How to Build a Sales Team
Hiring salespeople can be one of the toughest endeavors for IT company owners, though a necessary part of growing a business. The process of hiring and the ultimate firing of salespeople can leave owners jaded and hold them back from investing or taking a chance on future salespeople. It is important to look for certain characteristics and demands that will provide red flags as well as look for indicators that speak to a good salesperson investment.
Homegrown Salespeople
The easiest way to hire a salesperson is to promote from within. There are a number of indicators that can speak to a natural talent within your organization. You may notice a person on your team that fits certain characteristics. 
Customer-Oriented
Commanding Personality
Task Driven
Less Detail-Oriented
These tend to be good indicators of the type of personality that fits a good salesperson. The best thing about promoting from within is that you tend to have the potential for a longer-term employee. It is important to take the proper steps to verify the chosen candidate is a good fit by utilizing several tests.
The first test is the TTI DISC Behaviors Test. DISC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. This test will show the basic behavior types of the candidates that you choose. These behaviors are important to know as the basic fundamentals of personality come in to play when hiring the right person. An example is a person that is more dominant and influential is a better fit in a sales role than a person that is more steady and compliant.
The second test, also by TTI is the Sales Skills Index. This test, though more advanced, gives an overall indication of how a salesperson stacks up against other top performing salespeople. This should be used in scenarios where you are looking at outside candidates for the position. If you are interviewing candidates and have chosen some to move to the next stage of potential hiring, this test can weed out the ones who are truly performers, and the ones that are just good at performing in an interview.
If you find a good internal candidate, the next step is to get them trained. Start by gathering a couple books for them to read and master. Start with “The Little Red Book of Selling” by Jeffery Gitomer, “Questions Based Selling” by Thomas Freese, and just about anything by Zig Ziglar. These will be good introductions into the ins and outs of selling.
Books only go so far though and generally will not convert someone into a salesperson. For that you will need off or onsite training from a professional group, organization, or consultant. This is where the real investment comes in, but it is an absolute requirement to take an employee to the next level. These groups will help provide the basic fundamentals, deep dive into techniques, and provide role-play scenarios that can help mold a person into a sales role. Most good sales book companies have training workshops and certain IT conferences provide sales-based training at their events. The key is researching each of these, contacting peers to find success stories, and evaluating each to find the best type of training for your budget.
Another one of the tough parts for business owners is structuring a salesperson’s compensation plan. Overcomplicating a commission and compensation plan can mean lots of work for you as the owner or for accounting personnel, as well leaves lots of room for costly mistakes. Obviously each structure is based around your companies product and service set and will reflect your margins and revenues.
Most training organizations can help with compensation plans and this is another area to reach out to your peers. Look for other successful industry business owners and ask if they will share their compensation plan with you. Most non-competing business owners would be happy to share their information.
Hiring a salesperson is a difficult and time consuming endeavor but it is a necessary part of growing your business. Take the time and do it right and you will be building a foundation for a great and profitable team. Know ahead of time that there will be failures and those failures will have costs. Do not let these discourage you as it only takes one great salesperson to help springboard your revenues. Do your best to recognize talent from within your organization. Some of the best salespeople I have seen were plucked out of other roles internally, trained, and found new life long careers. Most of all don’t wait! The longer you wait to grow your business through sales, the more opportunity you are giving competitors to grow their businesses.
Frank Gurnee
VP, Channel Services, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x4777
frank@ownwebnow.com