Before you start recruiting staff that will bring clients to the company and supply it with real money, it is worth considering what the ideal manager should be like for a specific business. Perhaps you will bet on young people without experience, but with a great desire to sell, or you will prefer to hire professionals who are well acquainted with the specifics of the market niche. In the first case, a lot of time and effort will be spent on training and learning from experience, in the second you can immediately count on good results.
It is also important to pay attention to the specific experience of the candidate for the position of sales manager:
Example 1. Sergey worked for several years in a large company with a long sales cycle and a clear division of responsibilities between employees. He was involved in transaction support, client consultation, and maintaining relationships with them.
For family reasons, Sergey band database was forced to return to his small hometown, where there were no companies of the same level. He did not immediately get used to the small company selling climate control equipment: it was unusual to independently resolve all issues, from finding a lead to concluding a deal. It took about a year before he began to feel confident in short sales.
Creating a portrait of a sales department employee
Example 2. Svetlana successfully worked as a sales consultant in a chain clothing store. She easily found a common language with any customer, gave sensible advice on choosing clothes, told about current promotions. Not a single visitor left her without new clothes.
On the advice of her boyfriend, she decided to move up the career ladder and went to work in the regional sales office of the same brand. Unfortunately, the experience of short sales in retail was of no use to the girl in the B2B segment. She was unable to adapt to the specifics of wholesale trade, she lacked analytical skills, the ability to make long-term plans and carefully prepare for concluding deals. Fortunately, Svetlana managed to return to her previous position as a store director.
Gender and age are not decisive factors in most cases when selecting employees. A young girl can successfully sell industrial cooling systems, and a middle-aged man is likely to succeed in the decorative cosmetics trade. The main thing is the right character, desire and ability to respond competently to the needs of customers.
When creating a portrait of an ideal sales employee, several parameters should be taken into account:
activity segment (B2B or B2C);
product specifics;
average transaction size;
sales cycle length;
manager's responsibilities (whether he is required to support concluded transactions, be ready to travel, etc.);
what results are expected from the employee after 6 months or a year of wo