Hiring the Right Sales People for Your Organization

When it comes to hiring sales people, there are a lot of different approaches suggested by a lot of different experts. The way in which you recruit sales people can often depend on the kinds of products you sell and the kind of target audience you sell to. If you are a technology company that sells sophisticated computers to the military, then someone with experience and security clearance is going to be a better candidate than someone who lacks those things.

The trick to recruiting the right sales people is understanding your company, your business and your industry. In most case, it is the sales manager that is left to build his own staff of sales professionals that are going to go out and help the company grow. Sales is one of the most important divisions of your company. When you develop your sales recruiting method, you need to make sure it is a method your company can rely on.

Education

There is an age-old debate among sales professionals that pits the merits of experience against the necessity of education. Some people will argue that sales experience is more valuable that education, while others maintain that a good education is essential to the success of any sales professional. Once again, in an industry that requires a knowledge of complicated technology, then education is extremely important. In order to sell commercial jets to the airlines, you need to know how the jets work.

There are some basic educational elements that every good sales person should possess. A background in English language training is essential in order to communicate effectively. It also helps if a sales professional has taken some kind of training in negotiating skills. You can learn these kinds of skills on the job, but a sales professional with negotiating training definitely has an advantage.

Experience

Some sales professionals are able to parlay their experience into several other industries. For example, sales professionals that have sold computer technology to corporate executives are often able to sell luxury cars as well. The correlation there is the target audience. Corporate executives are often the people buying luxury cars. If you are going to give a sales professional chance even though he has no experience in your industry, he at least needs to have experience talking to your target audience. If you hire a sales professional who does not have experience with your product or your audience, then he will not be able to succeed in your industry.

Culture

The sales approach used by the sales department in a company will be part of the company’s public image. This is why company’s work so hard to hire sales professionals that fit the company’s culture. If you have a sales professional that is used to the hard sell, then he is not going to fit the image of the company known for a more laid-back approach. The sales professional needs to fit the company’s image if the he is going to be able to represent the company properly. In most cases, this is more about attitude than anything else. If you are looking for a deliberate sales professional, the hiring a hard seller is not going to work. You are not going to change a hard seller into a deliberate sales professional to match your company’s image.