{"id":5491,"date":"2020-08-12T14:48:12","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T19:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/?p=5491"},"modified":"2020-12-04T00:47:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T06:47:00","slug":"hire-salespeople","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/hire-salespeople\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Hire Your First Two Salespeople"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sales managers often bemoan the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebalancesmb.com\/how-to-beat-the-80-20-rule-in-sales-performance-2296034\">Pareto principle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also known as the \u201claw of the vital few\u201d, its applications are wide-ranging, but in the context of sales it suggests that 20% of salespeople make 80% of sales.<\/p>\n<p>It might not be literally accurate for every organization, but it\u2019s broadly true. That\u2019s because the top performers keep hustling to <a href=\"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/close-deals-faster\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">close deals<\/a> even after their poorer-performing peers have given up.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, it\u2019s super important for startups to work with those top performers. They have a crucial role to play in building your revenue early on and scaling your business.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke to Justin Welsh, Founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theofficialjustin.com\/\">The Official Justin<\/a>, to find out how startups should go about hiring their first two salespeople:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class='youtube-player' width='700' height='394' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oJbvSNTMRWM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;start=69&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;' sandbox='allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation'><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>1. How Do You Get Ready to Hire Your First Salesperson? [0:38]<\/h2>\n<p>When looking for your first salesperson, Justin emphasizes the importance of building what he calls a \u201csalesperson persona.\u201d This entails thinking about what you&#8217;re selling and what a salesperson within your organization needs to embody \u2013 not every salesperson is suited to every type of sales job.<\/p>\n<p>When he was at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patientpop.com\/\">PatientPop<\/a>, a healthcare technology platform, he was looking for salespeople with the following attributes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2-5 years of sales experience<\/li>\n<li>Average contract value of $5-15k<\/li>\n<li>Someone who had moved a lot of units, quickly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cWhen someone didn\u2019t meet one of those criteria, I would take the interview and try to learn if I made a mistake. But if they met none of them, it\u2019s just not a good spend of my time early on,\u201d says Justin.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Why Do You Recommend Hiring Two Salespeople? [2:17]<\/h2>\n<p>Say you\u2019ve hired a great salesperson. They\u2019ve got a fantastic track record and wowed you in their interview.<\/p>\n<p>But they\u2019re just not bringing in the numbers. That must be your problem, right? Maybe your product doesn\u2019t have market fit, or it\u2019s priced too high.<\/p>\n<p>Or alternatively \u2013 maybe you hired the wrong person. You just can\u2019t know for sure.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s one of the reasons Justin recommends starting out by hiring two salespeople rather than one. It goes some way to removing potential false positives and negatives from your results.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, two heads are better than one when it comes to camaraderie. As Justin explains: \u201cThey can work together, learn objection handling, tweak the pitch, stay late in the office talking about how to get better at this job. That was how I was as a sales guy early in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>3. How Does Company Culture Fit Into Your Hiring Process? [4:11]<\/h2>\n<p>We\u2019ve all heard and read plenty about hiring on culture as well as skills and experience. But what exactly does that mean, and why is it so important?<\/p>\n<p>To Justin, culture is the way you pursue your company objectives on a daily basis. It needs to be defined early on \u2013 don\u2019t just leave it to develop by chance. To understand your culture, you first need to define:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is your mission?<\/li>\n<li>What is your vision?<\/li>\n<li>What are the values you live by every single day?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hire people who align with your culture and they won\u2019t just treat it like any other job \u2013 they\u2019ll be committed to your success. \u201cYou get involved early on and you\u2019re really proud of what you\u2019re building, not just proud of the paycheck you\u2019re bringing home every week,\u201d says Justin.<\/p>\n<p>Culture doesn\u2019t just exist company-wide \u2013 there are departmental cultures, too. \u201cYou have a company culture, but you also have a sales culture. You have a customer success culture and a marketing culture,\u201d Justin explains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the mission, vision, and values are the common thread, the stitching that puts all of those departments together so you have a cohesive vision for your company and a cohesive hiring strategy across your business.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>4. Do Your Early Sales Hires Need Different Characteristics to Later Hires? [6:40]<\/h2>\n<p>You want to hire the best salespeople at every stage of your business growth. But your first few sales hires will need different characteristics to those you hire down the line, because they\u2019ll have a lot more responsibilities. They need to figure out the fundamentals and foundations of selling your product, from the messaging they use to the collateral that supports it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot everyone has that, and you really need that in your first sales hire,\u201d says Justin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe worst thing you can do is hire someone who comes from a really big organization and is used to having unlimited resources and marketing materials and fancy slicks. They get there and they\u2019re like \u2018hey, where is all that stuff?\u2019 It\u2019s not there in an early business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So how do you find people with the right characteristics? Justin says it\u2019s all a matter of experience: \u201cShow me an environment you\u2019ve been in that\u2019s like this business that I\u2019m interviewing you for, and show me how you thrived.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf somebody can do that, you\u2019re starting to find what I call your \u2018purple squirrel\u2019 \u2013 that guy or gal who is an excellent salesperson, but also curious and creative as hell, has leadership skills, everything that you look for in that first sales hire.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>5. How Do You Find Top Performers? [9:55]<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, you\u2019re not the only business looking for great salespeople \u2013 everyone else is, too. So how do you attract the best?<\/p>\n<p>Part of it is down to brand building. Find people with big networks, create content that features them, and promote it via social. \u201cIt\u2019s a great way to get your name and face out there and your business name, and people will start being interested in that,\u201d says Justin.<\/p>\n<p>He also recommends a more direct approach: the forced referral, a method popularized by HubSpot\u2019s former Chief Revenue Officer, Mark Roberge.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s simple. Once you have a couple salespeople on your team, book a meeting with them and scroll through their LinkedIn connections. Ask them to pick out the 20 best salespeople they know \u2013 and tell them to introduce you.<\/p>\n<p>Justin explains: \u201cThat was a way we uncovered some really unique top performers who I think otherwise might not have been interested in a 15-person startup in LA at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are you searching for your first sales hire? What sort of characteristics and skills are you targeting? And how do you plan to find them? Let me know in the comments below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sales managers often bemoan the Pareto principle. Also known as the \u201claw of the vital few\u201d, its applications are wide-ranging, but in the context of sales it suggests that 20% of salespeople make 80% of sales. It might not be literally accurate for every organization, but it\u2019s broadly true. That\u2019s because the top performers keep &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/How-to-Hire-Your-First-Two-Salespeople.jpeg?fit=3840%2C2160&ssl=1","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v15.5 - http:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>How to Hire Your First Two Salespeople<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/hire-salespeople\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Hire Your First Two Salespeople\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sales managers often bemoan the Pareto principle. 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He has over 15 years of marketing experience and has led the digital marketing strategy for companies like Salesforce, Mint, Intuit and many other Fortune 500 caliber companies.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\"]}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"http:\/\/wp.me\/p85zFH-1qz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2831,"url":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/career-in-sales\/","url_meta":{"origin":5491,"position":0},"title":"4 Compelling Reasons to Consider a Career in Sales (& Know If You\u2019d Be Good at It)","date":"09\/18\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A career in sales isn\u2019t everyone\u2019s first choice. But if you\u2019re looking for a career that gives you a good income and the chance to truly succeed, you owe it to yourself to consider it. As a sales professional, you\u2019ll enjoy personal satisfaction, growth, an unmatched income potential, and financial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;sales&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"consider a career in sales","src":"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/4-Compelling-Reasons-to-Consider-a-Career-in-Sales-Header2.jpg?fit=1138%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4267,"url":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/sales-playbook-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5491,"position":1},"title":"How to Use a Sales Playbook to Train and Level Up Your Team","date":"03\/11\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Salespeople tend to be naturally bullish. In such a high-pressure game, it\u2019s practically a requirement. Yet research shows that this self-confidence is often misplaced. In fact, only a quarter of salespeople exceeded their quota last year. 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