Top Ten Sales Hiring Tips from LinkedIn
1. Good sales-people are hard to find – You have to be a rare breed to thrive off this kind of pressure and intensity. It’s difficult to find this naturally occurring in candidates as the environment is so unrelenting and challenging… we are inherently creatures of habit and comfort after all.
2. If you’re the CEO or founder of a company, no one will be able to sell your product/service better than you. Slightly upsetting to read, but a sound and understandable point to make!
3. Sales isn’t one standard role. Whether you’re looking to invest in telesales, cold calling, customer relationship building or full service account management – each will have a different personality type excelling at the top.
4. Consider your payment options- The main payment options are commission only or base salary + commission, the main downfall of the latter being far lower commission rates. As a good salesman once said; the best sales people choose to be commission only as they can sell more this way.
5. Big money- If sales professionals make you money, make peace with the fact you need to pay them a lot in return – sometimes more than yourself!
6. Love, not like. The best salespeople have this job running through their veins, it’s more than a hobby.
7. Similar to this, unless someone loves to sell you’ll need to monitor them as cold calling for example isn’t the most fun activity for a lot of employees, and their attention might stray to other tasks.
8. Extensive training is important so ensure your sales team know what they’re talking about when they get interest from a potential client.
9. A 6 to 8 month probation period is important to ascertain the sales potential of your hire.
10. And lastly, we thought this point was fantastic: If, and when, you discover a true star; someone who has your passion and belief in your company, consider giving them a share of the company, or profit-share with them – get them invested in your future by making them part of it.”
