Q: When we”™re recruiting for sales, I find that people get scared off when we tell them they have to generate their own leads. I have only two or three people on the sales force who make enough calls per day. The rest slack off and wait for me to give them leads to follow up or live in hope they”™ll pick up something through networking. What should I do?
Thoughts of the day: There”™s no school out there to teach people sales like there is for engineering or nursing or general business or any other professional discipline. Finding good salespeople ”“ at any level from entry to experienced ”“ is a process of looking for a needle in a haystack. Building a lead-generation program to supplement what salespeople can come up with on their own is smart business. Ultimately, you want people who are motivated, smart and willing to show initiative to master the job they signed up for.
Sometimes, people are just not made for this job. But don”™t write them off because they don”™t have much sales experience. Develop a training program within your company. Just like in school, create a syllabus for the program that outlines what you will cover and what your salespeople can expect at each session. Ask your senior sales managers to work together to create this program.
Every manager or executive has a story about a prime sales candidate, after investing money and time on training, this person turns out to over-promise and under-deliver. Often, we spend too much time focused on the “potential” that someone has, rather than accepting the reality. Sales is hard, but you hired these people to do exactly that, sell. Don”™t be blindsided by a fancy résumé. Hire your salespeople on a probationary level, set a date for performance review and at that time if they”™re not performing, it”™s time to cut them loose. There are people out there who would kill for the job, so be tenacious.
Building a lead-generation program to supplement what salespeople can come up with on their own is smart business. Come up with measurable qualities that your customers need to have in order to be considered viable prospects. Whatever your parameters may be, if your lead-generation program is working correctly, these prospective clients will qualify themselves. You will be able to funnel a large amount of prospects and turn them into a list of qualified sales leads. This ensures that you always have quality prospects and have a big enough pool to choose great customers rather than mediocre ones. If you want to take your company to the next level, choosing your customers has to be a number one priority. In the beginning it was about quantity, but now, your sales team has to know that quality customers are more important. With a great lead-generation program in place, it will be easier to develop a large, quality driven, customer base.
Ultimately you want people who are motivated, smart and willing to show initiative to master the job they signed up for. But know when to cut them loose. Salespeople need to have drive, but this is not something that you can teach. If you interview someone who has all the qualities of a great sales person, drive, enthusiasm, ability to sell ice to an Eskimo, etc., but they”™re lacking in the experience department, give them a chance. Enroll them in your sales training program and train them to be great salespeople.
Looking for a good book? Try “Coaching Sales People into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives” by Keith Rosen.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at (877) 238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Please send it to her, via email at AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com or by mail to Andi Gray, Strategy Leaders Inc., 5 Crossways, Chappaqua, NY 10514. Visit www.AskAndi.com for an entire library of Ask Andi articles.
