It’s your company and you want to grow it. Your life-long dream is for your company to become a household name. A good sales force can make or break your dream. Integrating a solid sales force into your company should be one of the most important aspects of the business growth plan. Spend time setting out your business growth plan, including your sales budget for garnering top candidates through good recruitment techniques.
Additionally, you will need to budget for a robust interview process to help you select top candidates from the hundreds of applications you are likely to receive. It is important to set out a job description that details the entire sales process and how you want to see things done. It may be important to include such items as the number of cold sales calls per day or week, how records of these calls are to be maintained and maintaining records of business travel. The business’s accountant may be helpful in preparing this detailed job description and the process you’ll use to implement the job.
During the interview process you will likely be asked about compensation packages. It is advisable to already have in place a structured compensation package for your sales team. This will not only help you budget for your sales force, but if it’s lucrative enough it will help you to attract top candidates.
Once you have selected your sales team, it is important to have an extensive training program so your sales team can pitch your company accurately and effectively. Think about how you want to communicate the ethics and integrity of your company to your sales staff and, in turn, to the marketplace. It may be a good idea to invest in books on sales and marketing, and ask your sales team to read them from time to time.
Think about your advertising campaign and how you want your sales force to use and “become” your advertisement. They need to be intimately familiar with the company and its product(s), the area in which they are assigned and the customers, both potential and current. It is good to lay out your expectations in detail. Do you expect them to go door-to-door for cold calls or to follow leads via telephone? Do you have a detailed sales pitch for cold calls you would like your sales team to follow? Are they being assigned repeat, loyal customers? Detail how you expect the loyal customer to be treated and how you expect the sales person(s) in charge of that customer to foster and prolong the relationship. Any successful sales team knows that it is all about building and maintaining relationships of trust.
It also is advisable for you to have thought through your geographic market and what the sales staff may be facing in the particular region into which you are sending them. Equip them with knowledge of sales regions and provide them a list of potential or actual customers. Give the sales team a chance to be successful.
All in all, selecting and preparing a top sales team can be expensive, but it’s an investment in the future of your company and reaching your dream.
