Why 47% of sales hires fail

5 reasons why salespeople fail and likewise why 53% succeed.

1) Few salespeople fail because of too little opportunity

  • See that the new hire stacks the odds in their favour by building a broad pipeline. This is urgent, and the earlier it’s done the better. Get them to identify how they create this depth of opportunity. Many companies work on a 5 x 1 coverage.
  • If the new starters’ selling opportunity is confined to too small a number of prospective companies to sell into – then as a leader or manager, you need to determine how this can be opened up.

2) Today more effort is required for each sale

  • The digital age together with an advanced and convoluted business climate brings a more complex and dynamic selling environment.
  • Your new hire needs to do more in less time
  • They must operate from day 1 with a sense of urgency and intensity.
  • What he or she does now will lay the foundation for success or failure 6+ months down-stream

3) Your prospective buyer is getting smarter

  • Today’s buyer is more informed than ever and sick of mediocre sales interactions.
  • Your new hire cannot rock up and wing it. The seller must be more informed and their knowledge-set up to the minute. The messages they peddled 2 years ago have probably passed their sell by date.
  • Equip your sales hire with knowledge – drill down through detail – when he or she cannot answer your, you know you have reached their limit.

4) Rigour around fundamentals

  • Benefits, ROI, why do anything, why you, why now – what has the customer said? Do you have in-fluencers and who is your sponsor? This separates those who win the order from those who come in second.
  • Complex solutions are not sold “solo” – your new hire must get those other people involved in, fully on board, supportive and backing their sales campaigns.
  • Do try to give your new hire a live opportunity – this will give you the chance to see what the hire is like in action when engaged into a sales cycle.

5) Social selling

  • Does your new hire’s on-line presence compromise or compliment your company brand? Google them, browse their LinkedIn profile, Twitter, Facebook etc
  • Advanced social seller or novice? How will your new hire leverage social media?
  • Establish ground rules about their usage.

If you would like to find out more, simply click download, below, to read our FREE PDF white paper “How salespeople can best approach their first 100 days”.