Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Hiring Your First Sales Team with Kristie Jones

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Hiring Your First Sales Team with Kristie Jones · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  First thing I say is sales as a high rejection sport.
• 0:04
  So you need resilience.
• 0:06
  You need to have a positive attitude.
• 0:08
  You need to to be able to get off that that lost sale call and pick up the next phone call
• 0:14
  and let that roll off your back.
• 0:16
  The fact that matter is in the world that I live in, only 18 to 20% of people are gonna
• 0:20
  buy.
• 0:21
  That's 1 in 5.
• 0:22
  So you have to be okay with 4 out of 5 not purchasing.
• 0:26
  At that time.
• 0:26
  I call them NRNs, but not right now is I
• 0:28
  don't like to say that they're nos.
• 0:29
  I just call them NRN.
• 0:31
  Makes me feel better.
• 0:32
  3 10,
• 0:36
  10, ignition, liftoff.
• 0:41
  Ending small business failure.
• 0:43
  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number one small business spurt, Melinda
• 0:49
  Emerson.
• 0:50
  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 0:55
  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
• 0:58
  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
• 1:06
  While you may need to shine on a national stage, your journey to national acclaim begins
• 1:11
  at brand and demand life.
• 1:13
  In Philadelphia this September 21rd to 23rd.
• 1:16
  Don't miss your cheese to transform your brand and skyrocket your business.
• 1:21
  Register today.
• 1:26
  Welcome back to the Small Bizchett podcast.
• 1:28
  I'm Melinda Emerson, your host, And now it is time to talk about sales from a completely
• 1:33
  different angle.
• 1:33
  We're gonna talk about how to hire your first sales team.
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  And that is something critical because hiring the wrong salesperson in your organization can
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  torpedo your organization, but also thinking that hiring a salesperson's Go save your
• 1:47
  business is also a big mistake.
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  So I have a wonderful expert that is here with me today and her name is Christy Jones, and
• 1:56
  Christy is gonna talk to us about how to bring in your first sales team.
• 2:00
  She is the go to x Burt for companies wanting to build, grow, or scale their sales, or
• 2:05
  customer success teams.
• 2:07
  She started sales acceleration group in 20 team to help owners and founders increase revenue,
• 2:13
  reduce churn, and be able to scale more quickly for 20 plus years as a sales leader in a SAS
• 2:19
  space fuels her passion for helping bootstrap and venture backed founders for more
• 2:24
  information head over to sales acceleration group dotcom.
• 2:29
  Christie, welcome to the Small Bishop podcast.
• 2:32
  Thanks, Melinda.
• 2:33
  Excited to talk to you about our topic today.
• 2:35
  Alright.
• 2:36
  So let's jump into it.
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  How in the world did you become a sales expert?
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  I lost my job.
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  You know, I mean, nothing like a little nothing like a little, layoff to put the fire
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  underneath you.
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  Yeah.
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  I was, I'd spent the 1st 8 years in retail as a buyer for, a major department store, and I lost
• 2:53
  my job as a result of an acquisition.
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  So, we were VC backed.
• 2:57
  I was all excited about that until we got sold, and I was employee number 1 let go.
• 3:02
  So I worked really hard to find myself a new VP of sales job, but the universe conspired to
• 3:10
  make sure that I was helping other small startups instead of just one small startup.
• 3:16
  So when you were thinking about sales.
• 3:19
  And in particular about bringing on your first salesperson, you know, when should you do that?
• 3:26
  Yeah.
• 3:26
  Great question.
• 3:27
  I work with a lot of, early stage startups where we call it founder led sales.
• 3:31
  So, normally, the person who had the brilliance idea Sometimes in their, I call it in their
• 3:36
  basement or their garage is really is the first salesperson and honestly really should be the
• 3:40
  first salesperson.
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  So I think the best person to be the very first salesperson is the founder.
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  But at some point, the founder is probably not the best person to continue to lead sales in
• 3:50
  their in their own company.
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  They have other hats they need to be wearing.
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  And most of the founders that I work with are tech founders, and so they don't really enjoy
• 3:57
  it that much.
• 3:59
  So I think once you've decided that Maybe I'm ready to get out of the sales business.
• 4:03
  I think these are some questions that you need to ask yourself.
• 4:06
  1st and foremost, do you have product market fit?
• 4:09
  And what I mean by that is, does your product or service actually solve a problem that
• 4:14
  someone is willing to pay to solve?
• 4:17
  So do people out into your marketplace to see it as a valuable product or service?
• 4:22
  Are they willing to spend money to do that?
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  I think the second thing you have to have already solved as a founder led sales leader
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  before you decide to hire your first salesperson, Next thing would be, do you have,
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  like, do you have a process in place?
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  Like, did you figure out sort of how people are gonna move through the sales cycle?
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  Did you understand where leads were gonna come from?
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  So Did you have to pick up the phone in cold call?
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  Did you have to go to a conference?
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  A lot of times you start with your your people in your network, So what seemed to get you the
• 4:51
  best traction?
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  Where did people seem to be the most interested?
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  Where did you meet them, so to speak?
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  So I think those are those things are super important.
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  How about pricing?
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  A lot of times, we have not figured the pricing out yet.
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  And you have to figure everything out.
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  Like, pivoting is fine.
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  You don't have to figure figure out all the things that you need to figure out before you
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  hire for a salesperson, but, you know, like, our back to there are people willing to pay,
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  well, are they also willing to pay what you want to charge?
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  So have we gotten the pricing piece all figured out?
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  Do we are we gonna, you know, charge a monthly fee?
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  Are we gonna charge an annual fee?
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  Do we have discounts for multi year contracts?
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  How about some of those things to to that need to be figured out?
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  It would be nice if you had some mot thoughts around marketing, already may you know, your
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  first sales, it's hard enough hire your first sales rep without telling them you have no
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  marketing department.
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  So maybe there are some things that you could do within the marketing situation.
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  Maybe you've got a blog maybe you've got some sort of articles, you know, maybe you do some
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  speaking.
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  But is there anything that that an that a new sales rep could reference?
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  So think those are some of the things that you have to ask yourself.
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  And then the most important question, Melinda, that you have to ask yourself, if you're doing
• 5:53
  founder led sales before you hire 1st Salesforce it is, Are you willing to give your
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  baby up for adoption and let someone else raise it?
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  And can anybody do it as good as me?
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  Right?
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  Because we don't really believe people can, but the day you let someone else do it and they do
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  it well, you're Lord, why did I wait so long to let you?
• 6:14
  Yeah.
• 6:15
  So you've talked a lot about sort of, like, the planning, like, the stuff you gotta think about
• 6:20
  before you hire a person.
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  Well, what kind of traits do you look for in
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  a salesperson?
• 6:26
  Yeah.
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  This is I've been doing hiring in my space for 20 plus years.
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  So I I feel like I really truly understand this.
• 6:33
  First thing I say is sales as a high rejection sport.
• 6:37
  So you need resilience.
• 6:39
  You need to have a positive attitude.
• 6:41
  You need to to be able to get off that that lost sale call and pick up the next phone call
• 6:48
  and let that roll off your back.
• 6:50
  The fact that matter is in the world that I live in, Only 18 to 20% of people are gonna
• 6:54
  buy.
• 6:54
  That's 1 in 5.
• 6:56
  So you have to be okay with 4 out of 5 not purchasing.
• 6:59
  At that time.
• 7:00
  I call them in our ends, but not right now
• 7:02
  is I don't like to say that they're nos.
• 7:03
  I just call them in our end.
• 7:04
  Makes me feel better.
• 7:06
  I love lifelong learners.
• 7:08
  The other thing that's truly important is natural curiosity.
• 7:10
  And I think I found that there's a tie between lifelong learner and natural curiosity.
• 7:15
  If you're someone who always wants to know something, you're listening to podcasts such as
• 7:18
  yours, you're reading books, you're surrounding yourself with super smart people, Then you're
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  also probably going to be naturally curious.
• 7:26
  My son likes to say that I'm nosy.
• 7:29
  I have tried to work on to work on that with him, but I prefer naturally curious as my
• 7:33
  politically correct term for that.
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  So I think those are some of the most important things along with you have to have discipline
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  and consistency.
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  So I like to you know, as I'm hiring sales reps, even younger sales reps, I call them kid
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  affectionately kids out of college type type sales reps, do you have some sort of like a
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  self a self directed process?
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  You know, do you have a personal sales process to Do you have a personal negotiation strategy?
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  Do you have a personal prospecting strategy?
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  Do you have a do you know what your walkaway point is?
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  I don't normally and I don't normally mandate walk away points and things like that, but you
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  have to be you have to know, like, hey.
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  Listen.
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  Like, I think this thing is dead in the water.
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  It's time to walk away.
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  The other thing that I found that's really interesting, because I run, candidates through
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  a sales profile assessment, one of the things that pops up over and over is mechanical.
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  They have a mechanical mindset.
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  So back in the day, Melinda, I know you can appreciate this because you and I are sort of
• 8:26
  of the same generation.
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  I used to say, are you more likely to when the when the clock radio breaks, are you more
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  likely
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  to grab a screwdriver or a trash can?
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  Pop sales reps grab a screwdriver.
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  They may also bring the trash in with them just in case, but they're curious.
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  Right?
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  They're gonna they wanna take it apart.
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  They wanna see if they can fix it.
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  So mechanical is really good, but I think those are some of the things I look for.
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  I think the other thing that I really like is I like to hire athletes.
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  So the other thing you need is grits, and you need work ethic.
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  So I really like those 2 things as well.
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  I found I found over and over that even, like, student athletes, people have been student
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  athletes and had to balance that work work being sports and school being work.
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  Balancing that out.
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  Those people have gotten their organizational skills together as well.
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  Interesting.
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  So what are the biggest mistakes people make when hiring salespeople?
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  Oh, this isn't my favorite.
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  Oh, they're gonna be great.
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  I just steal it.
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  No.
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  We are not hiring with your gut.
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  Your gut sucks.
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  It it does not know right from wrong.
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  Again, in the world I live in, this is my this this one always makes me laugh.
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  You know, these are usually tech founders.
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  Right?
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  These are the people who code their developers.
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  They have no they have no clue about sales or marketing folks, but they just they felt it.
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  So we can't we have to have just like I'm asking people to have a prospecting process, a
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  negotiation process, a sales cycle process, All of those things, you have to have an interview
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  process.
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  Right?
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  And you have to take people through the same process every time.
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  First off, from a legal perspective, you wanna make sure you're treating every candidate the
• 10:01
  same because the last thing you wanna do is have a lawsuit because you favored somebody by
• 10:05
  skipping some steps in a process.
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  So from a legal perspective, you wanna have that But, honestly, from a apples to apples
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  comparison perspective, you wanna have that.
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  So I walk people through the same process every time.
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  I ask them the majority I ask the same interview questions every time.
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  I run everybody through an assessment every time.
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  You know, we reviewed the assessment, so you wanna have a firm process.
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  Get more than one person involved in your process would be my next tip.
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  So you you you still, again, is the founder you say still may be running the sales team But
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  you're building a culture.
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  I like to say, you know, a lot there's a lot of talk out there about cultural fits.
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  I'm actually about cultural ad.
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  The best companies out there have a wide variety and mix of employees within their
• 10:48
  organization because everybody's had a different experience.
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  And the more different experiences you have under one roof, the more likely it is that your
• 10:55
  product or service will solve what will be out there and solve multiple problems from
• 11:00
  different experience.
• 11:01
  So I think you need to bring more people into the organization, but not because you wanna see
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  if they look like you or act like you or have the same value system that you do, you actually
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  want different people to be involved so that they can say, I saw this in this person.
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  I saw this in this person.
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  But, you know, but as you're building out your first sales team, Everybody's gonna interact
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  with everybody.
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  Right?
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  There there there is no silos or ivory towers at that point.
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  And so you wanna get buy in from others in organization.
• 11:27
  So those are a few things I think you should be thinking about.
• 11:30
  Well, what is compensation?
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  Like, our our commission with salespeople still, they or is that just a misnomer and
• 11:37
  foolishness?
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  I mean, you know, what do you what do you need to be thinking about in terms of when are you
• 11:40
  gonna pay these people?
• 11:41
  Yeah.
• 11:42
  Good question.
• 11:42
  In the world that I live in, the SAS software world, we're on a 5050 split, 50% of total
• 11:49
  compensation coming from a base salary, and 50% coming from what we call variable compensation.
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  And so you have to kind of start with that base salary, and then you've gotta build the
• 11:57
  variable compensation to sort of match that.
• 11:59
  You know, pre pandemic, I, you know, pre pandemic, I thought we could get people at what
• 12:03
  I would affectionately call it a reasonable rate, then we could get them at a really
• 12:07
  reasonable rate during pandemic, right, because a lot of people lost their jobs, unfortunately,
• 12:11
  during that period of time.
• 12:12
  And so we had a supply and we had an we had an overabundance of supply, and not as much
• 12:16
  demand.
• 12:17
  So, unfortunately, the candidate lost out in that financial race.
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  But coming out coming out of that, when everybody got you know, back back to work, back
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  to the office.
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  Oh, we we supersize some of those salaries.
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  I was seeing 15, 20, 25% increases.
• 12:33
  In 2022 versus 2019.
• 12:35
  I think they're stabilizing now, but this goes back to, like, this is the old adage.
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  Right?
• 12:39
  This is this is not, again, this is not sales you know, sales super secret stuff, you wanna
• 12:45
  pay for what you need.
• 12:46
  But I recommend that my founders not only play that that part of that variable compensation.
• 12:50
  Sure.
• 12:50
  That should be a percentage commission you should be paying, you know, let's say, 8 to 12%
• 12:54
  commission on gross revenue.
• 12:56
  Maybe you're paying on profitability.
• 12:58
  Gross margin.
• 12:59
  Maybe you're paying on those type of things.
• 13:00
  But save a little bit of money for when you need it.
• 13:03
  So meaning that maybe you're trying to roll out a new product and you wanna sent that product.
• 13:08
  So if they sell this product on top of that or they add it on to the sale, you can get them a
• 13:13
  little spiff.
• 13:13
  Maybe you need 2 year contract maybe you're having some churn issues, maybe some customers
• 13:18
  are turning out, and you would like to see 2 and 3 year contracts, save a little money for
• 13:22
  an incentive to say, where every 2 year contract you get, it's extra $1000.
• 13:26
  So the compensation thing is very, very tricky, but in general, in my world, it's a fiftyfifty
• 13:30
  split.
• 13:31
  But I always say the variable piece can be a little bit tricky, but but save enough money
• 13:35
  for when you need it.
• 13:36
  Love it.
• 13:37
  Love it.
• 13:37
  Love it.
• 13:37
  Now when should you think about a sales manager versus you as the business owner managing,
• 13:43
  like, the sales folks.
• 13:44
  Yeah.
• 13:44
  So I've got I've got a pretty you know, strong opinion on this, in my world again, 4 or 5.
• 13:50
  And I think that just because they deserve a full time sales manager, if you're doing
• 13:54
  founder led leadership, then you don't have time from 4 or 5.
• 13:58
  You really don't.
• 13:58
  Like, they're not there when you need them.
• 14:00
  In a lot of cases, the clients that I work with bring in a fractional sales leader, Again, or
• 14:05
  call it part time sales leader, interim sales leader.
• 14:07
  So, you know, when you're around the $1,000,000 mark, when you've got four or five people, When
• 14:14
  you really don't when when you, as the leader, is probably the founder, when you when you
• 14:18
  decide that, listen, like, either I'm not good at this anymore.
• 14:20
  Right?
• 14:20
  Remember, if you weren't the best salesperson as the founder might not be the best sales
• 14:24
  leader as the founder.
• 14:26
  It's time for it's time for expertise help.
• 14:28
  You're absolutely going to bring in a full time sales leader a VC firm invests in you.
• 14:33
  So if venture capital money's coming your way, the first thing out of their mouth is gonna be
• 14:36
  go go replace yourself.
• 14:38
  Love it.
• 14:39
  Alright.
• 14:39
  And then last question for you.
• 14:41
  What is the best business advice you have ever gotten?
• 14:44
  Yes.
• 14:45
  I am gonna credit this to Edwin Ammermano called him out on the podcast.
• 14:50
  He taught me this years years ago.
• 14:52
  It has to be all about them, before it can be all about you, before it can be all about us.
• 14:58
  So put the prospect first.
• 15:00
  Love it.
• 15:00
  Love it.
• 15:01
  Thank you so much, Christy.
• 15:02
  You have just really given us so many really insightful pearls.
• 15:06
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small business lady.
• 15:08
  America's number one small business expert, and I will
• 15:11
  leave you with this last thought.
• 15:12
  You never lose in business.
• 15:14
  Either you win or you weren't.
• 15:16
  God bless everybody.
• 15:18
  While you made me shine on a national stage, your journey to national begins at brand into
• 15:24
  man live in Philadelphia this September 21rd to 23rd.
• 15:29
  Don't miss your chance to transform your brand and skyrocket your business.
• 15:34
  Register today.
• 15:39
  Podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 15:41
  Subscribe to this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
• 15:46
  more fantastic information and interviews.
• 15:49
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 15:54
  website succeed as your own boss dotcom.
• 15:57
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.