Good rep, bad rep? Spotting the signs in an early stage business.

The first sales hire is critical in an early stage business. There is no vocational test or industry template to adopt, and despite the immense time and energy spent implementing hiring and onboarding processes, no guarantee of success. So, how do you know when a salesperson is underperforming?

The instinctive answer is to look at the ‘Closed Won’ number, but such a singular focus assumes you have proven there is a market for your product, mastered the build and roll out of sales tools, processes, coaching and support and the targets are realistic for the territories you’ve designed. Early wins could also be influenced by factors such as embedded or tame relationships, pre-existing warm leads or simple good fortune. All wins should be celebrated but these are hard to repeat. That is a lot to get right before you can judge a salesperson purely by early results.

Consider these five critical factors before deciding if the salesperson is the issue.

Repeatable success demands hard work

Hard work is a minimum requirement. A salesperson should be dedicated to engaging as many qualified prospects as they can and leading campaigns to close profitable new customers.

A good salesperson will target specific activity milestones aligned to the buying processes of the ideal prospect. They will set aside time for outbound activity and act quickly when they see opportunities to improve their targeting or connection strategy. The best performers will prioritise speaking directly with prospects and customers.

Warning signs of poor performance include disproportionate time spent online, endless debates about process rather than objection handling or, in general, doing just enough to get by.

Early stage success requires agile ‘smarts’

Quality work is key to sales success. In difficult times a good salesperson will engage positively and bring new ideas and insights from prospect calls. Qualification will be rapid with follow up actions and materials mapped to the buying journey. The proposition will be validated and a believable pipeline will emerge. Prospect feedback and steps to close will be openly debated in the team with the salesperson taking ownership of clear next steps.

An underperforming salesperson will focus on problems they encounter and debate features rather than differentiators or value. Pipeline names and numbers will churn erratically, close dates will be set to the last day of the quarter and statements about the buyer journey, decision criteria and milestones will not stand up to inspection.

Winners believe their actions make the difference

Top salespeople demonstrate a desire to succeed and a belief that they alone are accountable for the actions and decisions that deliver success. Strong willed and action orientated, they will not blame external factors even when this is a reasonable response. They will demonstrate both commercial and emotional intelligence when things aren’t going their way and remain willing communicators.

The Salesperson’s Secret Code (Mills, Ridley, Laker & Chapman)combines rigorous research and experience to define 5 destination beliefs and10 journey motivators that consistently define the profile of the best performing salespeople. Many factors must align for sales success. Build the conditions for repeatable success by recognising and investing in the right beliefs and behaviours, even if it takes a little longer to reach expectations.

The first sales hire isn’t a ‘bolt on’.

Early sales are typically closed by the Founder through tenacity, talent, relentless energy and the authority to make any decision necessary to close a sale. When the first salesperson arrives, they and the supporting sales operation must be managed. This may not be seen as a big task, but it’s an additional task, requiring new skills and behaviours to support a different personality with a different agenda than the business is used to.

Sales now costs a lot of money and is a bigger focus for the Board.When performance is reviewed, how much emphasis should be placed on the skills and time required to coach and motivate the new sales hire? Who sets the business wide agenda for supporting a sales plan and course correcting as lessons are learned?

Now you’ve outgrown Founder sales, investment in the time, skills and tools to create and manage conditions for repeatable sales success will be a critical factor in the success of the business.

Behaviour is contagious

Expect a successful salesperson to be high energy, demanding, full of ideas and fast to raise the temperature when things don’t go their way. Map the behaviours to growing quality in the pipeline and feedback from customers and prospects. This should be uncomfortable but will make the business smarter and more battle ready.

An underperforming salesperson can contaminate the rest of the business. The business cannot afford to have an expensive hire dripping negativity as you work a dynamic growth culture. Negative characters will hard to protect themselves from inspection and criticism by bemoaning the business plan, support functions and the readiness of the product. They typically struggle to leverage support from colleagues and their attitude will impact morale and risk other problems like higher staff turnover and decreased overall productivity.

Margin notes...

Hiring a salesperson will have been promoted as evidence the business plan is working. Everyone will know if results are not meeting expectations, so it is important to be decisive.

Short-term milestones should be agreed, with the salesperson clear there is an issue and you are now ‘inspecting the expected’, intent on breaking down obstacles. It won’t take long to confirm what needs to change and, most often, all parties will already know what the end result is going to be.

Take this opportunity to speak directly with prospects to test assumptions about market demand and review these five optics to debate how the supporting environment and hiring and onboarding process could adapt and improve.

These may be painful moments, but sales hires are critical so lessons must be learned!

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