Hiring for Outside Sales
In my discussions with home care owners across the country about hiring an outside sales rep, three refrains about outside sales reps emerged as a pattern:
- I tried it, and it didn’t work (I hired someone who did not produce what I expected) and I’m not considering that as a current sales strategy.
- I tried it, and it didn’t work the way I expected; but I would try it again if I found the right person and think it can be a good sales strategy.
- Others in my network (franchise) or backyard have had success with this; I’m thinking about it, but I’m not sure if it’s the right move for my business.
Regardless of your past experience and current mental picture about hiring an outside sales rep as part of your sales strategy, consider the following:
If you hired a person today, that was the right fit for the role, who was going into your market and actively building relationships on behalf of your brand, would this be good for your business?
If the answer is that you are closed off to the idea of hiring this role for now – while I still think it’s valuable to review this possibility in your sales strategic planning with this in mind as a component, there are plenty of other strategies that have great returns where you can focus resources.
If the answer is yes (however skeptical), the main foundation is the right person, right fit for the job (and your culture, but there are a few caveats in team dynamics and culture to be explored later.)
Consider the following questions:
How do I know if I have made (or will make) the right hire with the person as the right fit for the role?
What return should be expected from an outside sales rep (community liaison/ Home Care Marketer)?
What relationships would be the most fruitful in my market: Skilled nursing facilities, Hospitals, Home Health Hospice agencies, social workers, discharge planners within these orgs, Grass roots orgs, Fiduciaries, government programs, municipality funded programs, house call doctors? Depending on your market there will be a fruitful combination of referral sources in the community that can be developed.
What if I hire someone in a combo type role for the office, and have them go out into the community a couple of days a week?
What metrics are best?
What milestones are most appropriate?
How much should this person be compensated and how should their compensation be structured?
What’s my competitive environment like?
Are you in a small town with few companies where they are well established with in roads in the community? Are you in a larger city where there is a lot of competition, but the landscape is always changing, and opportunity is there if you seek it out?
In order to figure out if you have the right candidate fit for the role, what valid metrics and methods are you using?
We like to take the guess work out and use a defined process that has as part of that process a scientifically data-based method to help determine this match. We use the Predictive Index, there are other products out there, but certainly encourage you to have valid metrics and a system in place.
There are several great tools with the Predictive Index we use such as the job assessment tool, the behavioral assessment, which, when used together helps identify behaviorally aligned candidates in your pool aligned to the role. There is the behavioral interview tool that addresses match and potential misalignment, cognitive assessments which measure how quickly someone may learn and absorb new information. These types of tools used within a rigorous system that incorporates training, feedback loops coupled with scientifically valid metric will help you level up designing great teams.
This will save a lot of time and lost investment in trial and error.
I hired someone with years of experience, and they did not perform.
Even if you have someone with years of experience, if they came from an environment where the leads were well farmed based on systems already in place, this person may not be the right fit for outreach and actively drumming up business by shaking hands, kissing babies, rubbing bellies and being consistent with the social component of driving their activities. Especially where the sales cycle is long, and rejection is high.
What return should be expected from an outside sales rep (community liaison/ Home Care Marketer)?
This will depend on some degree to your market positioning, but generally 7-10 times revenue to the cost of the person’s salary is a good rule of thumb tied to the milestones and metrics.
Other questions to consider:
Addressing each of the following will depend clause on a few factors including what business phase you are in (start up, growing and expanding, managing growth, etc.), team type, team dynamics, leadership style and your business strategy.
Each situation is a little different – below are some things to consider, but each situation is unique and encourage you to explore a free discovery call with me to dive into your specific business situation – please click here to schedule with me.
What if I hire someone in a combo type role for the office, and have them go out into the community a couple of days a week?
It is tempting for smaller groups needing to grow and grow quickly, to try and “bootstrap” and blend roles. Sometimes this stage of business attracts the type of candidate who can adapt as a chameleon in a variety of situations. Need someone to run out and do a care assessment? They go and bring back the business. Someone out sick and need help scheduling? They hop in and get people to work. Client upset about an invoice. They log onto the system and help trouble shoot. In some cases, a team member can perform for a short time under these conditions but over the long haul will burn out. Team players that have unique behavioral characteristics to shift between tasks that are vastly different in the short term will help keep the business functioning, but it won’t drive success over the long term in team, career or business growth and development.
What metrics are best to measure success for the role?
An individual scorecard is a must. The objectives should be clearly stated in the job description.
What milestones are most appropriate?
How much should this person be compensated and how should their compensation be structured?
There are a few well researched schools of thought. The traditional method of the old carrot and stick, low base high commissions for example, the data in outcomes generally demonstrates that this method won’t yield the best results, especially if you have a longer sales cycle and developing relationships for referrals does take time. It’s best to tie the compensation to overall performance of the business with room for some specific areas that should be rewarded for individual contributions. Base can be set up with salary, plus forgivable draw, plus percentage of gross margin growth, revenue growth, hours growth, net referral growth, etc. – lots of room to be creative depending on your specific sales strategies, size of team, business stage. Etc.
What’s my competitive environment like?
Are you in a small town with few companies where they are well established with in roads in the community? Are you in a larger city where there is a lot of competition, but the landscape is always changing, and opportunity is there if you seek it out?
These factors and much more are taken into consideration to help you match your people strategy to your business strategy.
Building a dream team?
Want to optimize your people strategy and ensure alignment with your business strategy? Schedule a discovery meeting with Sixth Sense Solutions today. Call us at 949-241-6690, or you can reach our team via email at info@SixSenseSolutions.com
Want meaningful insights about you and your leadership style (Click here)?