Sales Laundry

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of. If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  I work with a web design company that is not running at full capacity at the moment, so they are looking at getting a sales person. We have tried various methods to find salespeople, from outside sales professionals to inside tele-salesmen. Mainly it is lead generation, just getting the lead, not the actual closing that we need, but so far we have yet to find anyone who can actually do a decent job.

A:  You might look at this from a different angle.

If you would, ask a few questions of your firm first.  (Stay with me, there is method to my madness)

1. Why should a customer buy web services from us vs. every other web services provider?

2. Do we have a product, unique point of view, or skill set that really seperates us from the competition?

3. Have we identified who our primary customer base is?

4. Have we determined an effective way to consistently generate leads?

5. Have we developed any products to entice our existing customers to spend more with us?

6. Do we have any reference letters, videos, etc. compiled to help a sales rep land new accounts on the backs of our success stories vs his word as a sales man?

7. What sorts of marketing efforts do we have in place to help drive our sales message?

There are other good questions, but that should put you on the correct path.

It will always be difficult to find exceptional sales people because exceptional sales people are rarely out looking for a job too long.  Their existing employers either keep them happy or competitors tired of losing to them snap them up when given the chance.

If you have some clear and decisive answers to these questions, you can stop looking for a “sales genius” that can overcome other potential internal shortages and be successful with the more plentiful “young to pretty good” sales person that can execute given some direction.

In short, the more you refine and perfect your sales process, the wider and deeper the pool of candidates become that can execute your process successfully.

Spending more time searching for and refining the perfect sales process for your business may ultimately prove more rewarding than the search for the ultimate commission sales representative.

Hope that helps.