Looking for work? The position I have requires 10 to 12 hours a day of completely dedicated effort. If you’re going to be successful, you’ll have to document every single thing you do each day, all day long, in real-time. I want you to know right up front, you’ll face immense rejection in this job, because everything you do will be scrutinized by our main office, your sales manager and our service department.
You’re responsible for finding new clients, and most prospects will reject you. It doesn’t hurt much. You might also have to manage a few existing clients, but all of their leases were just renewed, so there won’t be any income from them for at least three years. Should any of those clients not pay as required, you’ll have to collect their payments face to face. And if you can’t get them to pay, we might process a charge back against your commissions, because after all, they’re your accounts.
Wait, it Gets Better
Your base salary will always be at risk. And even if you’ve worked here for 12 years, if you have a slump in sales, we’ll put you on straight commission to help you focus. Remember, we’re behind you all the way.
We won’t force you to memorize our company’s value proposition because, well, we don’t even know what it is. You’ll have to be creative and make up your value as you go along.
Our database is old and outdated, but remember: we’re providing that to you at no cost to help you be successful. You can call on any business you want as long as we approve it first. If you sell something to a company we haven’t approved, you won’t be paid for it. Think of us as family!
Your gas allowance won’t quite cover your miles but that’s designed to help you manage your territory in the most-efficient manner. Not a big deal, right?
On most deals, you’ll only know ballpark costs until you sell the deal, then we’ll adjust the costs to the true cost numbers. It won’t be a major difference, but keep in mind we have to setup and deliver what you’ve sold. Oh and we’ve just been awarded “one of the best places to work” in our marketplace—great news!
Get Moving!
Make sure you’re never late to work, and remember we require everyone to come back to the office at 5 p.m., no matter what. We won’t micro manage you, but we do require you attend these afternoon mandatory meetings.
Our service techs, for the most part are extremely talented and capable, but when they mess up, and they WILL mess up, you’ll need to save the relationship they lost. We care about every customer!
You’ll have to correct most of your commission statements, and we promise you we’ll refund any correction you find…the month after they were originally due. Since we’re so focused on shooting the chickens in the chicken coop, there are times when we lose sight of the most important things, like driving an effective business development campaign or traffic to our website. It looks good but NO ONE ever goes there. Still, it’s really cool, you should see it.
Enjoy this conversation and the lunch I just bought you, because after you come onboard, we won’t speak directly—ever. Your sales manager is a great leader, and she drives a lot of business for us. Her current team members lack motivation, but we’re counting on you and your experience to lead the pack.
And the Benefits
Our benefit package kicks in after 90 days. However if you decide that this isn’t the place for you within that 90 days, no worries, the benefits won’t activate. If you make it beyond the 90-day time frame, you can join our 401K plan after your one-year anniversary, but we don’t match employee contributions. If you’re smart and you sell a lot, you, too, can buy two homes, a boat, an RV, and a Jag like I have.
Are you ready to come aboard?
I’ve heard so many of these stories in the last 10 years. I’ve been asked time and time again, how do you find great talent? Can you see it now? Reread the paragraphs above. Or better yet, read it to your sales team—I dare you—and watch the disgust move across their face.
Attracting the best talent is only possible if you are the best employer providing a major upside opportunity. If you were standing in front of a room full of talent, what would you say to them that no one else is saying? And in your mind just now, if you read that statement and thought there isn’t anything out there that is unique or exceptional, then you just lost.
Formula for Winning
You win the talent battle with a winning strategy inside a winning company, and you’ll have to provide a winning employment (sales) opportunity. If I could paraphrase the conversation I most often have when asked about finding great sales talent, it would sound something like this:
“Charles, we’re a not a large company, so we can’t pay someone like the big boys can. Our benefits are good but not great, and providing those benefits eats up most of our profit every month. It’s crazy!” Yet they’ll let eight failing sales sales reps remain on their payroll for 15 months, hoping one day that the sales fairy will tap them on the head and change their entire trajectory.
Can you hear the defeat in that statement above? Where is the competitive spirit? Imagine selling a copier that way. “Mr. Prospect, our copier has a much higher cost and fewer features, and I won’t be able to provide the benefits that my competitor does, and I know we’re never going to change but I really, really, want your business!” Who would say yes to that? You have to compete for top talent.
It’s only when you decide to become a great company that great people enjoy working for, that you begin to attract the best. Being a great company is only one part of the puzzle, as there are so many things that contribute to attracting and hiring top talent. Most consider compensation as the main hurdle and while I agree that it’s very important, it’s not the only thing that top talent looks for.
They’re looking for a great opportunity, plain and simple—a launch pad for a successful life with a strong financial upside. It’s a combination of base salary and a top end that’s not impossible to obtain.
Success is Possible
If you think you’re going to hire highly skilled sales professionals by offering them a territory, gas card and a cubicle, you’re wrong. But if you think you’ll never be able to hire a highly-skilled sales professional, wrong again. Success attracts success. You need sales reps in your business who are slobbering over opportunity, and who brag about their income and the company they work for everywhere they go. Many people say, “those days are gone!” and to them I say BUNK! If you build it they will come.
Better sales numbers don’t come just from hiring more sales reps. As a matter of fact, few sales cultures produce more winners than losers. So hiring more sales reps only guarantees more payroll expense. If you want high talent to come to you, show them why they should.
Don’t read this article and tell yourself that you can’t change. You sell MPS everyday with the premise that 3% of a company’s annual revenue is spent on their print environment. Out of that 3%, some 20%-30% is wasted spend and ripe for savings, right? Then you optimize their fleet, change their management, service and supply processes and drive better financial and performance results. That is a great reason to change—eat your own cooking! Review what you spend in your sales organization. Look for ways to improve, calculate your individual sales rep’s ROI and restructure your sales organization to optimize growth and retention. Change your sales team model to fit your plan. Get rid of the deadwood, and use those funds to install the necessary talent and team to start winning.
When I tell dealers this, they immediately restructure the new sales team model to look exactly like what they have today. Don’t waste your time. Restructure your sales team model to win! Once you’ve designed it, hire for it and you’ll find if it’s built right, the talent will find you.
