It will probably come as no surprise to sales managers, VPs of sales and business owners that a recent survey shows sales positions are the hardest positions to fill (see below – CareerBuilder Releases List of Hardest-to-Fill Positions). Yet, your sales force is your organization’s lifeblood. No matter how cutting edge your product or how on-point
sales-compensation1-e1401398784710-600×400 Company leaders and business owners are often worried about overpaying sales reps. This is especially true for the CEO’s who didn’t ascend to their leadership position through the sales ranks and who are not overly sensitive to how sales compensation is earned. The concern is legitimate if one were to look simply at the outgoing commission
Salespeople sell. Sometimes they sell themselves best of all. Resumes are not the only way to measure the value of a salesperson and arguably not even the best way. However, given the volume of resumes recruiters typically receive for a posted sales job, recruiters and HR departments need to understand how to read between the
It is commonly accepted that the best sales people are successful wherever and that they go don’t move jobs very often. This is certainly true, but rarely does someone have a perfect career track record in sales. There are a lot of internal and external factors that can get in the way of consistently achieving
Most sales people like to talk. So do a lot of hiring managers, which is unfortunate when it comes to hiring sales people because assessing the abilities of a potential hire is difficult if they aren’t the ones doing the talking. Get Them to Speak While there is a tendency for many hiring managers to
Building strong, stable and reliable sales teams is critical to sales performance, certainly in the long term. Sales rep turnover affects sales production, team morale, customer loyalty and ultimately, the bottom line, so it is incumbent on executive leadership to reduce or avoid unwanted turnover in the sales force. Here are 5 ways to reduce
Recently I wrapped up a consulting assignment for the VP of one the country’s leading enterprise software companies. During that time, I was around the elite level sales people on his team and I got to thinking about the differences between sales forces that consistently perform at a high level and those that are consistently
When a hiring manager meets what appears to be a perennial top producing sales person, there can be an overwhelming temptation to go into full sales mode to get this person hired – especially if this person is working somewhere else which is almost always the case with top performing sales people (we call these
Sales rep burnout is a possibility on any sales team and this is especially true if you are driving hard towards big sales goals. If your reps become exhausted, they will lose interest in their work, stop producing and/or leave your team, which will have an impact on the overall sales numbers. Over the years, I
Many sales managers, particularly new sales managers, have trouble striking the right balance between managing reps and letting them do their jobs. Too often there is micromanagement and not enough of the right kind of management. Poor Sales Management and Micromanagement Early in my own career as a sales manager, I would spend a lot
