sales, hiring, serviceI have a start-up company that is one-year old. It is business to business and is contract based. We have developed a few new services recently that we are going to launch.
I have made a few pitches to prospective clients, but have not been successful. Prospective clients have acknowledged the usefulness of our services (not just being polite), but I find that I am not good at converting these opportunities to sales.
Therefore, my solution is to appoint a salesperson. This is my first appointment of this nature and I would like to ask this community for advice/their experience on:
• When is the best time to hire a salesperson?
• What type of skills should I seek?
• Are there other options to consider apart from/ as well as appointing a salesperson?
Here are a few tips based on experience…
Learn how to sell: read books, listen to audio books and go out there and try. Try harder than anyone and keep at it. Your customers are leaving you tips on what works and what doesn’t, and if you can sell - you’ll have a superior advantage. Don’t forget to ask for the order, if you just have meetings - then that’s all you are doing… meeting, not selling.
If you can’t sell, you better find someone who can and fast. There are lots of ways to hire or partner with a talented sales person to help you sell your product.
If your product isn’t being adopted, then you might not have a product/market fit, and that could be a possibility, but without more info, it’s only a theory.
Topgrading for sales is a great book to hire sales people As far as recruiting, ask everyone you know, who in their humble opinion, is the most talented sales people they know - then track that person down. Talent knows and recognizes talent, and perhaps there is person out there that can help.
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