Finding Your Ideal Salesperson

A lot of sales managers wouldn’t know their ideal salesperson if they fell over him. How about you? If the ideal sales candidate walked in your door today, would you recognize him or her? Probably not! If I asked you to describe the ideal salesperson for your business, could you do it? Again, probably not.

If you don’t know what you’re looking for, how are you going to know when you finally find one? You probably won’t.

Here’s an exercise for you. In four to five sentences, write a description of the ideal salesperson for your business. It’s sort of like an elevator pitch and you can use it the next time someone asks you what you’re looking for in a new hire. It will also help you recognize the ideal salesperson when you see one.

Here’s an example:

    “I’m looking for someone who is in his or her thirties or older, has at least five years of B2B sales experience preferably in our industry, or seven years selling something similar. In addition, I’m looking for a Hunter who also knows how to farm and who works well as part of a sales team. I’m not looking for a lone wolf.”

When your description resonates with the right person, you know you’ve found your man (or woman).