RR#071 3 Unconventional Tips For Hiring Rockstar Salespeople (Founders, Pay Attention)
I’ve had quite a few conversations with founders recently who are struggling to find a good salesperson.
They have the typical things in place:
A decent comp plan that competitive for their industry
Enough demand to support them, or data to hunt with if they don’t
Some sales processes, a CRM, and a few even have sales playbooks
But they’re not finding great people Or when they do, they can’t keep them or their sales performance up for a sustainable period of time.
So, what gives?
Sadly, when I do some digging, I find one glaring problem: The product they’re selling isn’t that great.
When I’ve popped the hood on a few of these businesses, it hasn’t taken me very long to find some crummy reviews, unsatisfied clients, and underwhelming churn rates.
In other words, the only person that would want to sell a bunch of this stuff is someone who didn’t have much of a conscience. And believe it or not, it’s hard to find a sales sociopath.
Other businesses weren’t quite as bad, but they still weren’t great. There wasn’t any differentiation in the marketplace, nor much of a product strategy to create any.
Mediocre products beget mediocre sales.
This may be an unpopular opinion with a lot of founders, but the first unconventional tip I can share to help you find and keep high performing sales people is…
1) Give them something exceptional to sell.
Yes, an awesome salesperson can sell a mediocre product. But a mediocre salesperson can’t.
More importantly, when you give an awesome salesperson an awesome product, magic happens.
(Focusing on the product as a means of driving maximum growth was one of the core messages in my ebook, Systematic Growth.)
When you have an exceptional product to sell, your salesperson will be able to sell with confidence. They won’t have that nagging voice in the back of their head which makes them feel uncomfortable, and project that discomfort onto prospects.
When you have an exceptional product to sell, the next thing you can do to land and keep the best-of-the-best sales pros…
2) Find salespeople that truly care about what you sell.
I get a lot of pushback from founders on this one.
“I sell business consulting services, salespeople don’t get excited about that.”
Listen, I’m not saying your service has to be their life mission. But I am saying you’ll get better results if they see the role as more than sales.
When I recently announced that we were hiring a salesperson, I got videos from people that told me about their experience. And I got videos from people who talked in terms of “having the opportunity to help entrepreneurs build the business of their dreams.”
When salespeople believe they are helping people, they’ll speak with a level of conviction and confidence that trumps the best training and playbooks.
Which leads me to the third thing you can do to find and keep great salespeople…
3) Don’t expect to “set it and forget it”
If you’ve got an exceptional product and a salesperson who genuinely wants help people by selling it, invest some time as a founder in their success.
Set up proper training and onboarding. Give them a good playbook to start with. Share client testimonials and success stories to keep the momentum. And spend some time listening to calls and giving feedback.
Not sure where to start with that?
Here’s a quick tip I dropped on YouTube to help you coach, even if you’re not a seasoned sales manger or sales coach.
Watch full video
