Team Approach: Building a Sales Team for Your Growing Business

When your business is on an upward trajectory, you may feel inclined to expand your team with new sales personnel. At this important juncture, it’s important to understand the basics of recruitment, contract writing, management, lead generation, and more. Here are a few key tips to get you started.

Scouting

When the average salesperson turnover sits at around 27%, it’s important to work hard at the preliminary stages in order to improve your chances of a cohesive (and lasting) team. The ideal candidate is likely to be goal-oriented, an active listener, and not overly sensitive to feedback (or setbacks). In a nutshell, prime candidates tend to be confident, sociable people who are able to build positive relationships. Finding the right individuals can take some proactiveness, but they are often already in your network, connected to you via Linkedin, or found via conferences/trade shows. Don’t be afraid to reach out in search of referrals or directly if you think someone could be a good fit.

Hiring Process

Sales plays a unique function within a company and therefore requires different criteria and strategies for hiring. A good place to start is with your job description. Ideally, this will clearly delineate the job title/seniority, key objectives, responsibilities, salary, and expected level of experience (with this last element playing the most important part). A salesman with proven experience over a number of years is more likely to produce consistent results and work harmoniously with the rest of the team. When you know what you need from a candidate, you’ll be able to more precisely target questions during the interview stage and prompt examples of prior experience.

Writing Contracts with Terms, NDAs, and Other Important Details

When bringing new members onto their sales teams, small business owners must prioritize crafting detailed contracts. These contracts should provide clear information regarding terms of employment, including roles, responsibilities, and termination procedures. It's also essential to include any necessary nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) within these contracts. An NDA serves to legally bind signing parties from disclosing sensitive company, client, financial, and other information during and sometimes after their tenure with the business - you can check out this resources if you need to find out the definition of an NDA. Remember, the contract remains incomplete until both you and your new employee have agreed to all terms by signing it.

Training and Integration

Although your new hires may already have the requisite sales skills, team training (or integration) can often be key for establishing team “buy-in” and ensuring that everyone is on the same page as far as objectives and key results (OKRs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) are concerned. Establishing a strong team dynamic can be tricky - it sometimes makes sense to consult with a specialized agency for advice on how to optimize your team for stronger cohesion and improved results.

Lead Generation

Understanding the concept of lead generation and the relevance of this practice as it relates to growing your profit is important for any business owner. It is also the foundation for any successful sales process in the digital space. In order to create a successful methodology for lead generation and nurturing, you’ll need to integrate customer relationship management (CRM) software that can help you track and act upon leads. Sales reporting and forecasting software can also help you to better understand historical data and set realistic goals and expectations.

Additional Tips

There are plenty of additional adjustments you can make to your existing processes that will help facilitate sales growth. Creating a doing business as (DBA) name for your company, for example, can make it easier to branch out into new services and products if you want to sell these under a different name or if a domain for your business isn’t available. You might also want to download some time or project management software to help keep you and your team on the same page regarding tasks and timeframes.

Hiring for sales can be strenuous on time, resources and energy, but if you can put in the hard work now, you’ll likely be rewarded for it later. The best teams are often assembled with an attentive, scrupulous hand.

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