I am not at that revenue mark yet but I tried and failed at successfully onboarding this and I have some take aways:
- You need a dialed in sales system or you risk them turning in to a high paid order taker. They need to have very clear goals and to do's every day and when things are slow so you aren't paying for someone to **bleep** around the office and actually move the needle in your business
- A decent amount of their compensation needs to be performance based and you want the person in that seat that
- They need to have a firm grasp of pricing. For us because we do so many things this is a challenge. Companies that have an easier time pricing per unit kind of circumvent needing a sales person because the more established and simple the pricing, the less need for that certain type of salesy personality there is. Examples of this - I work with a glass company. You call, give dimensions and they provide a close ballpark. A guy comes out and measures then sends you a quote later but it's always close to the original verbal on the phone and the price is the price. You've heard it twice so there's less room for doubt. My business is very very far from that so consequently me, being the most knowledgeable in my product, am best suited for that role. Not very scalable.
- The person who makes the sale, needs to have some responsibility to make sure the promise made to the client is kept. This means selling and showing up throughout the project or at least checking in on it at the end personally. So many companies have a rough sales to production hand off and it ruins your credibility as a sales person.
- Have an established trial period - and think twice before promoting someone in your company to that role. Make sure that both parties know there's an established out in case it's not going to work. Chances are, on your first hire for a key role, it might not go well so make sure they know what success looks like and what will happen if you aren't getting that.
I spent a lot of money learning all that - hope that helps someone. It felt good to type it out at least. haha
