Summary
Hiring Online Exceptional Technical Salespeople
Summary: In today’s podcast episode, Joseph Fung from Uvaro and Stephen Halasnik from Financing Solutions discuss the new age of online sales and how the climate for technical salespeople has changed over the past decade. These solutions are helping companies become more efficient and successful when hiring exceptional salespeople.
Sales as an Artform & Science
Salespeople have a talent for what they do. Salespeople bring value to a company through their ability to perform their role whether it’s online or in person. Hiring online sales staff can be exceptionally difficult due to limited talent and limited portfolios. There are no credentials or test that an employee can have or take that proves that they will be a successful salesperson, making it more difficult for employers to pick the best options.
Optimization has currently been at the forefront of advancements in technology. Optimization in sales includes incorporating methodology and taking a more scientific approach to sales. The newer scientific approach to sales provides data from sales to salespeople, increasing the success rates of their efforts. The software industry has been one of the first industries to take advantage of sales optimization by taking a numerical approach to sales. The process of hiring online salespeople has changed alongside the sales processes themselves.
A Changing Sales Environment
The number of professionally trained salespeople has significantly decreased over the past decade. Higher-level sales education is somewhat scarce with only two percent of U.S. colleges offering sales programs. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an
The lives of online salespeople have been drastically affected by the restrictions of the pandemic. A negative effect of moving business online has been the increase in the velocity of sales, leaving a lot of salespeople overwhelmed. There is however a bright side to doing business online. Based on the McKinsey study on business leaders, eighty percent of the respondents were willing to spend up to fifty thousand dollars on a sales call with someone they had never met.
In another study with Deloitte on the B2B sales cycle, eighty percent of B2B sales interactions are predicted to move online via emails, phone calls, zoom, and other online platforms. The optimization of online sales includes the automation of sales-related task that increases the efficiency of the sale. Optimization can also provide salespeople with feedback on their sales call to better improve in the future.
Managing Technical Salespeople
Our subscription-driven economy has led to a lesser need for interaction with salespeople when signing up for subscriptions. Salespeople are instead needed to help solve the unique challenges that business owners and entrepreneurs face when choosing services for their businesses.
The space for technical salespeople is growing rapidly. Over the next decade, conservative business models project a compounded twenty percent per year growth in job opportunities for technical salespeople. Global brands in tech provide funds via venture capital that fuel marketing and sales efforts.
In a subscription economy, the software is able to measure and predict the length of time a customer will use a service, creating high-value customers for salespeople. The success of technical salespeople no longer depends on the list of connections the salesperson has, but rather on being able to maintain relationships with leads and adapt to the systems already put into place at an organization.
Best Practices for Hiring online Salespeople
Companies that align their sales recruitment strategies with their ideal customer in mind are more efficient in hiring salespeople. This practice leads to faster outcomes in sales as well as recruitment. Employers should look for talent that is familiar to their buyers. A salesperson that knows their buyer is better equipped to make a successful sale.
Companies can miss out on hiring talented salespeople by focusing more on an individual’s resume than how an individual conducts themselves. Companies are encouraged to take advantage of digital platforms when interviewing and hiring technical salespeople. Online platforms such as Vidyard and Loom allow employers to get a better idea of a potential employee’s personality and expertise via communication from videos and messages.
Employers should also seek out salespeople that are comfortable trying new tools that aid success in sales. Selling and buying a product or service requires taking risks, therefore employers should look for salespeople who are leaders in their field and aren’t afraid to take risks. Hiring more efficient sales representatives gives the company a major advantage over competitors.
Technology has helped to widen the pool of talent when hiring exceptional salespeople. Companies that have the most success in hiring exceptional sales staff to align their salespeople with their customers and then use technology to refine their process.
About Joseph Fung from Uvaro
Joseph is the CEO of Uvaro, a tech sales career accelerator, and of Kiite, a sales enablement platform purpose-built to provide sales teams with the information they need when they need it. graduate of the University of Waterloo’s Computer Engineering program, Joseph’s a repeat Founder & CEO, with multiple successful exits, and speaks frequently on the topics of sales leadership, diversity, and corporate social responsibility.
He is an active early-stage investor who ensures that the majority of his investments are in women-led companies. Joseph also sits on the boards of Communitech, the Golden Triangle Angel Network, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.
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