Faced with this situation, some employers end up resigning themselves and abandoning their recruitment project or choosing profiles that do not fully meet their expectations. However, alternatives to recruiting a new salesperson exist, and they may even prove more profitable for your company. Here are some of them.
1. Improve the sales efficiency of your current team
Did you know that the average conversion rate for sales representatives in the B2B sector is around 10%? This means that 90% of the working time of sales representatives is spent on deals that are destined to be lost!
This is enough to make business leaders feel dizzy... The good news is that it is entirely possible to significantly improve this result, as we prove daily in the field.
Aiming for an average success rate of 30% on commercial proposals is entirely realistic, even in B2B, and it's a desirable minimum.
If your sales representatives are not at this level today, there's no need to recruit new ones to boost your growth: you already have considerable room for improvement with the same human resources (and therefore salary costs)!
We generally manage to significantly improve the success rates of our clients by supporting their sales teams in their progress, particularly in 2 areas: the quality of targeting and the quality of sales actions carried out with their prospects.
The advantage of such an approach is that it not only increases your turnover, but also, and more importantly, optimizes your profitability, which a new hire would not necessarily have achieved.
2. Opting for a more segmented sales organization.
Here's what we most often observe with our clients regarding sales organization: the salesperson is multi-tasking and handles the entire sales chain, from lead generation to closing, including appointment setting, needs analysis, commercial proposal creation, and follow-ups.
This organization presents several disadvantages:
- On the one hand, versatility can lead to a certain 'scattering' between the various tasks and therefore a loss of efficiency.
- Furthermore, it is rare to find sales professionals who are proficient in all these tasks, which complicates the search for the ideal candidate.
- Finally, not all of these tasks offer the same level of interest to an "experienced" salesperson, which can encourage talent turnover.
Formalizing and segmenting the sales process by breaking it down into different phases, then distributing these phases among several people according to their skills and inclinations, is often much more effective.
This generally leads to a significant productivity gain, as each person is focused on a single type of task, gradually gaining experience, speed, and efficiency.
We generally advise breaking down the sales process into at least four phases (identifying prospects, making appointments, conducting interviews and preparing the sales proposal, for example), and then assigning each of these phases to a team member, without exceeding two phases per person.
This type of organization can, in some cases, "spare" you an additional recruitment, thanks to the productivity gains achieved. Failing that, and at a minimum, it simplifies your recruitment process by narrowing the range of skills required for each position.
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3. Use substitute or supplementary sales forces.
Another alternative to hiring versatile salaried sales representatives is to use an outsourced sales force: a specialized company (in telephone prospecting, for example), or a freelance business developer.
Using external sales forces has several advantages: with a lower cost price than a permanent recruitment, it can be stopped more simply and is generally accompanied by a commitment to results.
It also offers more flexibility: external sales representatives can intervene permanently or occasionally, on a part-time basis, provide reinforcement during a period of high workload, or be dedicated to a particular target...
Compared to hiring a permanent employee, it represents a financial saving and a controlled risk.
Another advantage of this approach is that the outsourced tasks are generally the least complex (generating contact files, telephone prospecting, etc.), which allows the permanent sales team to concentrate on tasks with 'higher added value'.
However, to be effective, the use of an outsourced sales force must:
- Focus on a well-defined scope and follow an established, internally controlled process
- Ensure regular monitoring of key performance indicators via a CRM or ad hoc dashboards.
- Rely on sales support tools designed and validated internally: sales book, standard emails, references and arguments per target, etc.)
This implies having well-documented your sales cycle, but also demonstrating a certain agility to ensure a smooth handover between external and internal teams.
At one of our clients, this strategy made it possible to optimally manage an activity marked by strong seasonality, by reducing the number of permanent recruitments initially planned from 5 to 2, to achieve a higher objective!
4. Retain your current sales representatives!
The three alternative solutions we have just presented aim to address the business development situations that motivate a large proportion of sales recruitment projects. Another part of these recruitment projects is, however, linked to the sometimes significant turnover observed in these positions.
Since the demand from companies for experienced sales profiles is significantly higher than the supply, market conditions favor talent volatility: 38% of salespeople have received job offers without actively searching, according to a study on sales employment conducted by Stepstone.3
To retain your sales representatives in general, and the best among them in particular, it is therefore essential to value the sales function as such.
Compensation is obviously an important motivator, but competition is fierce in this area as well: salespeople's salaries are 57% higher than the average salary in France, according to a study by the Uptoo firm4…
To stand out, ensure that your sales representatives' daily work is interesting and stimulating: high-quality working environment and conditions, effective tools, a clear and relevant sales action plan, a management style that promotes personal growth, internal opportunities for advancement, recognition of initiatives and successes... All these elements matter to your employees and encourage their long-term commitment!
By working on all or part of these 4 areas, you can significantly reduce the number of sales recruitments to be carried out for your company, while effectively meeting your growth and sales development objectives.
To stay competitive and maximize your chances of converting leads into future customers, it is important to optimize the performance of your commercial assets. Find out how by watching this webinar:
1: According to the 2018 talent shortage survey conducted by ManPowerGroup: http://www.manpowergroup.fr/penurie-talents-recrutement-2018/
2: Source ParisJob: https://www.parisjob.com/actualites/commercial-chiffres-paris.htmls://www.parisjob.com/actualites/commercial-chiffres-paris.html
3 : Quoted by France Info : https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/c-est-mon-boulot/la-grande-penurie-de-commerciaux_1766077.html
