| Are you sold? What successful entrepreneurs look for in great sales people. |
| Thursday, 31 July 2003 | |
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Real Business August 2003 - Jim Steele of San Fransisco-based Salesforce.com had built a career in sales. A whole year's worth of training at IBM started him off and he didn't look back. Slick and well dressed, Steele did well and rose rapidly. Years later, when he went for the Salesforce job, he endured a week of interviews with different department heads and divisions. Finally, he had to overcome one crucial barrier: an hour-long grilling from the CEO's girlfriend. They got on, he got the job. "Employing a good one is one of the hardest tasks." Steal good onesWord of mouth is a good method, but better still is by tweaking a lead sales-person out of a competitior. "It's the best win, you win with a proven person, the competitor loses and you get up-to-date competitive info on installs, current bids, product info and issues." Jeremey Slattery is ad director on the Daily Express. He's employed more than 50 people over the past 12 years and says one thing is crucial: enthusiasm. "We build networks through the good people we hire. Their peers are often of a similar nature and we try and get them working for us. We also ask our clients who they think is good." Target getters So what should you be looking for in a salesperson? Paul Stanley, CEO of Moneybox, says look for experience and for evidence of tenacity and resilience. "Have they consistently met targets in their professional and personal lives? Also look for proven track hard workers. The best way to double your sales volume is to spend twice as much time with your customers. Can they empathise with the customer? Do they listen more than they talk?" At the end of the day, he adds, people buy from people, so ask yourself, 'if I were a customer, would I want to spend my time with this person?' Lars Becker, CEO of text-messaging business Flytxt, says salespeople have to be capable of charming, building rapport and engaging the prospect. This includes everything from the sincerity of what they say to the clothes they're wearing. "They don't have to schmooze or ooze charm, but just come across as an interesting, charasmatic person that you wouldn't object to having a conversation with. A good salesperson is someone who listens and understands what the prospect has told them before responding." And, says Becker, a good sense of humour helps. Mike Jenkins is MD of CTT, a reprographics house based in London. He says the right person must have a portfolio and be able to deliver from day one. "You need broad shoulders. For every 100 calls, one or two might come off. They must be able to take it." Salesmen sensitive? Steve Huxman, who owns HUX Executive Recruitment, has a different outlook. "Salespeople need to be sensitive. You want them to treat your customers as individuals. A personal touch is important." Although sales-people tend to change jobs more than most, Huxman says it's not a bad thing in itself. Nicola Leach, sales director of Cognisco, says be aware of the sales team's dynamic. "The sooner the existing team are aware of the pending staff change and have an opportunity, where possible to meet and have an influence on the recruitment, the better the intergration." So they've got the CV, the tone is right and the dress sense passable. Hire them? Paul Stanley of Moneybox says beware people who talk more than they listen. Also, he adds, although image counts in some sectors, salsepeople should never be flash. Jeremy Slattery from the Express adds some more no-no's: Being late, scruffy, nervous or not keeping eye contact." After all, he says: "They have to be able to sell themselves to you." People often assume that someone who has the 'Gift of the gab' will be a good sales person , says Becker. Not so. "It takes a lot more than that - it's a lot harder to listen carefully." Always take up references, says CopperEye's Steven Rose. "Ask for a previous employer and a customer rather than friends and family, then make sure either you or a sales manager or someone in HR calls them and asks pertinet questions of them and their sales performance history. Play mind games. When it comes to interviewing technique, one sales vetran who's hired more than 100 staff in his time, advises mind games. "Simply asking them for the qualities they need to be good salespeople is not good enough. You want to know if they can handle pressure? Well, put them under some in the interview. Make them feel ill at ease. See how they cope. Ask them midway through the interview how they think it's going. If they say 'alright', disagree. Tell them you think it's going badly and see how they react. They have to be able to recover from negative feedback." Still harbouring doubts? Try this. One recruitment consultant, who wishes to remain nameless, surreptitiously follows interviwees to the london underground station after after each interview. "They sit there and tell me they are confident, but are they really? Seeing them negogitate the traffic and pedistrians allows me to see how confident they really are." © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
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