NEOSA Sales & Marketing SIG: Hiring the Right Sales Team, Part 1, September 11, 2008

A full-time professional sales team can be the catalyst for substantial growth or a boat anchor costing you time, money and missed business opportunities. Every expanding business will inevitably face the challenge of hiring and building a dedicated sales team. Each hire is a key employee, especially so when it comes to the sales staff. Whether it's your first hire or the fiftieth, each decision is fraught with a variety of concerns: closing skills, work ethic, incentives, and more. This session will address the challenge of building and staffing an effective, high-performing sales organization that is competent and capable of finding and closing profitable sales. The session will cover: Finding competent talent within my industry or identifying complementary markets for talent Training non-sales personnel versus training a dedicated sales staff Interviewing skills to verify credentials: closer vs. poser or do you need a farmer or a hunter? Compensation, quotas and territory management Training new sales hires? Recognizing the differences between selling as the principal or owner versus as a dedicated sales executive. Articulating and establishing a repeatable sales process that doesn't depend on you. Sales management – when to add this level and how to find it