What Startup Companies Should Look For in Hiring a Sales Manager

Hiring the right candidate as a sales manager is a very vital procedure for any company that intends to shine and be competitive in any particular industry. Employing someone who doesn’t seem to represent the company’s predetermined objects can be a big setback in the company’s success. There are certain considerations and aspects to look for in a potential sales manager hire who can boost the sales of your company and translate his efforts into increased profits.

Sometimes it’s easier to outsource the responsibilities of hiring a sales manager to a management recruiter or sales training specialists who have experience in understanding the expected skill set of a potential sales manager. However, as a human resource manager or recruiter in a company, you should prioritize hiring a role model who can influence attitudes and expectations in the sales department. Here are some of the things to look out for when hiring a credible sales manager for your company:

The Hiring Process Requires Forethought

In order to avoid hiring industry retreads, you should steer clear of basing your criteria on the ordinary ‘industry experience requirement’ only. Although an experienced candidate is likely to bring along some competitive sales secrets, clients, or tips, most industry information or trends can be thought on the job. A candidate with years of experience will, of course, be a valuable addition to a company’s success but other considerations ought to be used.

Be as clear as possible when writing the job description post for the job advertisement. Include all the necessary skills and characteristics that you are looking for in a sales manager’s job position. This will make the process less stressful and more successful. Describe the required educational background; years of experience in handling similar responsibilities or in the industry; and the exact duties and responsibilities of the sales manager.

Being too flexible on the description of the requirements can be time consuming and hectic. Instead, sieve out the unqualified candidates so that you can easily narrow down the search to just a few of the right potential candidates suitable for the sales manager position. In fact, letting a team of experienced recruiters do the recruitment, will help you in freeing up enough time to run the other core aspects of your business as they conduct an all-inclusive hiring procedure.

Conducting a Proper Interviewing Process

It’s possible to make the right hiring decision just by carefully assessing an applicant’s resume. However, the resume should only guide you on choosing the suitable candidates for the interview but not who to hire for the job. Ensure that you prepare a list of relevant questions and crucial world scenarios that you can use in interviewing the selected candidates. Make certain that you ask questions such as: what quotas will you set for the sales team? Describe how you can handle a non performing salesperson? What are the vital skills that a top performer should possess? How do you use metrics to improve the performance of your team? How do you keep track of all the information that comes across your desk? Do you know any data loss prevention techniques? Can you handle both selling and managing a team of salespeople?

You should also inquire whether the candidate approves of certain aspects of sales such as cold-calling and creating of up-front leads for the sales representatives. This is crucial because certain methods of executing sales campaigns can be expensive and unnecessary than others. For instance, employing lead-driven sales tactics can be cheaper than hiring expensive sales executives to conduct cold calling for the sales department.

Identifying the right candidate suitable a company’s sales manager position is very critical for every business because if a company doesn’t have sales, it will have to close shop. A reliable, educated, experienced and skilled sales manager will know how to set a positive tone for the sales team and help in steering the entire sales department towards success.

 

by: Lee Flynn

Tags: business, Hiring Sales Manager, Start up Companies, technology

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