Sales Department. Part 1 “Essential steps to take”
You need a sales team if your business has grown to a certain level. If you cannot take care of all tasks, consider forming a team of talented people. A sales department is responsible for handling advertising and sales-related tasks. The department can also control the procurement of goods. Creating a dynamic team is not a difficult task if you have been a great salesman yourself! You are likely to have this knowledge if you have been through the startup phase of your business. Depending upon the size of your organization and the nature of the business, you can choose an IT sales team that handles large accounts or performs customer service related tasks. The choice is entirely yours.
Prepare the job description for the members. You should have a clear idea of the type of candidates required for your sales team. Even if you have had sales experience, consider discussing the topic with experts. Outline the job description for sales manager, sale representative, and account executives. Consider the workload and finalize the salary of each member. Salary structure should be chosen in a way that maximizes employee benefits. Consider the national averages of salaries for standard positions in the sales department.
Prioritize the skills, experience, and knowledge that you want a team member to have. Selecting creative and sincere people will help your business in the long run. Don’t ignore your existing employees for sales team positions. You can have a balanced mix of fresh and experienced candidates. Use your networking contacts to find the right people for your sales team. You can also ask your employees for referrals. People hired through reliable references are usually a better choice over someone picked up randomly. Therefore, select people with the right blend of knowledge and experience. You can also visit local colleges to hire fresh candidates for your sales team.
If you have closed at least one sale, the short answer is NOW! Whether you decide to hire or contract with someone to help you, you should start preparing now. Although you may have not formally created a sales department, you are the sales department if you have attempted to persuade someone to purchase your product or service. So since you have probably attempted at this point, let’s talk about some things you should do in order to prepare for the day when you will be ready for structuring, which I hope is very soon!
Here are a few essential steps to take to prepare for IT sales structure.
Sales Process Documentation: Start formulating what the basic steps from who your market is, to how you get your leads, to what steps have to be taken in order to complete the sale, and what service is expected from the salesperson after the sale are. Writing this down (or typing) will help you now as well. This is the beginning of your sales process. You also want to have some way of tracking contacts and business in some type of software. There is no excuse for a spreadsheet because CRM (client relationship management) software have become a very inexpensive option.
Sales Presentation: Document and gather any material you use to either review yourself or show to a potential client in order to close the sale. This would include a printout of your website, brochures, industry studies, business card sample, etc. If you have a packet like this, it will be easier to delegate at least part of your sales process to a support person prior to hiring a fulltime salesperson, by having the support person prepare all packets or marketing material before your appointments. Good salespeople will want to have something to establish credibility with potential clients; however, this exercise is right for you also.
Compensation Plan: It is vital that your commission plan is straightforward and easy to understand. If it is not, most good salespeople will not give you a second look because salespeople will need to be able to either understand it themselves or be able to show it to someone they trust who will appreciate it and feel that the opportunity is legitimate. Try to stay as close as possible to how your competitors pay their salespeople and add a slight premium to that amount since you don’t have a proven track record of hiring salespeople yet. To help you see what type of money someone could make at your opportunity, you might want to start figuring out what you would make yourself in commissions on the business you close.
If you begin working on these few steps fairly early in the process, you will not only have a much better chance of finding good IT salespeople but will also close more sales in the meantime.
