A good sales strategy is key to any successful business but hiring experienced sales people in your sector is not always the best option. Sometimes hiring the inexperienced yet ambitious can be a solution to dwindling sales.
To illustrate this point, I met up with a friend of mine last week who I hadn’t seen for about 18 months. I asked him how business was going.
“It’s tough but we’re doing OK and holding our own – up about 5% on last year.”
I asked where the growth was coming from and he said it was from a couple of clients that were doing well but that he was doing all the selling himself and was knackered. Then he asked if I knew anyone looking for a job and I remembered he had asked me that the last time I saw him. So I asked what kind of person he was looking for.
“Well you know, the usual. They need to be well presented, ambitious, highly motivated, able to manage themselves, a proven track record in sales… Oh and five years’ experience selling in our marketplace.”
We chatted a little more and he told me that he really wanted to sell up and get out but felt like his business had a noose around his neck, which was quite sad to hear. This is a very common situation with many Owners/MDs but I can’t help thinking that if only there was more consideration to developing the Sales strategy, things could be easier.
When I asked my friend on the train how the competition was going he told me they were doing very well and I instantly knew why.
“[Company] is doubling year on year but then again they’ve got four young guns that they hired about a year ago and they’re hurting us.”
Whilst it’s always ideal to be able to have experienced individuals who can sell for you, the reality is that the strategy has to involve much more than just looking for proven, existing people. This includes developing and nurturing talent, wherever it may come from.
How many of your top sales people initially came from within your industry? – I’m pretty confident that for many sectors the answer would be very few. I’ve met lots of ‘experienced’ sales people on my journeys but the cold, hard facts are that many of them only tend to stay in an industry because they just can’t exist in another sector.
My view on this is that they move on because, whilst the might know the industry, they simply think they’re much better than they are and often have very poor sales skills. A 12-24 month movement cycle is also a fairly consistent period of time before people ‘get found out’.
I’m a salesperson at heart but the bottom line is it’s the lifeblood of any business and without genuine focus and a Sales strategy, business is always going to be tough.
