idealpeople blog

In this article, we focus specifically on how to avoid making mistakes when hiring salespeople for your Web 2.0 or other high-technology start-up business. We wish this was a catch-all to avoid all problems, but it isn’t! There is, unfortunately, no perfect means to hire successful salespeople every single time.

Let’s firstly look at a scenario. Your concept is now a reality, there seems to be both interest and traction in the market. You and your immediate team of Director/Owners have secured those important first deals. You all agree it’s time to hire a Sales team… and then the downward spiral begins.

You Hire > They don’t Deliver > They cost you a fortune > You Fire > You Hire…. Ad infinitum.

What are the sensible moves you can make to prevent this becoming a cycle?

Don’t rush into it!
Why should you detach yourself from the Sales Process wholeheartedly? It might make more sense to build your support and infrastructure people before you get stuck into hiring for Business Development folks. After all, as a founder, no one is more passionate & evangelical about the product/service than you – right? Consider a slowly-slowly approach which will afford you time to let people inherit client relationships and sales duties over a longer curve.

Don’t underestimate the Complexity and Challenge of Recruiting
Use a third party, and ideally just one. These people know your competitors. Theyy can help you define what you need. They can do salary & commission benchmarking, utilise multiple channels quickly for sourcing candidates, help you with on-boarding, thorough referencing, Psychometrics and even sort out your employer brand (It’s especially tough to reflect on what you are/what you have when you are small and early stage).

It’s easy to underestimate the challenge of recruiting, but as we have said before it’s between an art and a science, a multi-touchpoint contact sport which is both business critical and time and effort consuming. Naturally, we recommend you talk to us, as we have so many years of experience in finding people who will deliver.

Always be Hiring
The budget isn’t always there in many start-ups to do this, but if you make time, say a weekly meeting where the whole business sits down and talks about recruiting, you are far more likely to get the right people through the door than if you operate a transactional, stop/start approach. Having your website properly oriented towards potential hires is a key part of this, as the website can work for you 24/7, but it’s so much more than that – and networking is of course fundamental to keeping your eyes and ears open at all times for talent.

Be Prepared to “Let Go”
If you have defined your value proposition and USPs clearly, it’s makes locating the people who understand and can buy into what you are doing much easier. But don’t be afraid to let go. Be ready to give the salespeople the autonomy, as well as the knowledge they need to get the job done.

Build Loyalty Early On
By getting your inductions right, easing the facilitation of knowledge transfer, and setting clear expectations with regular review points; You avoid employee disenchantment and build loyalty. A loyal employee with high morale will be more certain to deliver results that delight, rather than disappoint! Don’t pay lip service to training, set your budget aside and make sure it’s paired with the interests and needs of the salesperson rather than being spoon-fed and assumptive.

Don’t expect to ‘Plug and Play’
Even expensive, experienced and very senior salespeople will need some time to get oriented, so don’t expect them to just ‘plug-&-play’. This is much easier to grapple with if orientation periods are carefully planned prior to the offer of employment being made, but in reality is rarely discussed at interview. By making sure your offering is fully productised – it can more easily be sold and newly hired salespeople can be brought up to speed and therefore deliver returns much faster.

Look for the Start-Up Mentality
Salespeople who work well in small high-tech firms are usually very different animals to those that work for the corporate enterprises. Just because a candidate has been a winner for Oracle doesn’t mean that they can do as well or better in a smaller business who will certainly lack the cache of automatic brand recognition and probably be way weaker in marketing or bid support.

Don’t go for the Cheapest Candidate
Although hiring from the most expensive pool can be ‘fiscally frightening’ you offset risk by bringing in a proven person rather than a cheaper (and potentially less reliable) counterpart. The best and most expensive salespeople are highly referencable and should bring a portfolio of contacts, as well as other great salespeople to hire.