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Maximize Your Sales Hiring Efforts with a Sales Recruitment Agency

Streamline Your Sales Hiring with a Sales Recruiter

Finding quality tech sales representatives or management can take work. There’s a high demand for top talent, and many skilled prospective candidates may be currently satisfied with where they are. You must find that talent, reach out, and draw them to your company.

It’s essential for your business’s success to source top talent on your team. The issue is that many small and medium-sized enterprises don’t know how to approach this. Networking yields some results, but this approach doesn’t do enough to attract top talent to your door in the long run.

That’s when working with a sales recruitment agency can make a difference. Here’s how.

1) They Connect You to Candidates Not On the Job Boards

A sales recruitment agency can connect with other professionals and find talent not listed on active job boards. Salespeople confident in their abilities tend to only show up on job boards. Instead, they go directly to recruiters and wait for the right employer to get in touch with them.

When you require a top-notch sales representative or sales manager, a recruiting agency will match you up with the best candidates for the position. They are constantly networking, making connections, and interviewing potential employees, so they have access to talent that you do not.

2) You Need New Talent Right Away

How long will it take to find new sales talent and get them on the job? It could take a month or more. You could be missing out on potential sales as you go through the long process of searching, interviewing, and hiring.

This procedure can be sped up by a sales recruitment firm, cutting down on the time it takes to source and onboard a new hire. In a matter of days, not weeks, a professional can have qualified candidates waiting for you at your desk.

3) You’ve Got Enough Going On

Finding applicants involves more than just advertising open positions and hoping someone with the necessary talent will express interest. You must develop a strategy to source candidates effectively, which takes time.

Building applicant personality profiles and thoroughly analyzing the job specifications are just the beginning. Finding passive candidates and ensuring the caliber of those who advance to the top of the list are the main goals of talent sourcing.

The truth is that you don’t have enough time to handle everything. You’re too busy building the kind of company that attracts top talent. Hiring an experienced, well-connected sales recruitment agency to manage your sales candidate sourcing frees you up to take on other tasks, such as increasing your company’s revenue.

4) They Have Industry Expertise

An effective sales recruitment agency will have specialized professionals who work with clients in various industries. Work with a recruitment agency that is familiar with your particular business sector. They will be able to provide you with industry-specific information about sales trends, salary levels, and the skills necessary to be successful in your industry.

Recruiters that specialize in specific fields also have access to individuals whose skills are relevant to those same fields.

Agency Recruitment Vs. In-House Recruitment

The entirety of the hiring process can be a very stressful, time-consuming, and expensive endeavor that, if not handled properly, can have far-reaching repercussions for both you and your company. Most employers—including internal HR Teams—say that recruitment is part of their job that causes them the most stress.

The time may have come to consider outsourcing this process to an agency specializing in recruitment. This company could relieve some of the burdens and enable you to return to the vital work of building your business.

Here are some benefits and drawbacks of working with a recruiting agency instead of tackling the task alone.

Using In-House Recruitment

There are some pros to handling sales staff recruitment yourself. First, you remain in control of the entire search and hiring processes and don’t pay agency fees. You can also personally review all the candidates to see how well they fit into your company’s culture. You also decide when and where a job posting is made.

On the other hand, the time spent posting, searching, vetting, interviewing, and hiring takes a considerable amount of time. This is time you and your team can better spend developing and selling your products or services. The process can take even longer if you’re handling recruitment all on your own.

Another drawback is your limited knowledge of companies with many qualified salespeople employed who may be interested in new opportunities. That makes it more challenging to fill the post you are looking for successfully.

Using a Sales Recruitment Agency

One of the first and most important advantages of a sales recruitment agency is that you will get access to a team of experienced recruitment consultants rather than just one individual who will be trying to find your candidates. Also, professional recruiters have access to a broader pool of qualified applicants. Recruiters spend their days contacting hundreds of new people monthly via social media and job-hunting websites, fostering new relationships. As a result, even if a good candidate is not looking right now, a recruitment consultant will typically be the first to know when they are looking or open to a better offer.

While internal HR teams deal with many tasks daily, the sole mission of recruitment agencies is to locate high-quality candidates with the skill sets and attributes needed to satisfy your business’s needs.

The only real drawback is that you will have to take some time to nurture a relationship with your sales recruiting agency so they fully understand your business’s culture and needs. And while it’s true there is a fee for their services, in nearly all cases, this fee only comes into play after your ideal candidate accepts a job offer and starts work.

Rainmakers: Your Premier Sales Recruiting Agency

The level of expertise possessed by a company’s salespeople directly correlates to that company’s level of success. Consider conversing with an experienced tech sales recruiting agency such as Rainmakers to help guide your company to further growth and profit.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.

by Joe R

Hiring

Building a Strong Sales Team: Traits and Qualities to Look For

Avoiding Hiring Mistakes: What to Look for in Sales Candidates

What should you look for when recruiting sales professionals? What qualities should they possess? How can you tell if a potential hire will succeed or if they are just good at doing interviews?

There are several time-tested traits you should keep an eye open for. By selecting sales reps with these qualities, your business will be more profitable and more likely to succeed. Consider reviewing these traits among your current sales staff to see who might need some coaching.

Consider the following candidate traits and skills:

They Understand the Importance of Following Up

Effective follow-up is one of the abilities that separates the all-stars from mediocre sellers.

Deals are closed through follow-up, so if a candidate understands this as early as the hiring process, you can be more assured that they will be effective at following up with clients and sales.

As essential as conducting follow-ups is, how they do so is also an important indicator of success. Avoid candidates who give off a strong sense of desperation and argumentativeness.

A Thick Skin

A strong sales close consists of three components: asking early, asking frequently, and accepting the answer “No.” Unfortunately, some salespeople become agitated when a customer rejects them—some end a call with an abrupt hang-up or by taking on a hostile tone.

A good salesperson understands that they may need to move more quickly or that the customer has legitimate reasons for hesitation. They know how to get past a “no” and how to ask, “What’s the process we need to go through to get you ready to buy?”

Or, an insightful salesperson knows when it’s time to move on and not let it threaten their ego or sense of self-worth. In any of the above cases, the best salespeople also know when not to burn any bridges with poor responses to rejection.

They’re Proactive and Ambitious

Top performers are inspired by an intense drive to succeed. As a result, they react favorably to competition, which you can leverage using friendly sales contests, and take great satisfaction in closing deals.

While some individuals may find the sales process tiring, a top-notch sales representative will feel invigorated by the challenge and always be on the lookout for the next big sale.

Accepts Feedback Well

This can be tricky. Everyone says they’re open to feedback—and some will actively seek constructive criticism—but many push back or ignore feedback. Unfortunately, this means problems with performance or teamwork may end up continuing.

What’s worse is that it can be challenging to identify those who are serious about accepting and taking advantage of feedback. If possible, look for instances where the candidate can demonstrate integrating feedback into improving performance.

Solid Communication

An effective salesperson needs excellent communication skills. They need to talk a good game, have empathy, be good listeners, and have solid writing skills—particularly when composing emails.

When communicating with prospective hires, listen to how they speak. For example, are there many pauses, mumbled words, or confusing phrases used? Likewise, are their email communications clear and free of typos or poor grammar?

All of this counts. Your salesperson is a representative of your company, and the first impression many customers have with your company is through your representatives’ phone calls and emails.

A Positive Attitude

Much of a salesperson’s time is spent interacting with several different types of people—not just prospects but coworkers, management, customer support, and others. They must therefore exude a positive attitude that uplifts anyone with whom they come into contact.

In addition, the candidate should be open to new experiences, accepting of others, and genuinely interested in developing relationships. This can be tricky to determine during an interview, but try to understand the candidate’s energy level at work.

what are the most desired traits in a salesperson

What Are Some of the Biggest Red Flags To Look Out For?

There are a few negative traits you may want to watch when conducting interviews. In addition, certain warning signs can inform you what candidates will likely not be a good fit for your company.

They lack professionalism – This should be pretty easy to spot. A professional candidate speaks well, dresses well, and conducts themselves like they are trying to make a good impression.
They are risk-averse – Candidates who take a long time to come to a decision—particularly a big decision—may have similar problems going after big-ticket customers. You want a salesperson who is willing to take some risks.
They seem to have little self-awareness – Asking candidates about their biggest strengths or weakness are valid interview questions. However, candidates who take too long to come up with an answer or a weak response may have some blind spots when it comes to how well they can perform or suffer from a lack of honesty about themselves.
They don’t have a growth mindset – Ask the candidate when was the last time they learned a new skill or did something to improve their performance. Salespeople who don’t look for ways to change or advance themselves do not do well in long-term sales positions.
They confuse confidence with arrogance – Be mindful of whether a potential sales hire seems too confident. It can be subtle, but some people turn confidence into a sense of arrogance, making them more challenging to coach. They can also be less receptive to feedback.

Common Mistakes Made During the Recruitment Process

You need a solid hiring procedure with checks and balances in place if you want to recruit well. Here are some common mistakes to avoid.

Writing unclear job descriptions – A job description should tell the prospective salesperson what the job is like, what you’re looking for, and what qualities and experience are desired.
Running a disorganized interview – It’s essential to prepare for each interview. Have your list of questions ready. Ensure the person you’re meeting with matches up with the resume in front of you. Be prepared to answer the most likely questions the candidate will have.
Hiring based solely on a resume – A resume is just a summary of where the candidate worked and what they did there. While a resume might list the skills and attributes you’re looking for, that’s no guarantee that the job candidate actually possesses them. Take time to ask detailed questions and learn about the person behind the resume.
Poor time management – If you have several interviews scheduled that day, ensure you’re leaving enough time in each interview to get to know the candidate and let them get to know you and your company. Avoid situations where there is not enough time to ask all the important questions.
Taking too long to make a decision – The best sales candidates are only on the market for a short amount of time. Additionally, every day that sales position is unfilled, the company is losing out on significant potential revenue. Make sure you set up a process, stick to it, and move quickly when you have a candidate that checks all the boxes.

Sales Recruiting with Rainmakers

How well a firm thrives depends on how skilled the salespeople are. To build your business, consider talking with an expert tech sales recruiting firm like Rainmakers. To learn more about how we can assist, create an account!

by Joe R

Hiring

Mastering the Art of Salesperson Evaluation: Tips for Hiring Managers

Evaluating Sales Potential – Checklist for Hiring Managers

One of the most challenging tasks Sales Managers must deal with is evaluating a candidate in a job interview. With entry-level positions such as Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and even Account Executives (AEs), many won’t have a wealth of sales experience. On top of that, entry-level roles tend to get a lot of applicants, and trying to isolate the best candidates from the crowd is challenging.

The good news is that there are reliable ways to evaluate sales candidates at every stage, from initial screening to final interviews.

Here are some essential recruitment tips for hiring managers.

Reviewing Resumes

While the stack of resumes on your desk is daunting, there are simple ways to identify the best candidates among job applicants. First, use this method to kick off your screening process:

Does It Look Professional?

A resume’s format can disclose a lot about a job seeker. For example, a well-structured resume with few or no spelling errors suggests the individual is committed, detail-oriented, and possesses a sense of professionalism.

Was It Written For Your Company?

Check the candidate’s cover letter and job objectives. Does the candidate seem to understand your business, or does it seem they sent the same resume to dozens of companies? Give preference to candidates who have done some research and know your company’s needs, history, and mission.

Reviewing Work Experience and References

Every candidate should have at least a little work experience or an internship for you to review. The candidate’s work experience can provide insight into their values, work ethic, and skills.

When considering a candidate, contact their professional references to learn more about them. Avoid candidates who provide only personal references.

Reviewing Skills and Experience

Your company’s product or service may require technical knowledge or industry experience. Therefore, favor those applicants who already possess the abilities and expertise you need.

Keep an open mind when looking at skills and experience. You may discover unique yet promising skills that could prove helpful. They could even provide some fresh perspectives to your sales team.

Did They Try To “Game” the System?

This is a relatively recent phenomenon in which some applicants may try to embed specific phrases into a resume that aren’t visible to human readers but are picked up by hiring software looking for particular keywords.

While the technical know-how to pull this off may seem impressive to some hiring managers, it does suggest a certain lack of ethics and respect for the hiring process. Proceed with caution.

Are There Numbers and Metrics In The Resume?

One of the most foolproof ways to assess a sales candidate is by the numbers they have produced in past roles. This might mean emails sent, revenue produced, or contracts upsold.

A good sales candidate should never be shy or try to hide their numbers. In fact, they should be proud of any quotas or goals they have beaten in the past.

The Initial Interview

An initial interview—phone or in person—will assist you in deciding if a candidate is right for your department. Here are some things to consider.

Do They Come Across As Professional?

Look at how the applicant conducts themself. This will demonstrate how they will come across to potential clients. Professionalism is a must. So are punctuality, sincerity, and politeness. All the better if the candidate also demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of your business’s products or services.

In many ways, an initial interview is a sales pitch. Use that perspective to help assess the interviewee.

How Well Do They Communicate on the Phone?

Many sales or hiring managers conduct initial interviews via phone. This provides an opportunity to see how well a candidate communicates by phone. Considering many sales calls are started this way, it’s an essential skill to filter for. Also, have the applicant leave a sample voicemail message. This, too, will help you see how effectively they can communicate with prospects.

Do They Possess the Traits You Value Most for Your Sales Team?

Effective sales departments prioritize skills like drive, thoroughness, and communication. Create a list to score candidates on your top sales rep attributes. You can use these scores to help compare and contrast various skill levels if you have multiple applicants.

Ask Challenging Questions

How well does a candidate respond to difficult questions? Can they think (and answer) under pressure? Consider asking how they deal with rejection. Ask them about how they managed to learn a complicated skill. Ask about past challenges and how they overcame them.

The classic “what would you say is your biggest weakness?” question may seem cliche, but it helps learn how self-aware and open to feedback a candidate is. It also demonstrates how seriously they respond to the question and how honest they are.

The Later Stage Interviews

After interviewing an exhaustive list of candidates, you can narrow the search and bring in only the most promising candidates for a more in-depth discussion.

Ask for a sales demonstration.

Before they come in, request that candidates prepare a sample sales presentation. This should ideally be for one of your products or services so the candidate can display their knowledge, or they could choose something entirely different to see how well they can convince you to buy something you’re unfamiliar with.

The actual purpose of the demonstration is to see how much sales potential they have. It may be challenging, but it can give you a good feel for their fundamental sales abilities and their approach to the challenge and the process.

Take on the role of a potential customer who objects to the sales pitch. Take into account how the candidate responds to these concerns. Do they listen well, or do they immediately go on to the pitch’s next section?

After the presentation, provide the candidate with practical criticism to determine whether or not they are coachable.

Ask Out About Long-Term Goals

When you hire a new sales representative, you expect they’ll find a way to grow with your business. So inquire about the candidate’s long-term objectives and passions. Are they hoping to take on high-ticket clients? Are they interested in management? Do they have a particular affinity for marketing or customer service?

Think about how realistic these objectives are. Can you see this person progressing within your business?

Conduct a Culture Check Walkthrough

Talk a walk through the company and introduce the candidate to others. Try to hit different levels within the company, such as other salespeople, receptionists, factory floor employees, and members of upper management.

Can you see this candidate blending in with your culture, or do they withdraw when the CEO or a Senior Sales Manager is around? Remember that a candidate’s capacity for good communication with management can indicate their potential for interaction with sales prospects.

Offer the candidate the chance to see your business in operation. Invite the applicant to listen in on a sales call with one of your Account Executives. Their follow-up questions will reveal a lot about their sales philosophy and suitability for your business.

Also, after the interview, ask the people who met the candidate on your walkthrough for their opinions. Even though, as the hiring manager, the final decision is yours, input from others can always be helpful.

Recruiting With Rainmakers

Following the above should handily assist you in finding the ideal applicant for your open entry-level sales representative position. The most important factors to remember are the candidate’s professional demeanor, applicable skill set, and cultural compatibility.

When faced with many applicants, consider hiring recruitment specialists such as the ones at Rainmakers to help make your job easier. They have a proven history of matching ideal candidates with the best businesses, so everyone wins in the end.

Sign up and connect with our team today to learn more.

by Joe R

Hiring

Land The Best Tech Sales Professionals With These Hiring Strategies

A Guide To Finding The Best Sales Talent

Right now, tech sales professionals are in high demand. As a result, better sales professionals are getting calls daily from recruiters and businesses. To get the best tech sales professionals for your company, you must apply your recruiting process correctly.

Here are some practical hiring tips to help you land the best of the best.

Be Effective In Selling the Position

When contacting a potential sales representative, try to make your message personal. Experienced professionals will recognize generic templates and will be less likely to reply.

Include details about the corporate culture and any unique benefits you offer. Remember that people often change jobs because of toxic workplaces and poor management. Highlight your company’s strengths in positive workplace culture and supportive management.

You can include salary information, but remember that you need to offer competitive rates as talented sales staff are likely already well compensated.

Clearly Define the Position Offered

Be forthright about the qualities you seek in a tech sales professional, and highlight any essential qualifications. Start by outlining the knowledge, abilities, and character attributes required for the position. This is not only for the prospective employee but also for the hiring manager.

This allows you and your potential recruit to be on the same page about what the position requires and what will be expected.

Defining the position more clearly will also make keyword searches for candidates easier if you’re looking for candidates on sales databases or LinkedIn. For example, If you’re looking for those with experience in hardware, communication, or SaaS technology, use those terms when searching. That will help you find the right candidates to approach.

Keep An Eye Open For Quality Traits

Talented technology salespeople require unique skills to sell more difficult products and services. Therefore, look for these key attributes when reviewing candidates.

Proactive Sales Mentality

Look for candidates who have proven to be self-starters and highly motivated. This will give them an advantage in prospecting, cold calling, pitching, and selling your products or services.

Proactive salespeople tend to find making new sales exhilarating. As a result, they are more likely to go for closing big deals and then quickly move on to the next one.

Persuasiveness

Look for persuasion and conversational sales reps. Even though your products or services may be complicated, a talented sales rep must be enthusiastic and be able to transmit that enthusiasm to the customer. They should also be well-informed about what you’re selling and prepared to respond to any questions or hesitation from the customer without coming on too hard.

Flexible Thinking

Complex modern technologies and solutions require a comprehensive knowledge of the industry and an ability to find creative solutions to customer issues. You don’t want salespeople who get stuck thinking or doing things only one way.

Look for salespeople who can address challenges from several angles and be able to accommodate or change their approach as needed. When holding mock sales sessions, look for sales professionals willing to ask questions and work with the client to solve their problems.

Making the Best Offer

Many salespeople in tech earn well into the six figures annually, with a base income between $40,000 and $100,000 plus and incentives and commissions from hundreds to thousands of dollars. If you can’t pay competitively, your candidate will go elsewhere. Consider consulting a compensation consultant or salary guide to see what competitive pay is in your area and industry.

Also, consider what other incentives you can offer to help draw a potential star candidate further into the hiring stage. These days, flexible schedules, remote work, and sign-on bonuses are popular with employees.

Don’t Wait

When you get a response from an ideal candidate, act quickly.

From opening interviews to making the official job offer, you’ll want the process to be smooth, efficient, and with little delay. So stay in touch with your candidates during the entire hiring period and keep them informed on the timeframe for recruiting decisions. Remember, they probably have other options and recruiters reaching out to them. So the sooner you can make an offer, the better.

Common Hiring Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Sometimes, businesses get so focused on selling their products and services that they don’t spend an appropriate amount of effort finding the right salespeople. Here are some mistakes some businesses make and how they can be avoided.

Failure To Plan

When hiring a sales rep, skipping the planning stage can frequently lead to problems.

Plan out every step of the hiring process, from promoting sales positions to selecting and interviewing prospects, hiring top talent, onboarding, and considering how long it will take to train and prepare new sales hires for the workplace.

Hiring Sales Reps Who Frequently Change Jobs

At first glance, someone with a varied job history may seem appealing due to extensive experience working for various businesses and industries.

The truth is that people who switch employers frequently may have a poor aptitude to work as a tech sales rep. In addition, job-hopping can indicate they need help sticking with one employer for an extended period or have trouble working with sales teams and customers.

Not Taking Advantage Of a First Phone Call

Conventionally, hiring managers prefer to meet with candidates in person. Doing so, however, misses an excellent candidate review opportunity.

Tech sales representatives frequently speak with prospects and customers via phone. For that reason, you want to be sure they have good phone skills. By making your first contact with a potential sales rep by phone, you’re in a great position to evaluate how they might come across to clients.

This first call also gives you a chance to get the candidate excited about the opportunity. This will make them that much more interested in moving their schedule around to accommodate the rest of the interview process.

Having a Chaotic Onboarding Process

You want new tech sales representatives to hit the ground running. Unfortunately, many businesses have an onboarding process that has either slowly become bloated over the years or needs more clarity in organization and communication.

Review your current onboarding process for new employees and ensure it’s up to date, lists responsibilities clearly, notes the chain of communication, and how the sales team functions. The less confusion at the start, the more likely you will retain your new tech sales rep.

Working With Rainmakers

A talented tech sales representative is essential to how well a business succeeds. Consider consulting with an experienced tech sales recruiting agency to help advance your business.

Connect with Rainmakers today and start finding top sales talent.

by Joe R

Job Search

The 2023 Tech Sales Salary Guide- How Much Are SaaS Reps Making?

Brought you by Rainmakers x Sales Assembly.

How the Sales Hiring Landscape Has Changed

Since its debut in 2018, Rainmakers has worked with thousands of sales candidates and hundreds of businesses in the tech and SaaS sectors. Rainmakers specializes in guiding technology firms through the complex hiring and compensation processes, focusing on acquiring the best salespeople for your business.

With that in mind, Rainmakers has gathered the most comprehensive and accurate data on tech sales trends, markets, and remuneration based on national industry averages balanced with add-on factors such as equity, benefits, and remote flexibility.

The Sales Hiring Landscape Is Changing

The top IT sales talent market is more competitive than ever, even in light of recent reports of layoffs in some areas. On LinkedIn, internal and external recruiters frequently reach out to qualified AEs (account executives) and SDRs (sales development representatives). However, internal hiring teams often find themselves at odds in their continuous search for fresh candidates.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of sales personnel available for work are currently seeking remote employment alternatives. This is happening all across the U.S. This raises concerns about where to find candidates and how much base pay and OTE to offer these reps.

As industry pioneers in tech sales hiring, Rainmakers offers a transparent, data-driven platform to effectively pair top sales reps with the most desirable and innovative companies in the tech space. As a result, the best AEs and SDRs are paired with the most relevant and appropriate opportunities available.

Data From the Rainmakers Team

The vast amount of unique data collected from thousands of candidates who have applied to the Rainmakers platform reveals clear trends regarding what sales candidates can potentially earn in the tech industry. Here’s some of what’s been learned.

Account Executives

Are San Francisco and New York still the tech sales hubs?

Before 2020, the majority of tech salespeople were located in San Francisco and New York. In fact, we initially launched in just those two geographies. Since 2020, we see the geographical distribution to be much more even – and thus so are the salaries.

While the compensation averages are still highest in San Francisco, other cities are quickly catching up as we see salaries starting to normalize across the United States due to the increase in remote hiring.

Does AE compensation vary by the buyer they are selling into?

It’s common to hear hiring managers say, “We want someone who has a track record of selling into engineering or IT.”

The question then becomes, how much will that cost?

That partly depends on how the product affects the sales cycle. For example, a software scheduling tool can be up and running in minutes. Still, a new digital operations platform (DOP) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system must sync with existing customer tools. This requires a more specialized sales rep.

The following table shows that sales reps who have closed sales with product engineering, legal, operations, and procurement departments tend to demand the highest salaries.

What are AEs earning relative to their quotas?

Another frequently asked question is, “What should we be paying a rep if we want them to close a certain dollar amount in year 1?”

Sales representatives make an average commission of slightly under 10% up to around $1M in quota. Note that despite the rise in quota from $1M to $2M, earnings tend not to improve significantly.

You can compare how much sales reps are making and their yearly quotas with the data below.

How does ACV affect yearly earnings?

The data reveals that a sales representative’s ACV can affect yearly profits, but not in the way one might assume.

Naturally, larger contracts require a more seasoned salesperson to close them. Still, with the emergence of product-led SaaS businesses, some salespeople exceed large annual quotas with just modestly sized individual contracts.

The graph outlines this.

Sales Development Representatives

What is the going rate for an SDR?

Sales Development Representative (SDR) positions tend to be entry-level. As such, it’s often difficult to determine accurate compensation because most candidates have little or sometimes no sales experience.

According to information acquired from the Rainmakers platform, an SDR’s typical base income is just under $59k, with an OTE of about $81k. However, since geographical regions vary in living costs, SDR compensation will also change.

This is how it breaks down:

sales development representative salary information

Does more SDR experience command more pay?

Given the entry-level nature of an SDR position, pay tends not to increase dramatically with experience. Rainmakers’ research suggests that on-target earnings decrease between 5 and 7 years of experience. Growth happens again after seven years, typically because many of these sales reps advance to lead and management roles.

About Sales Assembly

Since 2017, Sales Assembly has revolutionized how B2B tech companies scale. They believe that team and individual growth should be ongoing, dynamic, and in a setting of peers as opposed to isolated “corporate events.” According to them, developing a business’s strategy and infrastructure should be a dynamic process that complements learning and growth.

Sales Assembly’s unique structure combines contemporary learning and development for all commercial roles with crucial consulting and strategy formulation, a strong peer network, and effective implementation and enablement tools.

About Rainmakers

Rainmakers is the only recruiting platform built specifically to help Technology and SaaS companies hire top-notch tech sales talent.

They help leading companies grow their sales teams. Some of our satisfied clients include:

NextRoll
Wellsaid Labs
EcoVadis
Paperless Parts
Visier
Modern Health

Why Companies Use Rainmakers

Leverage the power of Rainmakers’ advanced sales sourcing technology, a breakthrough solution that replaces outdated job boards and generic hiring platforms. With Rainmakers, you gain access to:

Personalized Candidate Identification: Our technology zeros in on the perfect sales reps for your team, diving deep into pertinent sales data such as quota attainment, deal details, buyer profile, and compensation expectations.
Accelerated Hiring Process: Say goodbye to lengthy hiring timelines. Employers experience a whopping 92% response rate from our pre-screened candidates, significantly reducing time-to-hire.
Enhanced Team Diversity: With Rainmakers, you can foster a diverse sales team. Over 52% of candidates hired through our platform come from underrepresented backgrounds, promoting diversity and inclusivity in your workforce.

To learn more about how Rainmakers can help your business, fill out a profile to get started.

by Joe R

Hiring

How To Find Sales Recruiters

Finding The Best Sales Recruiters

Job searches are many things. Among them, they are tedious, frustrating, complicated, and lengthy. This applies not only to job seekers but recruiters as well. According to the job review website Glassdoor, each corporate job attracts an average of 250 applicants for one opening.

That’s a lot of resumes to go through.

If you’re a business looking for qualified tech sales personnel, it behooves you to find that perfect recruit in as little time as possible so they can begin earning. But, simultaneously, you want to feel confident you’re hiring the best person for the position. We are in the sales recruiting business and know the best of the best.

Here is our list of the 10 Best Sales Recruiters in the US.

The Best Sales Recruiters in the US

1) Rainmakers

The leading tech recruiting platform hiring tech and SaaS salespeople. Rainmakers brings data into sales hiring and utilizes the latest sourcing technology to help companies build their sales teams efficiently. Hire qualified and diverse salespeople through a quick and scalable platform. They offer both self-service and managed solutions. Operates US-wide.

Learn more: rainmakers.co

2) Hirewell

Hirewell is a Chicago-based talent solutions provider. They have over 200 recruiters globally, focusing on sales (15+ sales recruiters). They work with hundreds of companies across the US, ranging from early-stage tech companies to enterprise tech organizations. Hirewell helps companies hire one-off sales executives and build out teams of SDRs, AEs, and GTM teams. Hirewell also partners with companies for their sales hiring efforts through its OnDemand Recruiting offering, where it embeds a Hirewell recruiter into its recruiting function.

Learn more: hirewell.com

3) The Collective Search

Boutique agency specializing in sales hires for venture-backed SaaS/tech companies. They are known for their incredibly personal, meticulous, caring approach to each placement, emphasizing personality/culture fit. Strong, loyal community of sales professionals who care about thriving and succeeding. Started in SF and now have a presence on both coasts.

4) True Search

A diversified recruiting agency with a focus on working with venture-backed tech companies. They have a broad focus across many disciplines, including sales, technology, and finance.

5) Betts Recruiting

Betts recruiting focuses on sales, marketing, and executive hires for Venture Backed startups and technology companies

6) CloserIQ

The firm is HQ’d in New York and has a strong presence with East Coast employers. They specialize in Sales, Technology, and Executive Search.

7) HuntClub

An executive search firm with a strong focus on Go-To-Market leadership

8) RJR Partners

A traditional executive search and recruiting firm with experience in sales, marketing, and product, among others.

What Is a Tech Sales Recruiter?

A sales recruiter is a specialist who works with businesses to find the best candidates for sales positions of all levels, from Sales Development Representatives (SDR) and Account Executives (AE) to Sales Managers and VPs of Sales. To match job seekers with the appropriate opportunities, they work with applicants to determine their skills, experience, and goals.

Tech sales recruiters specifically aim to help salespeople with experience or interest in technically-oriented businesses—whether they be focused on hardware, software, cybersecurity, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, telecom, or more—find the best opportunities by introducing them to jobs and organizations they may not have been aware of.

They accomplish this by leveraging excellent communication and networking skills, industry knowledge, and the ability to match job seekers with hiring managers.

How To Find a Recruiter for Your Business

Finding a sales recruiter isn’t as difficult as one might imagine. Here are the key points to keep in mind.

Industry-Specific or General?

If you’re looking for a sales position that doesn’t require much-specialized knowledge, you can go with a recruiter that works with all sorts of applicants. This can be advantageous because it gives you a larger pool of potential applicants. The downside is that you may get more misses than hits if your company focuses on specialized knowledge, such as tech.

If you choose a recruiter, such as Rainmakers, specializing in tech-related positions, you’re more likely to get promising candidates right from the start.

Long Term or Short Term?

Generally, there are two types of recruiters—staffing agencies and permanent placement recruiters.

Staffing agencies hire for temporary or temp-to-perm hourly positions and then contract them to employers, collecting a percentage of the hourly fee as a markup.

Permanent placement recruiters focus on long-term hiring opportunities. The recruitment agency finds, evaluates, and represents talent, while the hiring manager hires the prospect as a full-time employee.

Researching Recruiters Online

You can find many professional sales recruiters in various areas. Two top places to start would be Google and, perhaps better, LinkedIn. Start with some keyword searches that apply to your business or the specific sales position you intend to fill. Some examples might include:

“Sales recruitment”
“Talent acquisition”
“Headhunter sales tech”
“Sales executive recruitment”
“SDR hiring”
“Account Executive/AE tech hiring”

Word of Mouth

One of the best and most reliable ways to find a trustworthy recruiter is to contact your professional network. If the hiring manager of a business in the same industry as yours reports success using a particular recruitment platform, it’s a good bet you may as well.

The Top Recruitment Markets

You’ll want a recruitment agency with knowledge and access to candidates in the top tech sales markets in the country. Ensure your recruiter knows where to find potential salespeople in major U.S. cities like San Francisco, Austin, Chicago, New York City, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Raleigh.

What Are the Best Recruiting Tips For Tech Companies?

Hiring the best tech salespeople is not easy. However, top performers are in high demand, and working in the tech industry can be particularly challenging. Here are some tips that should better your chances of locating and hiring the right people for your business.

Clearly Define the Position

Be straightforward about the qualities you’re looking for in a sales professional before you start recruiting them. Similarly, have clear job descriptions available either as part of a hiring pitch or easily located online.

Lay out the knowledge, abilities, and other attributes required for the hire to succeed. When these are in place, it will be simpler to evaluate each candidate.

Use a Personal Approach

When reaching out to a potential hire, address them by name and avoid any appearance of their name being inserted into a form. While talking about compensation is important, don’t forget to speak about company culture and the unique benefits of working for your company.

Many leave their positions due to poor compensation and a hostile company atmosphere. Put the candidate’s worry to rest by selling them the benefits of hiring with you.

Don’t Make Them Wait

It’s become almost a bad joke—the amount of time and number of hoops candidates have to jump through to go from initial interview to final hire.

That won’t work for tech sales positions that are in high demand. You want to streamline the process or, at least, ensure the candidate knows where they are in the hiring process and the expected timeline. Tech sales candidates are likely considering several offers. You don’t want to draw the process out so long that you lose a potentially great new hire to another company because you didn’t move fast enough.

An experienced recruiting agency like Rainmakers can help make the hiring process quicker, so this is less likely.

Make the Right Offer

Many tech salespeople start with a basic salary between $40,000 and $92,000, with incentives and commissions ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars, with many earning over $100,000 annually. If you can’t give competitive pay, your candidate will go elsewhere.

Also, consider additional incentives or benefits during the offer stage to help close the deal. You may even want to consider a sign-on bonus.

Should I Connect With Recruiters On LinkedIn?

The short answer? Absolutely.

There are several reasons why looking for recruiters on LinkedIn is a good idea.

LinkedIn is the largest platform for professionals of all types worldwide. As a result, it’s often the first place companies list open positions and where hiring managers begin looking for potential candidates. Likewise, it’s where many sales professionals post their availability or interest in looking for a sales position.

Because LinkedIn is so large, it can be daunting to look for candidates individually, no matter how narrow you make your keyword searches. By looking for a professional recruiting agency on LinkedIn, you can find the right agency for your business to help you in your search.

Sales Recruitment Solutions At Rainmakers

Rainmakers accepts only quality applicants, so you can be confident that you’re interviewing the top sales talent around. In addition, when we look at potential candidates, you can see all their sales stats, such as performance, what they’ve sold, and who they’ve sold to. This allows you to save valuable time by quickly identifying candidates with the skills, experience, and fit you’re looking for.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help fill your tech sales needs.

by Joe R

Hiring

How to Set SDR Compensation Plans

Sales Development Representative Compensation Guide

On-target earnings (OTE) are a great way to motivate Sales Development Reps (SDRs). This policy will help them perform better and generate more sales-qualified leads. If their base salary and variable pay depend on performance, they’ll work hard to meet their goals.

You must consider several factors for a sales compensation plan to be effective. Failing to do so risks demotivating or depressing your SDRs—which could hurt profits and employee retention.

However, when done right, SDRs can become productive and motivated and create more sales opportunities.

But what goes into effective commission plans? What should you consider when developing yours? In this post, we’ll look at these questions in more detail and give you the steps you’ll need to follow to build your company’s sales development compensation plan.

What makes commission plans effective? What should yours include?

Here are some ideas.

Why Have a Sales Development Compensation Plan?

Before discussing how to create a sales development compensation plan, let’s review why you would want one to begin with. These are the main benefits of having a well-thought-out sales compensation plan.

Incentivizes SDRs
Increased transparency
More structure
Easier planning and budgeting

Now that we understand why let’s look at the how.

Building an Effective SDR Compensation Plan

Some of the following steps may vary based on your specific needs. Some businesses may not need all the steps, while others may need more.

Determine On-Target Earnings

On-target earnings (OTE) are an SDR’s annual base salary plus on-target commissions (OTC). Consider national, local, and regional average SDR OTE. Glassdoor and PayScale can help you calculate an accurate price estimate.

From there, you can adjust the OTE based on the following factors:

Experience
Job complexity
Product
Benefits gained
Employee Attrition rate

Decide Upon Pay Mix

Pay mix is an SDR’s base salary to variable pay ratio. This reflects the risk of earning the OTE. For instance, some SDRs could perceive a 40/60 base salary/commission pay mix as too risky.

If your base salary is too low, SDR motivation and company performance will suffer. If your base salary is too high, your SDRs won’t gain if they hit their goals. Keeping SDRs productive requires the right pay mix. Like OTE, you can check national, regional, and local averages to compare prices. In the Tech and SaaS world, we find that 65 – 75% base is fairly common.

Measuring SDR Performance

After determining OTE and pay mix, decide how to measure SDRs’ performance. On what metric will your quotas be based? Finally, focus on revenue-generating activities for these metrics.

Focusing on a metric like call volume emphasizes quantity over quality. For example, an SDR can make 50 calls per day without generating a single sales opportunity. Therefore, it’s better to use a metric tied to quality, such as sales qualified prospects (SQO) and sales qualified leads (SQL).

Setting Quotas

As an example of setting quotes, we’ll look at the SQO metric.

SDRs, on average, usually generate seven SQOs per month or about one every three working days. You can set quotas and adjust as necessary from this average, depending on your company.

When setting quotas, ensure they’re realistic. According to research, 68% of SDRs meet their quotas. With that in mind, you should aim for an achievable quota between 60 and 70% of your SDRs.

Sales Development Representative Compensation

Thresholds and Accelerators

Using thresholds and accelerators can improve SDR performance. They can recognize high-achievers and motivate low-performers.

Thresholds are minimum performance levels below which an SDR does not earn any commission. Typically, this threshold would fall between 40 and 50%.

On the other hand, Accelerators motivate SDRs by increasing commission rates once they meet their quota. Say an SDR’s quota is nine SQLs per month, and they’re paid 70/30. With accelerators, you can increase the commission for high performers.

Establishing a Performance Period

After tackling the above tasks, determine the period over which you’ll measure SDR performance. SDRs can achieve results faster than sales reps whose commissions depend on closed sales. Usually, this will be monthly, with commissions calculated at the end of the month.

Testing Your Compensation Plan

After planning, you can execute. But it’s a good idea to test your plan before implementing it on SDRs. This will show you how well it works and if you missed any issues when developing the compensation plan.

Use historical data to test your plan’s parameters. If historical data is not available, try using hypothetical SDRs. After getting the results, you should be able to determine if your pay is competitive and sustainable.

The One-Size-Fits-All Problem

In short, one size does not fit all.

As good an idea is to research what other companies are doing and paying, copying them may not work well. Instead, it would help to consider individual factors such as your business’s size, market maturity, product maturity, and customer segmentation.

More importantly, as your sales teams and company mature, you should be prepared to tweak your SDR compensation plan to keep ahead of the game.

A Plan In Action

Depending on the scale of your business and the number of SDRs you have, you may find it challenging to keep up on all the calculations at first. That’s why it’s essential to have your plan laid out in advance, tested, and adjusted where necessary.

The result should be a satisfied SDR crew who are motivated to work on developing your sales and who feel encouraged by upper management.

If you need help assembling a sales team that fits with your compensation plan, let Rainmakers help! Start browsing for applicants now!

by Joe R

Hiring

Do Salespeople Only Care About Money?

Salespeople get a negative reputation for “only caring about money.” I am sure that most of you have heard this and many probably believe it. In fact, this doesn’t seem like a controversial statement at all.

Let’s look at the data and see if this is true

As a reminder, Rainmakers is the leading software and community for hiring SaaS sales professionals like Account Executives and Sales Development Reps. We have collected data from thousands of candidates working across thousands of companies in tech.

Entry-level Account Executives and Sales Development Reps

When we look at salespeople earlier in their sales career, like SDR’s and Junior AE’s, we do see a demand for higher salaries. On average salespeople with a base salary from $40k-$70k are looking for a pay increase of ~$15K in their next role. While this may seem like a lot, these are generally people that are earlier in their career and hungrier. They likely don’t have a lot of savings and are looking to level up in their careers. Many of these folks are looking to be promoted from an SDR to an AE, which also naturally comes with a pay increase. On the hiring side, this is why it can be challenging to hire “experienced SDR’s” with only a small increase in comp. These salespeople are looking to take their career to the next level. (Side note- if you do need to hire experienced SDR’s, message me as Rainmakers has helped a lot of companies here).

Mid-level reps

Looking at salespeople in the $70k-$80k base range, they are looking for an ~$8k pay bump. These are still reps earlier in their career and they are looking to continue to move up.

However, once we get beyond that comp level, things start to change. When we look at reps with a $80k-$140k base, these reps are only looking for on average a ~$3k bump. This is pretty insignificant at these levels – only a 3% or less increase in base.

Enterprise salespeople

And let’s take a look at reps at the next level. Reps making +$140k are actually open to DECREASES in base and this decrease increases as their base increases. So these are the top, highest paid reps and they “don’t care about money?”

When we actually look into the data, we will see that salespeople don’t only care about money. When salespeople are younger and earlier in their career, building their life, learning, of course they want to get promoted and earn more. And the ones that continue to progress deserve that too, as they are generating significant value for their companies. *Remember that salespeople are what is driving the majority of revenue at most SaaS companies.* Most people in all industries, earlier in their career would be looking to make more money. This is not something unique to salespeople.

But once salespeople get to a mid-level and higher, money becomes significantly less important. These people may be looking for a small bump, of course people like to feel wanted and appreciated. But really other factors are more important than just the cash. Experienced salespeople are not looking to change jobs just to make $3k more.

Once salespeople are at the higher levels of comp, salespeople are legitimately open to make less money. Why would they want to switch jobs and make the same or less money?

Changing the narrative

Let’s change the narrative and start spreading the truth about salespeople. Salespeople aren’t just hired guns that only care about money. Salespeople care about product, culture, team, growth, and much more. They want to find where they and their skills fit best and where they can contribute strongly to their teams and companies.

by Michael Ferguson

Career Advice

3 Types of Tools that Help Improve Sales

Best Software for Salespeople

Even though it appears that COVID-19 is slowing down, it does not change the fact that the virus has changed the world around it. Nobody saw a crisis of this magnitude happening, but it has opened our eyes to expose some of the flaws in the current ways we do things.

The economy will likely be dealing with the impacts of COVID-19 for years to come. The way in which business is conducted has changed right before our eyes, but is that a bad thing? While change is scary, it usually is necessary to grow. As businesses reopen, change must be made to accommodate our new world.

One of the main ways businesses will be different in the post-COVID-19 world is that there will be an even more significant emphasis on using technology in day-to-day operations. Hundreds of business tech tools are available, but only some will be helpful for every job. Knowing which tool to use and when can be tricky! Luckily for you, we put together this quick overview of some of the most popular tools to use in the sales space.

1) Customer Relationship Management Software

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a must-own tool to take your sales team to the next level. CRM helps manage your company’s interactions with any customer or potential customers.

CRM tools allow you to document everything about a customer. From the first point of contact with a customer to when they leave, it will all be documented on a platform. The value of this information is immeasurable. Furthermore, after collecting this data, you can better understand a customer’s wants and needs.

Your sales team will benefit the most from CRM because of these key features;

Document every interaction with a customer
Allows teams to track leads, improving conversion rates
Email integration, as well as email tracking
Sales forecasting based on data analytics
Completely remote platform with internal and external messaging capabilities

A CRM program gives you a complete overview of your company-client interactions in one convenient location. The real value comes with what your company decides to do with this information. For example, say you realize that many customers leave after two years, could there be a reason? Or is it just a coincidence? CRM software will help you answer these questions.

If your company is not using a CRM tool already, we recommend Salesforce. Salesforce is an industry leader among CRM providers. Their platform is compelling yet simple and easily customizable to fit any sales team’s needs.

An industry-leading platform will come with a hefty price tag, however. Salesforce’s pricing scheme dictates how many features you want and how many users will be on the forum. A company will need to pay per person using the platform, and prices can range from $25 per user per month to $300 for each user.

If you are interested in trying a CRM tool but are wondering if it is worth paying loads of money for, there are alternatives available.

Hubspot offers a free-to-use CRM tool. This tool is excellent for small sales teams or those about paying for a CRM tool. The free version of Hubspot’s tool is rather basic but will provide a good overview of using a CRM platform. As you use the platform, you can add features for a cost. Depending on how many parts you add, Hubspot can be just as powerful as Salesforce but as expensive.

Whatever choice you make, expensive, cost-effective, or somewhere in between, CRM software is a must for your sales team.

2) Prospecting Tools

While Salesforce and Hubspot are great at tracking leads, they are not used to discovering tips. Finding relevant authorities can be the most time-consuming and tedious process for a sales professional. However, there are tools today to help cut down on time wasted qualifying leads, resulting in a more robust sales funnel.

Finding leads has never been easier with the advancement of technology. Almost any person’s title, email address, home address, and phone number can be found online. However, most companies do their best to keep their employees’ information private; this is where prospecting tools are helpful.

Tools such as Zoominfo can optimize your team’s sales process by alleviating the time spent building up the top of the sales funnel. Zoominfo will allow you to discover different B2B prospects based on criteria. For example, sales teams can find companies based on location, revenue, NAICS or SICS codes, employee count, etc. Once a list of companies is established, Zoominfo can pull specific employee contact information from each company.

If people have any issues with Zoominfo, their pricing model could be more specific and non-transparent. Each company pays for several credits. One credit equates to one contact discovered. Each company is given a different price for a bulk amount of credits, so knowing an exact price is a lot of work. It is agreed that one Zoominfo credit equals about $1.12. Depending on how many leads you need a month, Zoominfo can become quite costly.

There are alternatives to Zoominfo in the prospecting space, but Zoominfo is generally considered the industry standard.

Hunter is a less-extensive version of Zoominfo that can be used for free. Like Zoom, users can find a person’s contact information using Hunter, but the tool is less reliable. Hunter is an excellent introduction to prospecting tools, as each user gets fifty free credits to use each month. Like Hubspot’s CRM tool, Hunter can be upgraded to be more efficient but costly.

Building your sales funnel has never been easier than now with the invention of prospecting tools.

3) Presentation Software

As remote work becomes more of a regularity in the workforce, sales pitches will need to evolve. In-person, PowerPoint or Google Slides still suffice, but if you send sales decks to prospects online, a more sophisticated software offering is recommended.

Most people probably need to realize that other presentation software options are available. For years, people have just used PowerPoint and thought nothing of it. But today, other platforms offer more features than the software already installed on your computer.

Online presentation software like Digideck can create beautiful presentations that deliver meaningful immersive experiences. In addition, Digideck allows users to create media-heavy presentations that stand out amongst the crowd.

Besides being great to look at, Digideck presentations come loaded with back-end features that are useful for the presenter. Once the deck has been presented or sent, Digideck will track how the prospect digests the information. If the viewer spends more time on one slide over another, or if they keep reopening the deck, the presenter will be able to see. This data can be helpful when pitching a similar presentation or trying to close a deal.

Digideck will be the product with the steepest learning curve. To truly harness the power of online presentation software, the user must be well-versed in technology, specifically graphic design and video production, basic understanding of UX/UI, and be a great public speaker.

Final Words

Remember that these tools are costly and that your business may need more money to purchase each device you want. If there is a tool that you need but cannot afford today, an online-based business loan may be worth exploring. An online loan can be used the same way as a regular business loan, but applicants typically receive their money much faster than a traditional loan.

Remember, the software offerings and tech tools continue! So many more tools and resources are available to take your sales team to the next level. So always keep improving your business, and you can handle anything thrown your way.

Are you a sales pro looking to elevate your career? Check out what Rainmakers has to offer!

by Michael Ferguson

Career Advice

Tech to Improve Remote Sales Team Productivity

Tech to Improve Remote Sales Team Productivity

Now that you’ve landed the sales job you’ve been searching for, you might be thinking about some added benefits that could make your day-to-day a little bit easier. Often, working from home is a luxury most businesses don’t think to offer to their sales professionals. However, sales jobs offer a unique opportunity: as long as you, the salesperson, are producing results on track with your assigned goals, you can work from just about anywhere with your laptop, an internet connection, and your mobile device.

Find the Right Setting

With tech sales specifically, the sales process can be completed with communication, and most importantly, research. Research, or preparation, is a large part of the sales process, and this is mainly completed through internet searches and reading.

A quiet, more comfortable setting, much like one’s own home or a small coffee shop, encourages better focus and dedication to the task of research. A noisy office setting with coworkers and conversation as a distraction, doesn’t exactly promote in-depth focus on discovering the best angle to pitch your products or services to new customers. If employees set themselves up for success, working remotely in a productive setting—with the proper tools—they will have great success in achieving their sales goals, whether they’re traveling to the next client or settled in a local coworking space.

Strengthen Communication

Employers and salespeople alike may worry about the difficulties of team collaboration and communication when working from home, or anywhere outside of the office, making the use of the right technology and tools necessary to help eliminate these concerns.

Keeping in close contact with team members when working on a project is a must. Unified communication software allows for all digital, work-related communication channels to be in-sync with one another. This makes efficient communication more than possible for remote sales professionals. Not only this, but conversations can take place digitally, just as they would in an office setting, helping collaboration and communication feel natural. Remote employees will still feel connected to their coworkers working in the office or elsewhere.

Additionally, having the right communication tools will allow for excellent discourse with the customer, the most important piece of the sales equation. Being able to reach your customers and prospects with reliable platforms from any location will help keep the sales process effortless from any location. So long as you can reach your customers and they can reach you, it doesn’t matter where you work.

Achieve your Goals

Setting time-sensitive goals will help keep salespeople working remotely on track and accountable when away from the office. Not only this, but managers can observe these goals and achievements with project management software.

Utilizing a software program that managers and employees can use will help to keep track of employee performance and progress, as well as collect other insights on employee performance such as time estimation for certain tasks. Tracking and understanding the amount of time it takes your sales employees to complete certain tasks that help to close a sale helps to better assign time and resources accordingly. Fortunately, employee time can be tracked without employees being in the office, thanks to project management tools that operate over the internet. This gives your salespeople more freedom and comfortability to accomplish their goals without close supervision, which often helps employees feel more at ease, ultimately producing greater results.

Organize your Process

Customer relationship management software is a must for any business looking to make repeated sales with valued customers. CRM tools are especially useful for remote sales professionals to stay on top of a pipeline of new and repeat customers when away from a team or office.

Having a resource tool like CRM software helps keep all team members on the same page with a customer’s process, and offers other organizational features to help the salesperson keep track of important events and meetings when synchronizing CRM software with other business applications. This feature is of the utmost importance when working remotely, as salespeople have only themselves to rely on, and therefore must stay organized to make sure they have all the information they need on a customer’s history with the company, their contact information, and any crucial insights that CRM data can provide to close the sale.

Let your Tech Sweat the Small Stuff

Freeing up any time during your workflow will make for increased sales productivity. Make use of sales automation software, which has the ability to send automatic initial and follow-up emails to new and existing clients. Saving time by not busying yourself with the minutiae of email dialogue and answering the same few questions repeatedly will allow for more time to be spent on finding new clients and retaining current ones.

Allowing your technology to manage these small tasks for you will allow remote sales professionals to better allocate their time to unique customer needs and tailor their knowledge and offerings to the ideal audience. Remote sales people will have more freedom to work on their own schedule with little management, so making use of any and all time spent working to make greater progress toward closing a sale is extremely important. And because automation software can accomplish work around the clock wherever you may be, you and the rest of your sales teams will still be able to get work done, even during business travel excursions and after office hours.

by Michael Ferguson