Personal experience: how to find a sales manager for a web studio
For me, the hardest thing to find a sales manager. I don’t know why it happened historically, but it’s much easier to get good seo-specialists, directors or SMM specialists.
When I planned to write this article, I thought that it would begin with a winning phrase: I have a couple of successful and profitable employees. Unfortunately, this is still not the case. So the article will be about errors and some tricks that I thought of hiring staff for a web studio.
The idea to surrender their "authority" for sales came pretty simple. But it was scary. Familiar? By the way, there are still a lot of familiar directors of web studios in our city (I am from Krasnoyarsk) who sell themselves. They say the phrases: “who can sell better than me”, “the most charged person in the company should sell”. I gave the sale with difficulty, reluctantly. But it became better. There is more money (and I pay my salary as well), time has increased. Now one specialist has been working for me for half a year, I am looking for a second one. And that's what I did for that.
The simplest thing is to turn to professionals. I phoned all the recruitment companies of my city in the directory (I'm meticulous). I was offered conditions from 8 to 25 thousand rubles. for one employee. And the payment after he will work the first day. Maximum can replace 2-3 times. This approach did not suit me radically, because people merge after an internship. And the most difficult thing is to find someone who really stays.
')
In spite of this, I signed several contracts with the postpaid system and ... and that’s all. All offices are gone for a month. A month later, the company with the highest check called and brought me to an interview with a 19-year-old boy in a funny sweater who once led the Vkontakte group on hats. He had a great desire to work, etc. according to the agency. I had to pay 25 thousand for his device, but I was offered a discount on age up to 21 thousand. It looks quite funny, so I continued to search on my own.
The most important thing for me is a revelation: the work in your company also needs to be sold just as you sell your services. The same sales funnel works here.
For starters, I just wrote an ad. Made it somehow. It looked pretty simple and very few people were attracted. Moreover, in the section "sales managers" competition between firms is large and it quickly went to the tail. It began like this:
Who do we want to see next to us?
Strong personality, self-confident person. A person who loves people and communication.
We are not looking for employees, but like-minded people and associates, whom we can fully trust. Ambitious, professional, burning his own business.
You:
- Should be in sales the coolest. You know what and how should be implemented.
- Refuse to do anything but the best.
- Allergic to mediocre work.
- Make high demands on yourself and subordinates.
- Take responsibility for your field. <...>
The full version of this nightmare can be viewed here . It is difficult to imagine that the applicant will pay attention here and why answer. Having suffered a little (about half a year), I randomly get to a seminar on hiring employees. There I write down a few tips for myself on how to make an ad, rewrite it, and resumes begin to fill me up. Two even said that the ad was written very well. Here is how it became, I am writing only the beginning:
Web Studio "Optimization" - the top company of the city according to 3 ratings due to the rapid growth in demand for services is looking for two sales managers. Salary + percentage of all sales (including repeat). Once sold subscription services - all the time you get interest. Salary is always on time: twice a month. Training with a mentor throughout the trial period: detailed product training, sales tricks in our field. A nice bonus: there is a stream of incoming requests from the site, from advertising - it is easier and faster for them to sell.
The first and most important thing that I understood is that you need to specify all the most important bonuses at the beginning (as the first screen on the landing page). Just need to close the fears of the applicant. Where would I myself guess what they are afraid of, but smart people suggested:
1. They are afraid that they will be planted and forgotten. They need training, who needs to lead and prompt. Therefore, I wrote about mentoring. And it really is.
2. They are afraid that they will not pay money. Of course, you need to say about the stability of the company, about its experience and what they pay here. This is where the announcement begins.
3. They are afraid that if they filed an ad, the seller’s past was “thrown for money” or killed at worst. Once people leave, it means something suspicious. Therefore, you need to find a soothing phrase why the vacancy is open. It is bad to use something stereotypical: we are looking for a new person in connection with expansion, etc.
4. Well, in the end I added that it can brighten up the work of the manager - incoming requests.
So, put an ad on one site and threw money to it lasted 3 days in the top. I was filled up with a resume. The requirements were simple: either you know how to sell or you know at least something in promotion.
From the beginning of February to November, the date of this writing, I have appointed 189 interviews. 101 people attended, which is 58%. Of these, 14 people went on internship, this is 13%. One of them stayed. In addition, of course, there are those who do not take the tube, who do not go for an internship. I do not know how adequate the numbers are, but we have such.
Then I remade the interview plan. My main goal is to understand whether this person can speak at all, whether he is not afraid of people, and whether conditions are suitable for him. I ask questions about previous work experience. I ask what he expects from work, what he needs (stage of identifying needs). I write them down, and then I say how we close his desires.
It seems that all applicants are simple. I have described their fears above, in general, I just pronounce it again. That we pay salaries (let them cast aside rotten tomatoes, if I haven’t paid off the employee at least once), that there are incoming requests, that we train, that the company is stable.
Usually applicants say that it is important for them how far from home the work is and which team. True, I do not know what to answer. Our team is excellent, all like-minded people - I do not see the point of saying this, it sounds trite, but true.
The conditions are simple, for our city are standard: 15 thousand salary, percentages of turnover. Probationary period, internship, work from 10 to 18, weekends and holidays rest. I had to think about what is so unique to offer that people want to work with us.
First, I think our product (seo) is unreal cool. This is not the sale of advertising in the newspaper or banners - that already goes by the ways. This is a very targeted, modern advertising and accurate. Many peck just on the product.
Secondly, I decided to use the technique of network marketing. While the client pays, the manager gets a percentage from him. Thus, you can build a customer base and live well. It often happens that after the first sale the project is transferred to the client department and the commission is terminated. Although I think this is right, I decided to sacrifice the advice of smart people and for the time being I left “passive income”. With the current volumes such a scheme works, what will happen next I do not know.
So, the applicant said that the conditions are fine. On an internship, I immediately give up and send a person to call in the cold. This "incredible" stress is not maintained by poor seekers of good wages. Honestly, here I do not know why a person leaves either after 2 hours, or does not come out the next day. I did not get to that level of divination. Maybe among reading this article is, who knows?
The internship lasts 5 days. I got tired of working with a parrot and explaining the same thing to people, so I recorded short instructional videos. This is very cool saves time and effort. After the video, I just check how they learned the scripts.
So far, all my hell crater was only one person. This is a guy with a technical background and some SEO knowledge. I managed to teach him to call and hold meetings, he earns above average. Without the experience of such salaries do not give, but he has.
In plans to increase the "sales" of my job, I want to shoot a video with employees who tell us how they work in the company.
So, to hire a sales manager you need to analyze your funnel. How the ad is written, how you invite by phone, how you are interviewing, whether the fears of the applicant and his needs are covered.
When I planned to write this article, I thought that it would begin with a winning phrase: I have a couple of successful and profitable employees. Unfortunately, this is still not the case. So the article will be about errors and some tricks that I thought of hiring staff for a web studio.
The idea to surrender their "authority" for sales came pretty simple. But it was scary. Familiar? By the way, there are still a lot of familiar directors of web studios in our city (I am from Krasnoyarsk) who sell themselves. They say the phrases: “who can sell better than me”, “the most charged person in the company should sell”. I gave the sale with difficulty, reluctantly. But it became better. There is more money (and I pay my salary as well), time has increased. Now one specialist has been working for me for half a year, I am looking for a second one. And that's what I did for that.
The simplest thing is to turn to professionals. I phoned all the recruitment companies of my city in the directory (I'm meticulous). I was offered conditions from 8 to 25 thousand rubles. for one employee. And the payment after he will work the first day. Maximum can replace 2-3 times. This approach did not suit me radically, because people merge after an internship. And the most difficult thing is to find someone who really stays.
')
In spite of this, I signed several contracts with the postpaid system and ... and that’s all. All offices are gone for a month. A month later, the company with the highest check called and brought me to an interview with a 19-year-old boy in a funny sweater who once led the Vkontakte group on hats. He had a great desire to work, etc. according to the agency. I had to pay 25 thousand for his device, but I was offered a discount on age up to 21 thousand. It looks quite funny, so I continued to search on my own.
The most important thing for me is a revelation: the work in your company also needs to be sold just as you sell your services. The same sales funnel works here.
For starters, I just wrote an ad. Made it somehow. It looked pretty simple and very few people were attracted. Moreover, in the section "sales managers" competition between firms is large and it quickly went to the tail. It began like this:
Who do we want to see next to us?
Strong personality, self-confident person. A person who loves people and communication.
We are not looking for employees, but like-minded people and associates, whom we can fully trust. Ambitious, professional, burning his own business.
You:
- Should be in sales the coolest. You know what and how should be implemented.
- Refuse to do anything but the best.
- Allergic to mediocre work.
- Make high demands on yourself and subordinates.
- Take responsibility for your field. <...>
The full version of this nightmare can be viewed here . It is difficult to imagine that the applicant will pay attention here and why answer. Having suffered a little (about half a year), I randomly get to a seminar on hiring employees. There I write down a few tips for myself on how to make an ad, rewrite it, and resumes begin to fill me up. Two even said that the ad was written very well. Here is how it became, I am writing only the beginning:
Web Studio "Optimization" - the top company of the city according to 3 ratings due to the rapid growth in demand for services is looking for two sales managers. Salary + percentage of all sales (including repeat). Once sold subscription services - all the time you get interest. Salary is always on time: twice a month. Training with a mentor throughout the trial period: detailed product training, sales tricks in our field. A nice bonus: there is a stream of incoming requests from the site, from advertising - it is easier and faster for them to sell.
The first and most important thing that I understood is that you need to specify all the most important bonuses at the beginning (as the first screen on the landing page). Just need to close the fears of the applicant. Where would I myself guess what they are afraid of, but smart people suggested:
1. They are afraid that they will be planted and forgotten. They need training, who needs to lead and prompt. Therefore, I wrote about mentoring. And it really is.
2. They are afraid that they will not pay money. Of course, you need to say about the stability of the company, about its experience and what they pay here. This is where the announcement begins.
3. They are afraid that if they filed an ad, the seller’s past was “thrown for money” or killed at worst. Once people leave, it means something suspicious. Therefore, you need to find a soothing phrase why the vacancy is open. It is bad to use something stereotypical: we are looking for a new person in connection with expansion, etc.
4. Well, in the end I added that it can brighten up the work of the manager - incoming requests.
So, put an ad on one site and threw money to it lasted 3 days in the top. I was filled up with a resume. The requirements were simple: either you know how to sell or you know at least something in promotion.
From the beginning of February to November, the date of this writing, I have appointed 189 interviews. 101 people attended, which is 58%. Of these, 14 people went on internship, this is 13%. One of them stayed. In addition, of course, there are those who do not take the tube, who do not go for an internship. I do not know how adequate the numbers are, but we have such.
Then I remade the interview plan. My main goal is to understand whether this person can speak at all, whether he is not afraid of people, and whether conditions are suitable for him. I ask questions about previous work experience. I ask what he expects from work, what he needs (stage of identifying needs). I write them down, and then I say how we close his desires.
It seems that all applicants are simple. I have described their fears above, in general, I just pronounce it again. That we pay salaries (let them cast aside rotten tomatoes, if I haven’t paid off the employee at least once), that there are incoming requests, that we train, that the company is stable.
Usually applicants say that it is important for them how far from home the work is and which team. True, I do not know what to answer. Our team is excellent, all like-minded people - I do not see the point of saying this, it sounds trite, but true.
The conditions are simple, for our city are standard: 15 thousand salary, percentages of turnover. Probationary period, internship, work from 10 to 18, weekends and holidays rest. I had to think about what is so unique to offer that people want to work with us.
First, I think our product (seo) is unreal cool. This is not the sale of advertising in the newspaper or banners - that already goes by the ways. This is a very targeted, modern advertising and accurate. Many peck just on the product.
Secondly, I decided to use the technique of network marketing. While the client pays, the manager gets a percentage from him. Thus, you can build a customer base and live well. It often happens that after the first sale the project is transferred to the client department and the commission is terminated. Although I think this is right, I decided to sacrifice the advice of smart people and for the time being I left “passive income”. With the current volumes such a scheme works, what will happen next I do not know.
So, the applicant said that the conditions are fine. On an internship, I immediately give up and send a person to call in the cold. This "incredible" stress is not maintained by poor seekers of good wages. Honestly, here I do not know why a person leaves either after 2 hours, or does not come out the next day. I did not get to that level of divination. Maybe among reading this article is, who knows?
The internship lasts 5 days. I got tired of working with a parrot and explaining the same thing to people, so I recorded short instructional videos. This is very cool saves time and effort. After the video, I just check how they learned the scripts.
So far, all my hell crater was only one person. This is a guy with a technical background and some SEO knowledge. I managed to teach him to call and hold meetings, he earns above average. Without the experience of such salaries do not give, but he has.
In plans to increase the "sales" of my job, I want to shoot a video with employees who tell us how they work in the company.
So, to hire a sales manager you need to analyze your funnel. How the ad is written, how you invite by phone, how you are interviewing, whether the fears of the applicant and his needs are covered.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/314790/
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