Small Business Salespeople

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Hiring salespeople was always tough for me. It was very difficult to tell who would do well and who wouldn’t. Everyone wants salespeople who already know and have sold to the contacts that you want to sell to. Experienced, successful salespeople can come on board and start selling to people they know immediately. What could be better?

Unfortunately, they're not that easy to find. For one thing, the best place to find people like that is your competition. And the good ones are probably well compensated and not eager to move.

When screening your salespeople, look out for 2 main things:

Candidates who have not actually been seriously involved in sales.
By this I mean they haven't been actively involved in cold calling, qualifying, and closing the deal. You must question, probe, and confirm that they have in fact done these things and are capable.
This is a critical mistake that I have made and I have seen other people make: Assuming a person with good qualities but no real experience can actually do the job. Too many times I have seen people who seem to have the right Rolodex and abilities but without a track record, you just don't know if they're cut out for it.
However, as a burgeoning business, you may not be able to pluck the best small business salespeople from your competition right away. You may have to take a chance on a new salesperson. If this is the case,
Look out for candidates who talk about non-sales related responsibilities
Watch out for the candidate who seems good but talks about coming on board and doing all types of non-sales related work. If they say anything to you about how they can do all types of other stuff in addition to selling, drop them immediately from the employee hiring process. I cannot overemphasize this!
Any salesperson who is eager to do "market research", "competitor research", marketing collateral or some other non-sales thing is absolutely not going to sell for you. You can take that bit of advice to the bank. Real sales people get mad if you take them away from earning their commissions.

Be especially careful with your first small business salesperson. This can be very difficult and requires special attention to creating an agreement and commission plan. This is especially an important warning if you are more technically oriented and unfamiliar with the sales function and hiring salespeople.

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