About this blog: One of our Business Development Managers owned and operated a small healthcare staffing business before coming to work at Sales Focus. In the blog below, he shares his experience building and managing a sales team. In 2008, I founded a small business that I operated for more than 15 years. For the first few, I was the only employee. Over time, opportunity grew, and it became clear that building a sales team was a necessary next step for our growth. I made mistakes, had some successes, and learned a lot about salespeople and teams along the way. What follows isn’t necessarily sales gospel but rather, my experience and what worked for my small business. 1. Hire for Personality Over Industry Experience Once at a basketball game, a young player’s emotions on the court led to technical fouls and fisticuffs. I heard the coach say of the player, “I’d rather have to turn ‘em down, than turn ‘em up.” I think there are some parallels between this wisdom and the recruitment of salespeople. You don’t necessarily want overly emotional employees but that innate competitiveness is crucial for sales success. You can’t “coach” someone to be competitive and persistent, or as another hoops coach once said, “I can’t teach you to be 6’ 9”.” 2. Base Salaries Can Be a Good Thing When we think of sales jobs, we think of commissions. Those are the carrots that incentivize salespeople to bring home the bacon. Some might say that if you give a salesperson a base salary, you’re reducing the likelihood that they will be optimally productive. While I couldn’t agree more that a salesperson’s income should be primarily driven by an incentive plan, I also think a reasonable base salary is important. A base salary also motivates salespeople by making them feel like they are part of the family and not just a prop for hire. The additional pay takes some pressure off them, so they can focus on the job at hand rather than how they’re going to pay their next mortgage payment. 3. The Marriage of Marketing and Sales Is Important Warm leads are better than cold ones. Every salesperson would prefer to talk with prospects who have expressed some level of interest. However, not every sales interaction can be with someone who has reached out to us first. I believe that an organization is most proficient when its marketing team is operating in unison with the sales team, enabling salespeople to do what they do best: sell! Although every salesperson should do some of their own prospecting, marketers are much better at placing those initial breadcrumbs for prospects to find. Salespeople aren’t necessarily good at that and shouldn’t be spending more time hunting than necessary. 4. Get Regular Feedback from Your Sales Team on Messaging Salespeople are on the front lines of daily communication with prospects and customers. They, more than anyone, gain a feel for what’s resonating and what isn’t. Sometimes as a business owner or manager, we have blinders on and can miss what seems obvious about our messaging. Receiving feedback from the very team that is in the best position to gauge responsiveness is key to successful messaging and communication with prospects and customers. 5. Make It Fun! Salespeople are typically jovial by nature, social types — often former athletes. So, it only makes sense that they would prefer to work in an environment that allows them to laugh, quip, compete, and feel like a part of a team. Create a culture that fosters this kind of environment to see your salespeople thrive.
