Salespeople are the heart and soul of nearly every enterprise. without the right salespeople, your business will not be able to grow or profit. Even the best customer service will not be helpful if there are no customers to serve. But recruiting the best salespeople can be a challenge -- after all, they are often being courted by multiple companies at once. Here are a few tips for getting the best talent into your offices.

1. Be Specific About What You Need

Salespeople are not all made equal. There are different types of sales and there are different types of product -- you want sales personnel that fit your niche. Some salespeople are used to making high volume, low cost sales. Others are used to making low volume, luxury sales. By being very specific about your job listings and needs, you'll be able to find the sales individuals that are best for your business.

2. Get Aggressive With the Interviewing

Selling is an aggressive act. Sales professionals need to be able to keep cool under fire and be able to respond accurately and eloquently to difficult questions. Be as aggressive as you can with your interview questions -- not in tone, but in specificity. Your salespeople should be able to answer your questions very thoroughly and in-depth.

3. Offer Them the Right Tools

From dialers to ergonomic equipment, making your salespeople as comfortable as possible is often one of the best ways to recruit them. Whether you are integrated with apache kafka on aws or just using emails, being organized in your processes is key to reaching sales goals.  Sales personnel are very aware of the day-to-day tasks that they need to go through, and they will be looking for anything that can make the process easier and more pleasant for themselves. The more advanced the equipment, the more productive your sales personnel will be.

4. Don't Rush to Hire

From the initial phone interview to the final in-person interview, you should always be very careful and conscientious about recruiting. Though it may be tempting to simply get a body into the office, you need to consider that it costs money to hire someone. Not only in terms of salary, but in the cost of the training that is required. It is better for you to wait a little longer to hire the right candidate than to go through an endless process of training new hires and then letting them go.

At the same time, however, you should always be looking for better talent. Keep your eyes open and don't hesitate to contact sellers that you believe would fit into your company -- you never know when you might discover the perfect match.

5. Develop a Comprehensive On-Boarding Process

Don't just throw your staff into the pit and expect them to start selling. Instead, create a three month on-boarding system that is designed to acclimate them to company culture and train them to operate alongside the requirements of your business. This will make them far more effective and will enforce consistency and unity across the board. Sales individuals should go be thoroughly analyzed for performance after this initial process to determine whether or not they are truly suitable for the sales department.

Of course, getting the best salespeople is one thing -- keeping them is another entirely. Sales professionals tend to experience very high churn, many of them lasting only months in each position. To reduce this churn, you need to be able to listen to your employees and ensure that they have the technology and support that they need to succeed. By maintaining a strong sales team, you'll be able to steadily grow your business and improve upon your bottom line.

Being personable with clients can really get great things happen. Business owners that get personable with clients by creating tailored customer experience both offline and online have experienced an increase in sales and become brand leaders in their niche.

According to statistics by the e-tailing group and MyBuys, over 40% of clients buy more products and services from business owners that are personable across all channels. The research study also indicates that a further 41% of clients buy more from business owners that utilize email tracking. Also, 39% of clients buy more from merchants that personalize web recommendations. The following reasons are manifest evidence that being personable with clients will lead to higher revenues:

1. Humans Love Attention

It's natural that humans crave recognition and get attracted to care and familiarity. A business that personalizes their customer buying experiences by expressing an interest in their personal lives and treating them as friends end up with a large customer base. However, businesses today don't directly interact with clients to know them better, but flourish on their data. They leverage details like age groups, time zones, geographic locations, payment methods and utilize these details to customize marketing campaigns for these very clients.

2. Customer's Desire for Control and Rescue from Information Overload

The clients feel more in control if they know that a suggestion, product or an email is dedicated to them; and that they are not just receiving what others are. A personalized suggestion makes the product look relevant to the clients and make them believe that what they are experiencing is exactly what they need and saving themselves from tons of information available online. Being personable with clients will help them maneuver through the crowded and noisy world of marketing in a guided, relevant and ultimately rewarding way.

3. More Customer Engagement

Personal interactions with clients makes conversions easier, for instance, the Amazon's One Click Purchase model. Personalization provides smooth payment checkout by only memorizing a few details about the client. Clients like the hassle-free checkout and a few minutes they just saved afford you more customer engagement.

4. It Makes You More Money

Business owners or e-commerce marketers that implement personalized marketing witness profound return on investment, by promoting products and offers which are relevant and meaningful to their clients. According to research by Econsultancy, businesses that utilize personalization techniques are experiencing a net uplift of 19% in sales. Additionally, 59% of marketers indicated that their personalization strategies are yielding handsome returns on their investments.

With Personalization, enterprises are in a good position to automate manual aspects of their merchandising techniques, through made simple stream processing. Hence, freeing up quality time that marketing teams can use to build up potent customer relations that result to long-term loyalty; enhancing client's lifetime value. All of this leads to higher sales and hence bigger revenues.

5. Your Competitors are Doing It

According to a report by Econsultancy, 94% of businesses concur that being personable with clients is critical to the current and future success of the business. With that said, there is a greater probability that your competitors are already implementing this strategy. It is, therefore, imperative that you keep with the speed and read from the same hymn book than risk the wrath of dissatisfied clients moving to the competitors where the experience is a lot more personalized, more enjoyable and above all relevant.

Business owners or marketers should always strive to do more on a shoestring budget, overcoming IT and technology barriers to forge ahead. With the desire to separate their business provisions through immaculate service, enhancing client experience should be on top of to do list. Those marketers or business owners that don't embrace personalization should not opt for lower-impact techniques that would not help them drive up sales. As an alternative, they need to a true personalization technique that matches current and future needs to make sure their customers are delighted and keep buying from the site.

Growing up as a kid, I suffered with severe anxiety of interacting with anyone outside of my family or social circle. I often had nightmarish visions of being called to the front of the classroom, having to ask for help from a stranger or even approaching the staff inside of the store. This trauma soon became one of the biggest factors in my life and would often prevent me from meeting people and having experiences that I knew I would enjoy. It wasn't until I entered the fast-paced world of sales that I learned the tools to happiness.

Fearless

The biggest obstacle selling cars taught me to overcome is the ability to be fearless. I remember my first day on the job: A manager pulled me to the side, realizing I wasn't a natural salesman, and told me to put on an act. "Even if you're trembling inside, act as if you've done this before. This is nothing to you," he repeated. From that point on, specifically when I felt anxiety and fear of approaching a customer, I would become a performance artist. I was a master salesman. Sure, not everyone purchased a car from me or greeted me with a warm smile, but I didn't care. I could do anything.

Dealing With Rejection

In sales, and almost any career path in life, you will inevitably be rejected. It hurts and it doesn't make you feel good about yourself. Maybe the man or woman of your dreams just rejected you. Perhaps you were turned down for that promotion you thought you would easily attain. What's more alarming, the pain from rejection and heartbreak feels as real as a physical pain in the body. The lesson I learned, through a series of setbacks and failures, is that rejection is part of the process. No one goes from zero to hero with 100% success. There are failures and massive rejections along the way. In car sales, I faced that demon every single day and learned to become fond of it. Getting rejected by one customer meant I was closer to an agreement from another.

Self Development

Great leaders are often some of the people who've devoted time, resources and money to grow themselves on a personal level. My mentor--a multi-millionaire and self-made sales professional--pulled me to the side one day and gave me some of the best advice I'd ever received. He said, "leaders are readers. If you harness the habit of self development, you can achieve anything you want in this world." This always stuck with me. From that point forward I knew that I would devote my time, energy and spare income to developing my personal character.

Intimidation

The biggest way I became happier through car sales is the ability to deal with intimidation. I remember a general manager meeting where I was to contact the biggest salesperson in my city. I still remember her Lipsense lipstick and her ability to make me feel very small and unaccomplished. I approached her with confidence and was soon fascinated by her story. She'd become a multi-millionaire several times over while juggling a family and social life. My initial intimidation towards this woman soon turned into admiration and astonishment.

Sales is the Lifeblood of Success

Whenever I think of the biggest companies on the planet today--Amazon, Google, Wal-Mart, Target, etc.--I realize how critical the sales process is. Even in my car dealership, we only kept he lights on if our team accomplished their goals and hit sales targets. My belief was soon proven to be true when Mark Cuban, a multi-billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, reiterated my belief. "There's never been a business that has succeeded without sales," Mark said in an interview with Inc. Magazine. From that point on, I knew I had the tools and strategies to become successful.

If you notice that there has been a decline in employee sales, the problem may not be with the product or the prospects, but may instead be with your employee morale. While employees are partially motivated by a desire to earn an income, this is often not enough to maximize your company's sales. The following are lessons I learned when I was a LipSense distributor and leading those under me. These are things I am using today:

Build Trust

Cultivate trust in your sales representatives. When you notice that your sales representatives are not meeting their sales goals, you will need to have a conversation with them. but you will not be able to do this if they do not feel that they can trust you. One way to do this is to simply tell your representatives that you would like to have a trusting relationship with them and to ask them how you can achieve this.

Lead By Example

Try to lead by example. Even if you do not have a background in sales, consider the behaviors that you want to see from your sales representatives and think of ways in which you can demonstrate these behaviors. For instance, if you would like your sales representatives to be more detail-oriented in how they track sales data, find ways to be more data-driven yourself.

Find Other Ways To Motivate

Look for other ways to reward employees besides providing them with money. For instance, as a LipSense distributor, SeneGence motivated their distributors by providing a free vacation to a sales representative who has the highest number of sales or who has placed the most cold calls. These types of rewards make work more interesting and fun, which can be much more motivating for your employees. Also, for those who are focused on achievement, rewards and other motivators are a great way to help these employees feel like they are recognized.

Give Them The Right Tools

One way to improve the morale of sales representatives is by making it much easier for them perform their jobs. Providing your employees with automatic phone dialer programs will allow them to place more sales calls more quickly. This will lead to your employees to making more sales as they connect to more customers more quickly.

Understand What Motivates High-Performers

One of the difficulties of motivating sales representatives is that sales professionals are driven by different things. For example, high-performing sales professionals are usually motivated by the desire for personal achievements and may become demotivated if they experience ceilings. For instance, if you limit the number of sales calls a star representative can go on, this may cause him or her to leave for a different company.

Do Not Ignore Average Sales Representatives

For those representatives who are always lagging behind, it may simply not work to keep them on your team. But for those representatives who are in the middle, you will want to devote the most attention because they are the most likely to be able to significantly improve the profitability of your company. In most cases, the incentive you provide is not what they are looking for and you will want to use other methods to ignite the spark.

Respect Your Staff

For your most experienced sales professionals, it is important that you show them respect. Simply ask them how they would like to be managed. Experienced sales representatives will likely have a general understanding of how they like to be managed and can guide you through this process.

The great thing about sales is that it is ultimately number-driven. By crunching the numbers, you can know exactly how well your company is performing. Even motivation can be reduced to numbers when the methods you use to improve motivation make a clear, tangible difference.

It is almost impossible for a sales team to be successful if it is not tracking how it is reaching its goals. You should be able to answer questions such as "how many conversions did you have this week" or "how many cold calls did you make this week." Having adequate sales data allows for you to make modifications that will maximize the profitability of your business.

1. Automate Your Sales Processes

One of the best ways to track sales metrics is to handle sales transactions using an automated system that forces you to enter in critical data. It is easy to forget to track important details by simply keeping a spreadsheet. It is impossible to forget when you are forced to enter data in order to complete a sale.

The best automated sales processes handle much of the work for you. For instance, if there is a stage in which customers must be sent an email, this can be done automatically. Reports can be generated and sent to appropriate managers so they can receive feedback on their performance. Automated sales software can also ensure that clients are efficiently moved through the sales pipeline. For instance, prospects can become frustrated if they are repeatedly contacted with the same sales pitch when they have already agreed to purchase the product or service.

2. Use Mobile Apps

Track sales data using mobile apps. Oftentimes, you are given access to sales information while you are not at your computer. Tracking sales data from a mobile app will allow you to always add sales data even when your sales team is on a sales call. When tracking sales data, begin by tracking three key metrics. For example, if you are carrying out cold calls, you should track the number of cold calls you are performing, the number of appointments you are having and the number of closed sales. After you have gotten used to tracking three metrics, begin adding additional metrics that you feel will help you shape your sales process.

3. Trace Emails

Track customers with an email tracer. It can be difficult to remember where a particular email is from. A tracer program can identify an email's IP address, which will allow you to remember where a particular email was from and connect it to a customer or a sale. Setting up an email marketing drip campaign will help you to generate more lead and do so more efficiently. Keep your emails organized by placing them in appropriate folders.

4. Track Time

Time tracking software is critical for measuring metrics such as how long it takes for a sales representative to finish a cold call. Time tracking software must be easy to use so it won't interfere with your workflow and so it can quickly begin tracking time when necessary. Using a simple stopwatch on your phone can also help when you do not have access to more complex software and need to track something on the fly.

5. Generate Visualizations

It is difficult to understand abstract numbers and much easier to understand charts and graphs. Pie charts, line graphs, bar graphs and any other form of visualization can give you a quick, overall picture of how well your business is performing. Fortunately, many sales software programs come with visualization tools built-in. Great visualizations are clear about what they represent and it is easy to see the changes in data that are being tracked.

At the end of the day, assess what information you have tracked to determine whether you are forgetting anything. Make an effort each day to improve your data collection efforts. Once you have acquired sufficient data, it is important to weed through the information to identify areas where you can improve. Not only should you focus on revenue generated, but other metrics such as the speed at which you perform cold calls. With enough data, you will significantly boost your sales and lower expenses.

Business is one of the most dynamic career areas to get involved with. There are always new concepts like market automation coming out and changing the current paradigm. Marketing automation is the notion that you can and will leverage the power of your computing systems in order to set your website and other online properties up to automatically respond or analyze a marketing promotion or a sales contact.

Here are some ways that automation is changing the future of selling:

Marketing and sales people are always going to be important to most companies. At the same time, marketing research people that work with computer systems are growing in importance because whether you have a service or a line of products, you are likely in a position where your customers are going to rely on your online offerings in order to get the information that they need to develop an opinion and make a purchase.

Because of this, shaping their experience and creating material that converts understanding into sales is something that strengthens the role that analysts play in the sales process. Email marketing is a great opportunity to reach your customers. Specifically email marketing drip campaigns are great ways to help customers advance through the sales funnel. It is therefore quite important to get the right staff in place when you start making changes to online automation so that you can ensure that your customers will be properly motivated.

Think AI:

Not all marketing and sales processes utilize artificial intelligence online in order to enhance the user experience for a lower price. Yet when that opportunity exists and it is seamless to the customer, it can make a difference in the price that you pay for maintenance. On the other hand, when you implement process shaping with an element of AI, it is important to avoid unnecessary style faux pas. Customers that are online are normally savvy regarding processes that are heavily automated. They will likely know if you have content that seems canned or insincere. So whether you are providing free insurance quotes or selling cars, using AI can help you leverage the power of an quality online presence.

One reason that AI will eventually become important is that it snaps in well to online presentation systems and can be incorporated into every part of the online process for less money that it would take to automate on a grand scale without it. Car dealers have big opportunity to use data they get from their customers to try and sale more effectively.  Another major reason that it will start to be favored in the future is that if it is done well in terms of its implementation, it will allow technicians to create more sophisticated environments, increasing your sales.

Measurement is King:

20th century marketing and sales people relied a lot upon feedback that they were able to elicit through personal surveys, polls, and research. Today, because customers do most of their product research online, it is possible to completely measure and analyze their behavior, a marketing feature for companies which was once considered to be the holy grail of market research. Clients who visit multiple websites that are part of your forest of information for any product that you are marketing online, can also be tracked and analyzed so that their decision-making process is understood by their actions. Quite a change from having to ask online.

Another area of measurement that is important for the future of sales is the development of ROI for your market campaigns and data. Return on investment whether you are a car dealer or lipsense distributor should always drive the actions you take. ROI allows you to manage your system using common sense profitability factors. In business, if you decide to add email tracking as a process to your marketing department, measuring the costs of your current process and then comparing them to the costs of the process that you are about to bring in and use for tracking email will allow you find out how efficient your vendors are- and how well your company is serving your clients.

Automation is a very important part of the future of selling. By understanding and implementing it when it is relevant to your team, it can save your firm time and money.

When looking to grow and expand a business, one of the best things you can do is expand your sales team. With a larger sales team, your company will be in better position to get more customers and increase revenue. In order to expand your sales team, it will be important to do a number of things. It will be very important to network with sales professionals, ask for recommendations, post online ads and work with recruiters. You will also benefit by hiring managers to recruit and hire more salespeople. By doing these things, you will be in great position to get the most qualified sales professionals for your company.

Network with Professionals

The first thing you can do when looking to expand your sales team is to network with sales professionals. In this situation, you will often go to professional conventions, seminars and business networking events. You can also attend job fairs where you can meet up with sales professionals. At networking events, you will have the opportunity to talk to a number of salespeople and tell them about the opportunities at your company. Business owners will also have the ability to review the salesperson’s qualifications and track record as well. Lastly, you can rely on people in your professional network who know of top salespeople as well.

Ask for Recommendations

Another way to expand your sales team is to ask for recommendations. In this process, you will talk to vendors and professional acquaintances and tell them about your job openings for salespeople. You will then ask them if they know of anyone who is looking for a job in sales. In many cases, your professional acquaintances will know salespeople and then have them recommended to your company. By asking for recommendations, you can take advantage of a highly effective way to increase your sales team.

Post Ads

When looking to expand your sales team, one of the things you can do is post online ads. This is the process of posting a sales job opening on the various job websites. With this method, you will likely get a number of applicants and resumes to evaluate. Don’t be afraid to run an email drip campaign to current subscribers. There is a good possibility that you will have current email subscribers who are qualified to work for you. You will have numerous people to consider and therefore increase your chances of finding the most qualified sales professionals. If you are looking to efficiently get numerous sales professionals to evaluate and add to your team, then posting ads online is a great way to accomplish this goal.

Work with Recruiters

Businesses that are looking to expand their sales team will benefit by working with a recruiter. A company will have the opportunity to work with an organization that actively looks for qualified sales professionals. They will interview and evaluate the sales professionals and then recommend them to your company. Using recruiters can be a very effective way to find and hire a number of sales professionals for your company. Therefore, using a recruiter can be one of the best sources to use when you are looking to expand your team of sales professionals.

Hire Managers

Companies that want to expand their sales team will also want to hire managers to recruit more salespeople. A company will benefit by hiring a sales manager who can evaluate and hire the right sales professionals for the company. With a sales manager, you will not only get the best salespeople for your organization but also someone who can coach and mentor the sales team as well. They will also be able to set goals and make sure that they are achieved. Therefore, hiring a sales manager can help you get the salespeople you need to expand your business.

Monitor Their Progress

Once you build and expand your sales team, it will be important to monitor their progress and make sure that they consistently meet quotas. One of the most effective ways to track the performance of your sales team is to use a power dialer. This will enable you to see how your sales team is generating leads as well as whether or not they are converting prospects into customers. With an expanded sales team that performs well, your company will likely prosper.

As you're considering your business plans for the upcoming year, you may have decided that you want to start setting larger goals for your business. In your plans, you can consider new applications for phones or new software on the computers such as an email tracer, project management system, or prospecting tools to increase sales effectiveness. The world of technology can help you to build connections and to better develop your plans; however, you also want to consider how writing down your sales goals can inspire you to act.

Providing Focus

Right now, you may have a bunch of goals jumped up in your head. You might be thinking about goals for all different times of the year. When these figures are bouncing around in your thoughts, you do not necessarily have the focus needed to make them come into fruition. By writing out your goals, you are forced to focus on them specifically. You can pull them apart from the other inner workings of your mind.

Analyzing Expectations

In your mind, your ideas might look crystal clear and realistic. However, as soon as you put them down onto paper, you begin to realize that they cannot happen unless you make other adjustments to your business. Sometimes, that is why people avoid putting their ideas onto paper. They know that once they do so, they will have to embark upon a period of revision. While that does mean you need to put in some more work, it also means that you can reap more benefits.

Listing Resources

Chances are that listing your goals will show you what resources you need to procure in order to attain them. For example, you may need to hire more staff members to reach the sales goal that you want to attain by the end of December, or you might have to purchase new equipment to reach your goals for the upcoming year. Writing down the resources that you need next to the corresponding goals helps you to become organized.

Prioritizing Your Goals

You may have a number of goals that you are considering. Whether you are a car dealer or a lipsense reseller, you have goals. While reaching all of them at the same time might sound tempting, doing so can also prove impossibly overwhelming. By writing them down, you can start to prioritize. You will have a clearer idea of which goals you need to start working toward right away and which ones you can put into a file.

Offering Realism

When you consider the thoughts that live in your mind, you may picture a world of imagination. Writing goals down shows you that they are real in a tangible way. You have written them out, so now you can accomplish them. You might have thought that writing them down would prove difficult; however, now that you have seen that it is not, you can entirely change your perspective.

Making a List

You've probably had similar experiences before, but you might not have realized it. Maybe you knew that you had a ton of errands to run over the weekend, and you felt overwhelmed as a result. However, when you wrote down all of the errands, you felt in more control of the situation. Also, you were able to check off each item as you completed it. Once you have accomplished one goal, you can cross it off, which gives you a sense of accomplishment and the motivation to move on to the next one. You will see how good it feels to check an item off of your list.

Inspiring Others

You may tell employees about your goals when you have meetings; however, the ideas may not stick in their minds. Putting the goals onto a piece of paper means that you can share this information with the rest of your team. Put the list in a place where people can see it; they will then have a daily reminder of what they need to do.

You might think that writing does not have a connection to action. However, by taking the time to put your ideas onto paper, you can inspire major change in your business.

Marketing is the lifeblood of any organization. Without marketing, an organization will sink, and every company is seeking to boost its productivity with simple marketing tricks. Marketers combine dozens of factors to ensure they have an effective marketing strategy. As a marketer, you need to borrow one or two tricks from other successful organizations to avoid taking the wrong direction and regretting later. The organization should first be willing to change from old marketing strategies to new and effective tricks. Therefore, throw your old marketing guides into the bin!

Launch unassociated products

Sometimes a company’s reputation can work against it. If you plan to create a product that is highly unrelated to your principal activity, it is good to distance it from your original brand. You can create a different website for the new product. Additionally, avoid mentioning its relation with your organization as much as possible. For instance, Lexus is a Toyota's brand. However, the product does not openly state its connection to the well-known Japanese company.

Run blogs

Consider adding a blog section to your website. However, the content of the blog should be a concern to the marketer. Your publishing schedule for the blog and its marketing value for your organization should also be a primary concern. Marketers should note that a created corporate blog is an essential tool for the company, which plays an important role in the marketing battle against the company’s competitors.

Mobile accessibility and optimization

People are turning to using mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. Shoppers are using these devices to compare deals, purchase goods, research a product, and find a retail outlet. Marketers should engage people since most cannot stay without their phones. Therefore, companies should make their products readily available for mobile phone users.

Collaborate with influential groups and individuals

If your organization is not yet well known, and you want to market its products or services, consider reaching out to influential individuals. For instance, you can collaborate with influential bloggers or companies in your niche then try getting featured on their websites as a guest contributor or a partner. It is an important marketing trick because showing your customers that you are in good relationship with influential market players will boost your reputation significantly.

Improve your SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a game-changing instrument for marketers. Prioritize visual content like video, pictures, and infographics on your website to add the importance of building your SEO ranking. Visual content on your website will improve your SEO unlike when you just use plain text. Thus, it makes the search more relevant to a client. A picture is worth more than a thousand words. A video is worth more words.

Marketing using emails

Email Marketing entails sending commercial messages to a group of people using email. It is a cost effective and powerful marketing tool for businesses. It provides predictable results at little or no cost at all. It entails using email to send advertisements, donations, and request business all in a bid to build loyalty, brand awareness, and trust. Emails can be directed to an existing database of customers. The type of email and number of emails you send to your customers will also determine how well you market your company.

When deciding the right time to send emails, consider the day or week of the month that clients buy from your store and the time of the day they check their inbox. There are various types of emails marketers of an organization can send to their customers. It is good to select the right type of email based on your marketing objectives. Consider incorporating various types of direct emails, mobile-designed emails, and transactional emails in your marketing campaign, all the while presenting drip campaign examples to your customers.

Do some competitors research

You cannot effectively market your products without researching about your competitors. You need to be aware of their products, their prices, and guarantees so that you make attractive deals to potential customers. Additionally, you can speak to your competitor’s customers to gather information. That way, you will know the best marketing trick to use.

Be sure to keep the above marketing tricks. Remember to maintain the interests of your customers at heart by paying attention to their needs. You will be astonished by the positive results you get!