus of your ad so that it only draws in qualified candidates:

  • Showcase what you have to offer: Feature irresistible hooks in the top half of the ad.
  • Emphasize the person you want: When looking to hire a new employee, think like a job hunter and write your ad based on skills, talents, qualifications and experience. Focus on the person you want, not the job you have to fill.
  • Keep it short: Don’t use too many words. Keep sentences short. (No more than fifteen words in a sentence.)
  • Help readers envision themselves in the role: Refer to the reader as “you” and suggest their involvement and responsibility (“your” and “yours”) when describing job requirements and candidate expectations.
  • Use simple language: Use the language your reader uses. However… Even if they routinely use industry jargon, focus your vocabulary on words found in the typical newspaper.
  • Use the correct job title: Develop a job title that is literal, not creative. The days of catchy headlines and obscure job titles are long gone. Imagine someone trying to find a role as a Business Development Representative. Would they even recognize the position if the headline read “Engagement Manager Wanted”? Probably not.
  • Be Specific: While brevity is a much-appreciated art, it’s also important to be specific and transparent. Vague descriptions make it difficult for potential applicants to imagine themselves in the role, if they would enjoy it, or even if they are truly qualified in the first place.
Key responsibilities, skills, qualifications, location, salary range, benefits and company culture are still important components of a job ad, but if you don’t draw the reader in with a carefully crafted message, the specifics of what you have to offer will never be read.

Using the Right Methods and Tools to Select the Best Candidate for Hire

It can be tempting to “go with your gut” and let your instincts drive hiring decisions. In fact, in the recent past this might have been as reliable a method as any – provided you are keenly perceptive about people and their visual and verbal cues. But today there are so many scientifically sophisticated and proven job candidate assessment methods and tools available that you owe it to yourself – and the success of your company – to at least strongly consider them. (You’ll be in good company, too, as it has been reported that more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies use such tests.)

Applicant Tracking Systems

Online application systems can be maddening for the applicant but valuable for the hiring organization. Such tools can go much deeper than merely being a job-seeker’s interface. Now they can help you manage ad campaigns, utilize recruiting tools, and manage and analyze applicant data. Naturally, there are too many ATS solutions to fully explore in this White Paper – including entries from Oracle, Lumesse, IBM and others – but you can start your own search by entering “applicant tracking systems” in Google and Wikipedia.

Personality, Psychological, Behavioral and Skills Assessment Tools

Assessment tools like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI®], DiSC®, and the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test, for example) have been around a long time – Wonderlic alone has been used for more than 75 years. Today, there are more such programs than ever, including some uniquely geared to assess aptitude for specific types of professional areas. As with applicant tracking solutions, there are too many to fully explore in this White Paper; however, we have had good luck using the tools from Profiles International and Predictive Index.

If you use such tests for new hires, do the same for current employees. The results will give you insights for more successful interactions and management. Also, you will be able to profile your top performers and look for similar results in the testing of applicants.

Social Media Checks

Social media can be very revealing. Many job applicants have probably come to regret “oversharing” on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. While you shouldn’t hold it against a candidate for being human or even holding different opinions than you, it IS reasonable to use available social media channels to see what the candidate openly shares with the world. If that public profile is not consistent with the professional presence you expect from your employees and want made available to your clients, you’ll want to take that into consideration. Caution: don’t use an applicant’s information against him or her if the disqualifying information falls under a codified protected class designation in local, state or federal civil or human rights ordinances.

Background Checks

Likewise, before making the hire, spend the extra time and money to perform a thorough background check. Finding out beforehand that your candidate has an unreported and relevant criminal history, for example, will save you much time, trouble and money in the long run.

The Interview

A study conducted by professors in the Michigan State School of Business recently discovered that employment tests and assessment tools were more accurate than applicant interviews. (They found that interviews were only good indicators of future success in the position 12 to 20% of the time.) Nonetheless, interviews are and should be a part of the applicant evaluation process. After all, the first time you speak with a candidate should not be their first day of work, right?

Conducting a skilled – and legal – job applicant interview is both art and science. Some Sales Managers and company leaders are excellent interviewers who relish the opportunity to get to know job candidates in this scenario; others hate it with a passion and would rather have teeth pulled than have to interview a prospective salesperson. In larger organizations, of course, HR staffers conduct at least preliminary interviews, but it ultimately comes back to the hiring manager to learn more in a one-to-one situation.

At its most basic, a sales job candidate interview is a planned conversation, with certain questions that need to be asked and answered. Polished job candidates typically come prepared with answers to anticipated questions. Polished interviewers, however, don’t let them get by with just stock answers to stock questions. Instead, they know that when conducting an interview, it is important to get the candidate “off script” by digging deeper with follow-on questions: “Why do you believe that to be true?” or “Tell me how you accomplished that,” and similar. This is how conversations begin, how true discoveries are made, and how real relationships are forged.

An Unusual Development Tool for Current Employees

What does Facebook use to develop and deploy in-house talent? Gallup’s StrengthsFinder. In a twist on conventional hiring practices, Facebook hires the best and brightest people around, and then uses StrengthsFinder to better understand their innate skills and talents. Using that information, they find – or create – the right job to match the capabilities of the employee. A word of warning, however: Gallup does not believe this same tool should be used for candidate assessment or screening because it does not “assess whether an individual is suited for a particular job.”

Making the Job Offer

Hiring is indeed a process, but it is not complete, of course, until you make a job offer to your selected candidate (and the offer is accepted). To bring your preferred sales job candidate onto your team, make sure you follow these guidelines when offering the candidate the job:

  • Extend the offer personally (don’t make this an HR function unless corporate policy demands it) – remember, you are the one who has already established rapport with the candidate.
  • Make the offer in writing, with all terms clearly spelled out. These will include the compensation plan as well as benefits, perks, relevant performance expectations and policies, vacation time, etc.
  • Give examples to illustrate the incentive plan, including bonus and commission structures.
  • Negotiate only if it truly makes sense and falls within the scope of your budget and organizational dynamics; if your offer is consistent with market and industry benchmarking as well as pay ranges for your sales department, negotiation should be rare.
  • Have the new hire sign the offer and the compensation plan (to affirm their understanding of the plan).
  • Arrange for a start date, and have the new hire let you know when “notice” is given to their current employer; sometimes, this notice triggers the current employer to match or exceed your offer and the employee ends up staying put.

Final Considerations

After the hire is made, make sure your current team and anyone involved in the onboarding process are fully aware of the coming start date and their roles in making the new salesperson feel welcome and become productive as soon as possible. From there on, you will be able to manage this employee – along with your other solid performers – within your highly effective sales structure!

Conclusion

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this White Paper series, including the importance of having a clear vision, developing a strategic plan, establishing optimal sales territories, clearly defining and communicating salesperson responsibilities, defining your sales team requirements, and hiring and onboarding effective salespeople to boost your company’s bottom line. Setting up a highly-efficient sales structure is indeed complex, but it is necessary if you want to put your organization on track for sustainable success.

The experienced professional Advisors representing Sales Xceleration and our proven sales systems can help your company set up the sales structure best suited to your industry, your market, and your sales culture.

To learn more about how a Sales Xceleration Advisor can assist your organi- zation, contact us at 1.844.VP4SALES (1.844.874.7253). We look forward to discovering your needs and discussing how we can help you achieve your sales success goals.