Sales Role Models

When you hire new salespeople, who will their role models be?  Should you point them to the veterans who are responsible for more revenue than anyone else?  No, because they are not very good examples of what a new salesperson should do.  They may have the biggest or best accounts or territories, but are they out there looking for new business every day? Probably not.  Do you introduce them to the people who are struggling?  No, that too sets a bad example.  What about you?  Well if you’re doing your job well, you’re spending most of your time managing and developing your people, not selling.  So who do you point them to?

There must (as in essential, not probably) be a salesperson who is out there doing all of the right things every day, looking for new business, building the pipeline, closing new accounts, and building his/your business.  He may not lead the team in revenue but he will someday.  This is the person around which you build a sales team.  The others, keep them busy and keep your new salespeople away from them!  Many good, new salespeople quit before they can become successful because of the environment, because management allows mediocrity, because they allow uncommitted and unsuccessful salespeople to hang around.  Good salespeople want to perform on a team where they are surrounded by other good salespeople who will push them and pull them.  Team momentum.  That’s the ticket.

Do you know which of your salespeople can be the ones around which to build a team?  Are you recruiting strong salespeople?  OMG can help you on both counts.