How to Hire the Best Sales Reps

Today, effective selling requires:

• Listening
• Diagnosing
• Prescribing

Your business should be listening to the buyers, decision-makers, and influencers they are trying to attract. When they are engaged in your sales process, perform a rigorous exploratory process, and understand the “why” behind all their conversations so you can prescribe the right advice. 

It all comes back to knowing:

• Who they are
• What they are searching for
• How you can add value

So, what kind of sales reps should your business be hiring to support its sales and revenue goals?

It largely depends on the state of your company. If you are early on and you are looking to scale up, do not make the mistake of hiring someone who worked for a huge competitor of yours and was one of dozens or hundreds of sales reps because their playbook was already extremely well-defined.

The Entrepreneurial Salesman

At the early stages, when you are striving to get to product/market fit, you need someone who is very entrepreneurial.

A lot of their biggest value is going to be them going back and forth between potential opportunities and your technical CEO/Co-founder.

You need that entrepreneurial kind of person. If they are used to being very well supported and coddled, and there are already dozens and dozens of iterations on the playbook, that is not necessarily going to be the right hire.

When your sales team scales larger, the following segmentation options are best:

• People looking for opportunities and booking appointments
• People doing the exploratory work and advising

Bottom Line

Evaluating the best type of sales professional for your team comes down to the stage your business is at and what specifically you are looking for that person to do.

Ultimately, there is no right or wrong answer. It simply comes down to “it depends.” However, be careful not to follow conventional wisdom on this because, often, chasing after someone that seems like they’d be a good fit may, in fact, be the absolute wrong fit for where your business is depending on your context. 

What kind of sales reps does your company gravitate to? Are you finding this strategy successful? Let us know in the Comments below. 

To learn more about developing the right team to support your sales and revenue goals, download our eBook, "How to Use LinkedIn Social Selling to Attract Great Clients and Grow Revenue."