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November 25, 2013 | 4-minute read (676 words)
Originally published on BlueDeer.
Great advice on hiring your first sales professional from our good friend Mike Moss at BlueDeer.
I attended a Mitchellake event hosted at RocketSpace called: Hiring Your First Sales Person. Panelist were from: Andreessen Horowitz, Yammer, Hortonworks, and Gigya. The take aways that resonated with me include:
Realistic self-assessment
—Somebody creative and dynamic. If they have a “playbook,: that is a red flag. There is no magic sales model.
—A good listener. Listening is critical and can open the door to extremely valuable prospect feedback.
—Somebody that understands the complexity of the sale, the approach, and can build high-quality long lasting relationships. Beware of turn-and-burn, deal chasing, closers.
—Enough intellectual horsepower and technical aptitude to close and to stay with the customer.
—Broader skill sets beyond just sales are more valuable than domain expertise.
—Finding somebody equally as passionate as you and has a genuine passion for customer success, and somebody that is a good cultural fit, and is value-aligned. Remember, they represent your brand.
—A 15 year veteran at a Fortune 500 usually isn’t a good fit as they don’t normally possess the skill set needed to be successful and don’t often thrive in a frenetic environment. I’ll add that account managers are usually not good initial sales reps either, as working an established install base is completely different than developing new business for a new company.
Interview tips
Tips for success once you’ve hired
What do you think the key to hiring a strong sales person are? Tell us about it in comments below.
Mike Moss helps companies build and scale revenues. He brings 20 years of business development, sales and start-up expertise. He has closed $4m and $5m contracts and countless 6-figure contracts with the Fortune500 and built several 8-figure pipelines for his clients. His company, BlueDeer provides a 'plug & play' sales and marketing team for the cost of a single headcount. He loves talking shop, so contact him to discuss your growth goals.
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