A Sales Compass – A Blog by B2B Sales Connections

Here is another question and answer from my interiew with business.com.

Business.com: How can your interviewing, hiring, and training practices help reduce “churn” in your sales team?.

Susan: Turnover in your sales team happens when there is no longer a fit between the employer and employee. The relationship is no longer a win-win, and therefore must end because both parties are not achieving their goals. The better you are in your recruiting and hiring practices, the better able you are to assess fit before the relationship starts.

Once hired, training maximizes the chance of success as it puts everyone on the same road, further securing the fit between the employee and the organization. The better the fit, the more likely the relationship can be successful in the long term, therefore reducing “churn” in your sales force overall.

I go into great detail on how to assess a candidates fit for your organization in my book, Action Plan For Sales Management Success. By popular demand, it is now available in a print version as well as in every eReader format at these fine retailers: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon Internation, Barnes & Noble, Apple iStore, Kobo, Diesel, Sony, salesgravy.com, and Smashwords.com

For more detail on what kind of training works best, join me on my webinar, Your 90 Day Sales Rep Success Plan – How to create an On Boarding Process that puts your sales reps on the right road to success! Click here for more information and to register.

To help get you started download a free copy of our white paper How To Recruit The Best Sales Professionals which includes “11 Telephone Interview Questions to Find Top Performers“, from our Sales Download Centre.

Remember as the old saying goes, “It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you are working with turkeys!” More motivational quote here.

Aim Higher!

Susan A. Enns, The B2B Sales Coach, B2B Sales Connections

www.b2bsalesconnections.com, www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns, or www.twitter.com/SusanEnns

I recently submitted the following question to the TV show “Canada AM” for a recent segment on employment law: “Non-compete clauses seem to be more common in employment contracts these days. To paraphrase: “If you leave our company, you cannot work for another company in the same industry for a period of two years”. Are these clauses valid; or just a scare tactic so you won’t leave to work for a competitor? What should you be careful of when signing a contact that contains such a clause?”

The question was answered by the employment lawyer, Daniel Lublin. (more…)

Most sales managers would agree that coaching their sales teams is key job function contributing to their success. However, when it comes to actually defining what the term “coaching” means, how best to do it,  and what are its affects in the long term, each sales manager would probably have a different opinion.

What is coaching? Is training and coaching the same thing? How much time should a sales manager spend coaching? How much time do they actually spend? What type of sales rep benefits most from coaching? Do top performers need it?  What are the best ways to coach?  Does it affect sales staff turnover? (more…)

When hiring your next sales representative, keep in mind that the candidate who has the best interview and the best personality may not be the best sales person to sell what you want sold. As such, you need a balanced score card approach to hiring.

Define your ideal sales candidate before you start interviewing and gauge all candidates to it. Make a list of interview questions before hand so you can compare all the candidates’ answers using the same scale. Use sales aptitude assessments to determine if there are any red flags you are missing and guide you in developing specific questions for the candidate reference checks. (more…)

Hiring from within the industry may sound like a great idea, but make sure you think twice before doing so.   Ask yourself why the sales rep would want to move to you company in the first place.   If they are not successful at your competitor, can they really be successful with your organization?

Although industry experience may appear attractive in a sales candidate, you may be solving a problem for your competitor by hiring their mediocre sales representative that they were happy to see go to your business.

For more proven recruiting techniques, along with the automated tools to create your hiring process from start to finish, including designing your compensation plan, to placing the ad, to presenting your offer letter, check out my book Action Plan For Sales Management Success.

Aim Higher!

Susan A. Enns, The B2B Sales Coach B2B Sales Connections

www.b2bsalesconnections.com, www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns, or www.twitter.com/SusanEnns

Ever wonder if you could get inside a sales candidate’s head to find out what they actually think about themselves? It truly would be one of the best reference checks you could do before hiring them.

There are a few things you can do to get a glimpse of how a candidate thinks. The first is to enter the candidate’s name into a few search engines like Google. In this case, no news is good news. You can also search the online social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. If your potential sales candidate is registered, their online profiles can be very revealing.

The bottom line is, although you may not find anything online about your potential sales candidate, it can be well worth the few minutes it took you to check.

For more proven candidate pre-screening techniques including more interview questions to assess past performance, download Action Plan For Sales Management Success. As a business associate recently said, “Your content, delivery and practical examples provided the students an excellent foundation to understand the complex topic of sales recruitment and socialization”.

By popular demand, Action Plan For Sales Management Success is now available in a print version as well as these fine retailers: Amazon.com, Amazon International, Barnes & Noble, Apple iStore, Kobo, Diesel, Sony, and Smashwords.com

To download a free copy of our white paper How To Recruit The Best Sales Professionals which includes “11 Telephone Interview Questions to Find Top Performers”, visit our Sales Download Centre.

I am often asked, by both employer and employee alike, what is an average salary for a sales position.  Monster appraised all kinds of sales jobs, and recently released their report on the national averages for sales compensation.  You can review their findings on the average salaries for sales jobs here.
 
To find the average salaries in your specific geographic area for all types of positions, including sales, visit Salary.com.
 
Using tools such as these will give you an idea as to what you should be asking for in an interview in regards to salary expectations, or if you are an employer, what you should be offering to potential candidates.
 
Remember, to find the best sales jobs or to attract the best sales talent, you must be competitive in today’s job market.
 
Aim Higher!

Susan A. Enns, B2B Sales Coach from B2B Sales Connections

www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns, www.facebook.com/B2BSalesConnections, or www.twitter.com/SusanEnns

I was recently asked, “Should you hire men or women for sales?”  It’s not the first time I have been asked this, and it’s probably not the last. 

Even speaking as a woman who was definitely in the minority in the companies I have worked for, yet was still recognized many times as a top performer in various sales capacities, I am always cautious about making generalized statements about whether women or men are better suited for sales.  (more…)

Is sales recruiting easy?  No!  In fact, a recent study published in Profit Magazine reported; “Finding the right sales talent was one of the biggest concerns facing sales organizations today.”   In a similar study conducted annually by Manpower Inc. reporting on the most difficult job to fill, sales representative topped the 2006 and 2007 list and slid to second place in 2008. (more…)

There is no question that you need to advertise your available sales positions on the internet.  After all, that is most job seekers look these days. However if you are only advertsing on social media websites, you are not reaching all the potential sales candidates you should be.

A study conducted 2009 by AfterCollege™, an employment site for Millennials also known as GEN-Y kids, reported some astounding findings. (more…)