Hiring a perfect Saas Sales Team can be a daunting task to say the least. Continue reading to discover how you can avoid headaches and hire a sales team that drives results!
Hiring a sales team for start-ups will be more time-consuming and costly than hiring one salesperson on commission. But, hiring the best employees is vital if you want to meet your company’s goal and minimize turnover. In most cases, recruiting and training the right people isn’t too difficult.
Where to hire sales reps may be top of your mind, but slow down, there is still some reflection and evaluation to be done before jumping straight into the deep end and hire a sales team…
Getting Your Strategy Right
That old chestnut’ of “measure twice cut once” is particularly apt here. Strategy is a core aspect of any well-executed business, with timing being pivotal to strategy. Your approach to timing when hiring new employees has great potential to impact your bottom line, therefore it’s important to get your sales hiring process right!
If the Timing is right for growth and building your sales team expect to see a few common indicators;
- The results of your initial hires: Only when you start to see a data-driven need for expansion should you consider adding more people to your team.
- Time constraints: If the data shows your reps don’t have enough time in their day to follow up on leads, you might need to add more staff.
- Growth: Business growth may lead to setting more goals and objectives than your team can handle.
- Process complexity: Depending on your latest products and services, you may need additional skills your current team is lacking.
Determine the type of roles and the number of salespeople you’ll need by evaluating your business goals. When you hire a sales team knowing its structure in relation to your business goals will help you understand:
- Size: How many team members do you need to reach your revenue goals? Can your budget provide competitive salaries?
- Role types: Depending on your goals & objectives you may need; Sales/Business Development Representatives, Account executives, Customer Success Managers etc.
- Salary and benefits: Develop a budget and compensation plan based on an established schedule.
- Location: Do you need an office-based team that focuses on selling over the phone or video conferencing, or can your goals be accomplished with a remote team? Only you can answer this!
- Team structure: Decide how the sales leadership team will be structured. For example, decide if you will have senior sales reps or team leads. Perhaps progress is an important value to your organisation, should diversity and inclusion be considered in your team structure?
If you are certain of your companies goals & objectives (If you’re reading this we assume you are!) and that the time is right you can move forward in your strategy by developing a hiring profile. What’s a hiring profile you ask? You most certainly would have worked with customer personas before and a hiring profile/persona is just that! You’re essentially painting a picture of the ideal candidate for your sales team – so it’s worth putting the time in here.
Here are some of the characteristics you should look for:
- An eagerness to learn: Candidates who have a constant desire to learn and improve, regardless of how long they’ve been in sales, are most likely to succeed.
- Motivation: Passion and love for the job are amazing qualities.
Passion and love for your companies brand are invaluable qualities.
If a candidate meets the job criteria AND is aligned with your company’s mission values, they may just be a keeper. - Proven Performance: People with a proven track record of success are clearly beneficial to hire. Yet it is worthwhile to dig deeper to make sure that the candidate’s performance drives their success, and it wasn’t simply a matter of luck. You should not overlook a new graduate or an eager new salesperson if you find them to be bright and ready to learn.
- Software Tools or application knowledge: Recruiting reps familiar with the tools your sales team uses will reduce onboarding time.
- An expert in a specific field: Needless to say, someone who’s mainly experienced working in the financial sector will take time to adapt to the tech sector, for example.
- Cross-functional experience: Representatives who are able to multitask and accept multiple responsibilities are essential.
One of the many benefits of outsourcing talent acquisition is access to a unique pool of candidates, you might find meeting your hiring profiler is easier with the help of an RPO!
If this article has provided value to you keep an eye out for next week’s blog were we explore these ideas further! We intend to spread our experience and knowledge allowing companies to make the best in-house hiring decisions possible. If you would rather outsource this process to the professionals and avail of the benefits of RPO partnerships we have you covered also!
To the specialists here at Ingenio, recruitment is simply our passion, meaning our innovative methodology and approach is constantly evolving. If you want to Find Hiring Solutions for your business or simply want to reach out for a chat, don’t be shy and get in touch today!
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Written by James Coffey
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