As contractors build their businesses, they often find they are wearing so many hats that, for the company to continue to grow, they must hire others to handle specific duties. This includes sales.
Selecting salespeople for a contract cleaning company, however, can be a challenging job. There’s a lot these salespeople need to learn. Many cleaning contractors do not realize how much there is to learn and how much training is involved until they hire a salesperson and start working with this person.
Unless a salesperson knows the industry or has worked with a contract cleaning company before, in most cases, this training process will need to be repeated over and over again with each new hire. Making matters worse, salespeople tend to change jobs frequently, so the entire hiring and training process becomes very time consuming and costly.
So how can we improve the salesperson selection process and by doing so, find salespeople that will stick around a bit longer? Here are some strategies that should help:
Select a learner.
In my experience, the most effective and successful salespeople are learners. They take classes, read books, attend motivational seminars. They realize that there is no endpoint when it comes to sales training; it’s an ongoing journey. When contractors hire a “leaner,” it’s essential to support them. Covering the costs of these classes and seminars is a very effective way to accomplish this.
Help them see their blind spots.
Every effective salesperson has blind spots. They may be instrumental at winning new clients, but they may also suffer from flaws in their presentations, overall sales skills, interactions with prospects, even how they handle their paperwork and email correspondence. In most cases, these blind spots can all be addressed by first pointing them out, and then, offering constructive ways to address them.
Discourage intimidation and favoritism.
Large contract cleaning companies will have many salespeople working for them. What can happen, in all types of organizations, is that as one or more salespeople stand out as the most successful on the team. This can cause others to cower around the successful salespeople, feel resentment, or become intimidated. This is made worse when top managers of the company begin overtly favoring these successful salespeople or start comparing the less successful salespeople to the sales leaders. What often happens next is the other salespeople start leaving the company, causing the revolving door of salespeople to begin turning.
The best way to address this situation is to develop a company culture that promotes long-term success for all salespeople. Healthy competition is important, but make sure all salespeople know they are part of a team working together for the success of the entire company.
For more information on improving sales and growing your business, contact Ron at 650-315-8933
