Building a Sales Organization (Part II)

Over the years I found that the best sales professionals in the world I have gotten to know all have a similar way of working. They all seem to have:

i) in depth understand the customer (s), their business, their politics, their network, their behavior, and so on

ii) intimate knowledge of the "solution" they are selling, appreciating the strengths and the value it brings, acknowledging the areas of improvement and how to overcome them, etc.

iii) a crisp clear view of the ECO system (within the market, region) and in particular have a broad/detailed view of the competitive landscape, including but not limited to; compelling reasons to buy, differentiators, roadblocks versus speedbumps

iv) ability to 'command' and 'manage' resources nearly at will without upsetting internal company politics (a development technique for this can be found in my blog on Thinking outside of the box)

v) great personal traits that are needed within the market called on (see Building a Sales Organization (part I))

vi) established a healthy credit report with their customers, often expressed in relationships that border friendship

Building a sales organization (Part I)

When building a sales organization finding the right sales person(s) is the single most difficult task for the company. The right sales person can perform magic for a company whereas a misplaced person can severely damage the image and reputation of a company.

After all you are asking for a person that sells for a living to sell themselves to your company.

In my view there are four pieces to a great candidate:

i) has a network within the targetted industry, not just prospects/customers, but also analysts, competitors, related vendors, investors, and so on

ii) understands the market, the technologies involved, and the limitations it imposes, the future challenges politically, and do they have a future vision

iii) has knowledge about different selling techniques, and sales approaches, understand different financial pricing models, and

iv) has the right personality traits (the black magic)

Below a list of traits that I commonly use to identify if someone has the 'black magic'

• People oriented


• Risk takers


• Curious and inquisitive


• Results oriented


• Ability to handle objection and rejection


• Tenacious


• Resourceful


• Competitive


• Problem solver


• Good listeners

Certainly many hiring managers will sway their decision based to a candidate that has the right 'feel'.

If this is the case I would challenge you (a) to find three candidates with the 'right feel', and (b) honor both with a well prepared detailed interview.