Read This Before Hiring Your First Salesperson

Small business owners are generally very good in sales when they handle it themselves. But, when they have to hire and manage Salespersons, that is generally a very daunting task, at least to begin with.

Don’t begin with the wrong questions:

• What should be the incentive?
• What should be the target?
• Should I hire a fresher or more experienced person?

As it turns out, this is not the best way to start the process. Before we try to understand the right process, let us understand the mistakes committed by the Business Owner in hiring the first salesperson.

Mistakes committed by Business Owners in hiring their first Sales Person

• There is no defined sales process. So the new joiner has to figure out the way on their own. A lack of a repeatable sales process can never bring any results.
• Don’t compare that person with yourself. We have to remember that the new joiner is just a junior employee, not an entrepreneur like yourself.
• Sometimes, you set the tone for competition with the employee. Make them win. Don’t compete with them. Collaborate, don’t compete.
• Expecting the same level of dedication as yourself from the person. Please understand Salesperson is not an entrepreneur; if they had an entrepreneurial mindset, they would have started their own business and not sought a job with a fixed salary.
• The exact tasks to be performed by the new joiner are not defined.
  No reviews for a long time. Then, one day, you realise that the money is getting wasted, and then, with frustration, you fire that person.
• Only focus on the end result rather than understanding the challenges.
• Not having a career roadmap for the person.
• Not defining the metrics that you want to measure and why? If you know the Job to be done, then you should definitely know what you want to measure.
• Hiring a technically sound person for sales. Good technical experience is not equivalent to a good salesperson.
• Not having proper sales material for the person. Sales material is as important as the sales process. Sales Materials like product brochures, PDFs, Videos, email templates, or call scripts will help the salesperson to give better results.

Building a sales team is not easy as hiring workers for your factory or workshop. It will take lot of planning, focus, follow ups and mentoring from your side. Don’t ignore this.

The right way to hire your first salesperson

There are three important steps for successfully building your sales team from scratch.

• Defining the requirement.
• Finding and hiring the right person.
• Training and growing people.

Some small business owners are not good at sales, themselves. In this case rather than hiring a salesperson, look out for a co-founder who is good in Sales. Otherwise you can always be take for a ride.

Defining the requirement

• Do you actually need a person? Are you ready to scale? Do you have a product/offering that is scalable? Here is why we need a team.
• Instead of hiring for a post, hire for roles and responsibilities.
• Write down the sales process on a sheet of paper (step by step). Now mark the steps, you think that only you should handle.
• Now you have steps that you can delegate.
• Since the person joining is a new person, you have to create small step-by-step instructions for the person who will join.
• What qualities, roles and responsibilities will that person have?
• Will a fresher be able to do the tasks? If yes, how much training will be required for that person?
• Set reasonable expectations; the new joint is not a magician. It will take time to show the results.
• Once you have these things ready, you are ready for the next step of actually hiring the person.
• Too much focus on Industry experience. Think seriously: is Industry Experience crucial for the tasks to be completed by that person?

Finding and hiring the right person.

• For Fresher, you will have to plan for training and onboarding.
  Cultural fit is very crucial. Even while selecting the person, keep this in mind.
• Having a policy document is useless unless you implement it properly.
• Focus on culture rather than the document.
• Write down steps to determine whether that person is not fit. These are non-negotiable conditions.

Don’t plan a very complex compensation structure. Generally, people don’t take variable pay seriously; they think it is just a carrot that they can never have.

• Plan for a fixed salary and not a variable unless the variable is really necessary.
• Remember, the person is looking for a job because he is not ready for entrepreneurship risks and uncertainty.
• People generally think that variables are just on the paper. They never actually get that compensation.

While hiring, communicate clearly, what is expected outcome and what is the exact role of that person. Also explain what can be the career roadmap with your company.

• Generally, people leave small organisations because they get frustrated with the way they work.
• Also, they cannot see their future in the organisation.
• Here is how we do it at Enjay. We have a program called OneDotFive, where salary increases from 20K to 50K in 18 months, guaranteed.

Training and growing people.

• Daily, spend some time understanding what the person is doing. What challenges are they facing?
• Have a proper process and system (a good free CRM will also be good). Without a proper system, tracking will not be possible.
• The first 90 days are crucial. Every day, every week is important. Every week ask yourself, will this person reach to your expectations, or should you fire them.
• If you think that person is not trainable or not fit, then fire them as early as possible. You will save time, money and disappointment.

Building a team is a time consuming and continuous activity, it will take time, so dont rush. You need to spend time and efrort to train and grow the new person. If you think, you cant spare time, then don’t hire.

The alternative way (to stay lean)
Lastly, can you outsource that part of the activity?

• For example, if you just want the person to generate leads, consider hiring a lead generation agency.
• It looks costly initially, but it can be a good idea, at least in the initial phase.
• If you have a properly documented repeatable system along with a clear expected outcome, outsourcing becomes very easy.

Your questions?

I know that there are still many unanswered questions that you have. Please share them in the comments so I can answer them or write more on those topics. Here are some of the examples of questions you might have.

1. Where to search for the candidate?
2. What should be the structure of the interview? (Aptitude test etc?)
3. How do we decide the salary?

What is your question?