Business Development 2.0
Posts tagged small business
Taking Your Sales Force From “OKAY” To OUTSTANDING
Mar 30th
Last week on Twitter we posted, “How many sales people would you hire if you knew they all would succeed?” We got a great series of responses and retweets about this simple question.
Better sales teams generate more sales, which makes you more money – it’s as simple as that. It seems like most business owners can relate to the experience of having some “dud” sales people, as well as a few really strong performing people. The hiring process can sometimes feel like a gamble; sometimes people that you think will turn out to be excellent performers end up totally and completely tanking. This is related to a few fundamental problems with the strategy and approach that many companies take with recruitment.
Taking your sales team from “okay” to outstanding is easier than you think! Here are a few little ideas that make a big difference when hiring, recruiting, and evaluating:
Raise Your Expectations
Raise Your Expectations
1) Use a system
Often when people perform truly amazing, they don’t know how they did it; everything just came together. Equally, people have a hard time understanding why they did poorly, and this limits the ability to fix the problem. Incorporating a structured hiring system and recruitment methodology that evolves with you and your business will allow you to consistently hire sales stars.
2) It’s okay to outsource
“Why would I pay somebody to do what I can do?” Well, very simply put: your time is valuable. If you look at the amount of time, energy, and (most importantly) money that you spend on hiring, it becomes pretty easy to establish a value to the process. You could just as easily dedicate a fraction of that value to hiring a great company that excels in the process to do it for you; just make sure you critically assess if one of these companies is a good fit for you. Great outsourcing recruitment companies will profile your business, share their systems, provide you with strong feedback about their recommendations, and most importantly confirm that each of their sales hires will be a strong and accurate “fit” for your company (see How to Hire Sales Stars Every Time).
3) Have high expectations
Too often companies “hope for” rather than “expect” great performance. Setting clear and concise expectations while at the beginning of the recruitment process, and then maintaining those throughout the tenure of your salespeople will optimize sales. Expect outstanding from the get-go and watch the quality of your legitimate candidates increase. Setting the bar too low prevents strong goal oriented people from reaching their full potential because they simply are not aiming high enough.
So last week when we posted, “How many sales people would you hire if you knew they all would succeed?” on Twitter; @FourFecta responded, “All of them!” The response was simple, and incredibly true. You can hire top performing sales stars that will succeed, and you should! Taking your sales team from “okay” to outstanding might feel like a challenging undertaking, but it is possible and can be so much less intimidating.
If you are interested in seeing your sales team become outstanding, Smeester and Associates specializes in How to Hire Sales Stars Every Time.
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Social Media Marketing 101: Use Tools Availible To You
Mar 26th
Social media marketing is intimidating to newcomers, and trying to break into the scene can seem impossible. But, it is actually quite manageable and reasonable – it only takes a little patience and the use of some good tools available to everybody.
Remember when you first logged on to Twitter? I remember feeling like I was looking at the modern version of ancient marketplaces; it seemed so “noisy” as thousands of conversations happened around one another. I had no idea what I wanted to ‘tweet’ first, who I wanted to communicate with, or even how to communicate in this new language of “@__________,” and “#__________.”
Through the assistance of a few friends, several clever tools, and the professional guidance of social media experts like Scott Smeester, I was able to find my way in this fast-paced world. I learned how to interact with resources like Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in, Meetup, and more, while taking advantage of tools (or “apps”) to transition from simple social media to social media marketing.
Without a doubt, social media marketing is a sign of the increasingly digital market that we are participating in, and it is still in its “infancy.” As this digital age moves forward and this approach to marketing becomes more-and-more necessary, it is crucial that business owners learn about what is available to them.
There are so many tools available for very little cost that can help you achieve big results for your business. Sometimes all of the available options to help you utilize the resource of social media can be just as intimidating as the rest. People that are new to the scene should seek out some assistance and guidance to maximize their ability to fully use this awesome approach to making money.
Smeester and Associates uses many tools for our social media marketing efforts. Contact us if you would like to learn about what we are doing.
