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, there are alternatives to recruiting a new salesperson, and they may even be more profitable for your company. Here's what they are.
1. Improve the commercial efficiency of your current team
Did you know that the average conversion rate of salespeople in the B2B sector is around 10%? This means that 90% of the time spent by sales staff is on business that is destined to be lost!
The good news is that it is entirely possible tosignificantly improve this result, as we prove daily in the field.
Aiming for an average success rate of 30% on commercial proposals is quite realistic, even in BtoB, and is a desirable minimum.
If your sales staff are not at this level today, there is no need to recruit new ones to stimulate your growth: you already have a good margin for growth with the same human resources (and therefore salary costs)!
We generally manage to improve our clients' success rates very significantly by supporting their sales teams in their progress, particularly in two areas: the quality of targeting and the quality of the sales actions carried out with their prospects.
The advantage of such an approach is that it not onlyincreases your turnover, but also, and above all,optimises your profitability, which would not necessarily have been possible with a new recruitment.
2. Opt for a more segmented commercial organisation
This is what we see most often with our clients in terms of sales organisation: the sales person is a multi-tasker and takes charge of the entire sales chain, from lead generation to closing, including making appointments, finding out what the needs are, drawing up the sales proposal and following up.
This organisation has several disadvantages:
- On the one hand, multi-skilling can lead to a certain "scattering" between the various tasks and therefore to a loss of efficiency.
- On the other hand, it is rare to find sales profiles that are good at all of these tasks, so this makes it difficult to find the ideal candidate.
- Finally, not all of these tasks offer the same level of interest to a "seasoned" salesperson, which can lead to talent volatility.
Formalising and segmenting the sales process into different phases, and then dividing these phases between several people according to their skills and competences, is often much more effective.
This usually leads to a considerable gain in productivity, as each person is concentrated on one type of task, for which they will gradually gain in experience, speed and efficiency.
We generally recommend breaking the sales process down into at least four phases (e.g. identifying prospects, making appointments, conducting interviews and preparing the sales proposal), and then assigning each of these phases to a team member, with no more than two phases per person.
This type of organisation can in some cases "save" you from having to recruit more people, thanks to the productivity gains achieved. Otherwise , it simplifies your recruitment by restricting the range of skills required for each position.
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3. Use of substitute or replacement sales forces
Another alternative to recruiting multi-skilled salaried salespeople is to use an outsourced sales force: a company specialising in telephone prospecting, for example, or a freelance business developer.
The use of external sales forces has several advantages: it is less expensive than permanent recruitment, can be terminated more easily and is usually accompanied by a commitment to results.
It also offers more flexibility: external sales representatives can be involved on a permanent or occasional basis, on a part-time basis, as back-up during a busy period, or even be dedicated to a particular target...
Compared to permanent recruitment, it therefore represents a financial saving and a controlled risk.
Another advantage of this formula is that the outsourced tasks are generally those that are the least complex (generation of contact files, telephone prospecting, etc.), which allows the permanent sales team to concentrate on the "higher added value" tasks.
Beware, however: to be effective, the use of an outsourced sales force must :
- Concern a well-defined perimeter and follow an established process, controlled internally
- Regular monitoring of key performance indicators via a CRM or ad hocdashboards
- Rely on sales tools designed and validated intern ally: salesbook, standard emails, references and sales pitch by target, etc.)
It therefore requires a well-documented sales cycle, but also a certain degree of agility to ensure a smooth handover between external and internal sales.
For one of our clients, this strategy enabled them to optimally manage an activity marked by strong seasonality, by reducing the number of permanent recruitments initially envisaged from 5 to 2, in order to achieve a higher objective!
4. Retain your current sales staff!
The three alternative solutions we have just presented are designed to respond to situations of business development, which motivate a large proportion of sales recruitment projects. However, another part of these recruitment projects is linked to the sometimes high turnover observed in these positions.
With demand for experienced sales profiles far outstripping supply, market conditions are conducive to talent volatility: 38% of salespeople have received job offers without having actively searched for them, according to a Stepstone study on sales employment.3
To retain your sales people in general, and the best of them in particular, it is therefore essential to value the sales function as such.
The remuneration lever is obviously important, but here too, competition is tough: sales salaries are 57% higher than the average salary in France, according to a study by the firm Uptoo4...
To stand out from the crowd, make sure that your sales staff's daily work is interesting and stimulating: a quality working environment and conditions, effective tools, a clear and relevant sales action plan, a management style that encourages personal development, opportunities for internal growth, recognition of initiatives and successes, etc. These are all elements that count in the eyes of your staff and encourage their long-term commitment!
By working on some or all of these four areas, you can significantly reduce the number of sales hires your company needs to make, while effectively meeting your growth and business development objectives.
To stay competitive and maximise your chances of converting leads into future customers, it is important to optimise the return on your sales assets. Find out how by watching this webinar:
1 : D’après l’enquête 2018 sur la pénurie de talents menée par 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 : Citée par France Info : https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/c-est-mon-boulot/la-grande-penurie-de-commerciaux_1766077.html
