In the situation at hand, a business executive was seeking insight into finding highly capable sales account executives to execute on its 2020 revenue growth plan.
If I were in this position, I would take the long view and develop my team by hiring the best people I can find who might not have much if any domain experience with my product or industry. To onboard them, I would invest in a formal sales training program aimed at bringing them quickly up the learning curve on our customer needs, our product benefits, and the general industry. I have found that the formula to a successful and scalable sales team is to invest in training – “sales enablement” – and measure their performance early on. Training is expensive, so with established benchmarks in mind I can clearly determine who will be worth the investment and who might have to be let go.
An interesting tactic I might try is group training. Shared perspective is essential in developing well-rounded individual contributors. Within a group setting, I find that employees are encouraged to learn from each other, rise to the challenge and be active participants in sales training. A way to catalyze this dynamic is to provide a group incentive bonus to reward the entire sales team, including experienced members, even though newer employees are still ramping up on the training and experience curve.
A few years ago, I wanted to develop a well-balanced team of both experienced professionals and younger employees just beginning their careers in sales. However, I found that successful salespeople were hesitant to leave a role they were performing well in – why should they start from scratch? To incentivize them to transition onto my team, I offered them a draw on their future sales commissions. It’s not a signing bonus because it's tied to performance, which will keep engagement and motivation high. Best of luck!
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