The key to any successful sales team is a strong driving force behind it which inspires and motivates them to be at their best at all times. As my good friend and business owner Dayanna Volitich says, hiring a great sales manager therefore is vitally important to the success of your business and beyond hiring the right person for the job, you must be able to keep this key team member happy and valued, in order to get the most out of your sales team. To make sure that you get this process right, here is how you can hire and then hold on to the best sales manager for your company.
Getting it Right First Time
Ensuring that you get the right candidate first time is of great importance so your strategy around hiring should take quite a lot of time and effort. When publishing the vacancy you should look to cast your net wide in order to attract the best possible candidates. Consider exactly what skills you are looking for in a sales manager and place high focus on their track record of performance and results. Aside from simply publishing the vacancy on job sites you should also look to contact people directly through the use of LinkedIn, where you can find some of the very best professionals. Finally you should explore the benefits of working with sales recruitment agency staff who will often have great access to the very best candidates.
Attractive
To attract the best candidates you need to make sure that you are offering something lucrative by way of salary, commissions and bonuses. Failure to offer a competitive package will either mean that you attract poor candidates or that when you do have a strong sales manager in place, retaining them will be difficult as they may receive improved offers from elsewhere.
Ruthless
When you are working through the application and later the interviews, it is crucial that you are ruthless in your approach. This means that you should stop at nothing to get the very best candidate, there is no time to take chances on someone that may or may not do well, for the role of sales manager you need someone that is tried and tested.
Training and Retention
Whist you will want someone to come into the role fired up and ready to perform, you must do your bit by giving them the proper training, sharing your vision about the company with them and inspiring them to deliver results. Expecting great things from the outset will only put unnecessary pressure on your manager, so they must be given time to ease into their role with realistic targets and KPIs. Even the very best managers will require some time to get used to the team that they have and what makes each of them tick, before you see strong results.
Finally it is vital that your sales manager is given the space and the authority to manage things how they see fit, within reason of course. Detail from the outset not only what you expect from your sales manager but also what they should expect from you, and then be sure to live up to your side of the bargain and allow them the room to manage their team.
Get the sales manager role right first time and you will have given your team the greatest possible chance of success.