Posted by on August 24, 2021.
Sales is the lifeblood of any business. The magnitude of an organization’s success has a direct correlation to the execution of quality sales. Therefore, you want sales to be scalable and predictable. Often you hear sales referred to as an “art form”, but art is not scalable or predictable. Here are 2 key mistakes we see businesses make when building a sales team:
Critical mistake #1: Following your gut when hiring sales people.
In a recent survey of over 4,000 hiring managers, 75% of these managers reported difficulty aligning colleagues and recruiters with key sales requirements. In addition, 68% of these hiring managers did not know what to focus on during the interview.
Sales leadership should ensure 3 things that everyone involved in the hiring process understand:
- What are the key skills required for this sales position? These should be evaluated via the interview process.
- What are the key values that a new hire must bring to the position? These values should be reviewed during the interview process.
- What will this person really be like to work with? So often experienced sales people can fool us during the interview process.
The PXT Select is a fantastic technology that will assist help your organization avoid the hiring of sales people based solely on a gut response.
Once the hiring team is aligned on what they are looking for in a salesperson, we can create a customized model unique to your organization’s requirements, that will provide data to help optimize your sales recruiting efforts. The Profiles Sales Comprehensive Selection Report will provide excellent insights into key skills like How the potential new hire will close; How will they build relationships?; Are they self-starters?, and How will they work with the team?, to name a few. Click here to view the Sales Comprehensive Selection Report, specifically pages 8-10.
In addition, the interview team will have behavior-based interview questions to really know how to focus on the agreed upon key sales requirements. Now we are really in a great position to make our sales hiring decision based on quality data and avoid the critical mistake of a gut decisions where everyone starts off with “We really liked this candidate.”
Critical mistake #2: Making sales forecasting rather than coaching a primary focus.
We often see sales organizations get caught up in the process of key metrics like sales forecasting and what each territory’s sales funnels look like. This approach makes sales managers come across as just that managers. We really want these people leading their sales teams and optimizing execution. Using the PXT Select Coaching Report is an exceptional approach to have your sales leaders perceived by their teams as real leaders! Taking the broader view of coaching vs. spending inordinate amounts of time on forecasting and sales funnels will dramatically enhance your organizations sales execution. Coaching is a strategy. Managing forecasting and sales funnels is a tactic of an overall coaching strategy. Click here to view the Profiles Sales Coaching Report.
Contact Profiles, Incorporated today. We will help your organization avoid making “gut” hiring decisions and integrate a “coaching mentality” into your sales leadership.
