How to Hire High-Performing Sales Athletes

Have you been frustrated trying to hire the right person for your job opening?

Do you want to hire a high-performing sales athlete?

Consider these items as you look for a qualified candidate:

• Know what you’re looking for, what the position is and the KPIs it must impact once a successful hire is made
• Predetermine the characteristics that a suitable candidate must possess
• Create or revise an up-to-date job description 
• Determine your compensation plan
• Have a territory and/or ‘book of business’ plan

If you think about these items in the context of a sports athlete, it will help you come to a clear understanding of why they are crucial for a successful sales focused organization with top notch sales performers. Take ice hockey which has three basic positions – goal tender, forward and defense. 

Can you imagine hiring someone who is capable offensively for a goaltender position? It’s no different in sales – are you looking for business development, a hunter, or a farmer? What specifically must they accomplish to yield success for the company? The clearer you are about the role you expect someone to play, the responsibilities and the expectation that go with that role, the better set you will be for success.

With some of the complexities of developing Sales Athletes, maybe it’s time to consider a Sales Coach. Sales coaching isn’t one size fits all. Your sales coach may work exclusively with a few salespeople or with the team. They may work solely to support the sales manager to be more effective in their sales coaching role, or to complement their efforts as a sales manager. Engaging with a sales coach may begin with an assessment of your current sales team – one that identifies areas that will produce the greatest return on investment. If you are even a little open to the idea of sales coaching, what’s the harm in a conversation - one where you can determine if there is a good reason to explore whether sales coaching is or is not a fit for your organization… one where NO is OK.

Read more about sales leadership on our website!

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team, sales leadership, and an effective sales management solution? 

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

Creating High Performance Sales Athletes

We all want top performers in our sales environment, right? It starts with a successful hire, someone who has the right ingredients, talent and/or potential. 

In order to hire the right person, we have to know what we’re looking for and be able to define our needs before we hire talent. Let’s say we’re looking for someone to manage customer accounts and create opportunities to grow customer accounts. This is hugely different than a position where we’re looking to add new business, grow a territory, break into a new market, or something else. This all has to be in place before we advertise that a candidate is wanted for a specific position and that interested parties should apply. 

Below is a list that may help with acquiring top candidates and growing them into sales athletes:

1. Know what you’re looking for, what the position is and the KPIs it must impact once a successful hire is made
2. Predetermine the characteristics that a suitable candidate must possess
3. Create or revise an up-to-date job description 
4. Determine your compensation plan
5. Have a territory and/or ‘book of business’ plan
6. Know how you will work with the salesperson (meetings, ride along, joint calls, reporting, etc.)
7. Have an estimate for how long it may take a new salesperson to get up to speed and deliver results
8. Know how you will handle subpar performance
9. Define the role for the position clearly
10. Define the responsibilities for the position clearly
11. Have clear expectations for the position
12. Manage all of the above early and often

Examine this list and note the items you are well-prepared for and those that you are less than well-prepared for. It’s not a disaster to make changes – even with an existing team or salesperson. Make the adjustments, announce them early, and declare that we’ll climb into this change together.

Learn how a sales coach can help with your sales leadership strategy on our website!

Sales Leadership, Management, and Coaching for Your Sales Team

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team, sales leadership, and an effective sales management solution? 

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.