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“How to create a commercial department?” is certainly a very common question that arises among entrepreneurs who decide to create an in-house sales force.
Of course, it is not enough to hire people, appoint them to positions that correspond to that area and tell them what to do. It takes a lot more than that to build a sales team and avoid turnover!
Not having this well-structured sector causes:
- Low team productivity;
- Failure to achieve goals ;
- Increased staff hiring expenses;
- Risk of bankruptcy.
Now, see how to create a successful sales department in your company and get every step right, from start to finish!
How to create a commercial department from recruitment and selection
Recruiting and selecting salespeople is the first step in determining whether the creation of a sales department will work or not.
This step is the basis of all processes, if it is not done well, the others will not reach the desired performance, even if the manager strives for it.
Raul Candeloro, a partner at the Institute of Specialization in Sales and founder of VendaMais magazine, says you need to hire the best salespeople you can find for your team. After all, it’s no use admitting someone who doesn’t meet the requirements of the job and hoping that he or she achieves the desired results.
When recruitment and selection are done correctly, you reduce potential future problems related to management, increase performance and the company’s average ticket.
Once this is ingrained in your mind, it becomes easier to optimize this and the other processes.
Raul also points out some very relevant truths about new hires, in short, they are:
The entire recruitment and selection process takes time and money.
Publicize the position in the correct ways, carry out dynamics and interviews, have a person capable of managing each step and choose good employees. These are just a few examples that demonstrate that hiring new people takes time and dedication.
A tip to post a vacancy is to use the internet heavily. Look for candidates on job-related websites, in trade magazines, and in places that the types of people suited to your goals would consume content.
Social networks such as LinkedIn are also profitable options, as they generate a lot of engagement and the vacancy can be shared. Make a real publicity campaign and attract the best possible profiles.
The greater the advertisement, the more chances of attracting the attention of professionals with more potential for the position.
Standardize the entire process
In the past, it was common for only one person to carry out the interviews and the dynamics but think about it, choosing a new employee, even if he sets quantitative parameters, still involves the subjectivity of those who lead the process. Therefore, it is not smart to rely on just one person for this role.
Put more than one person responsible in the admission stages, standardize the questions that will be asked so that everyone has the same opportunities and increase the selection phases.
In short, adopting these practices reduces the interference of the interviewer’s subjectivity, as he will have to compare his opinions and results with other interviewers, evaluating which are the best candidates for the job.
The choice of a new employee will not be made only by intuition or empathy with the interviewee, but by real and measurable results and evaluations.
Respect the job profile
You’ve found amazing, talented, well-trained and knowledgeable people, but is that enough to hire someone? Certainly not!
In order to know how to create a commercial department, it is also necessary to understand the ideal employee for each position, which are the profiles of the positions and people.
Some are more expressive, while others are more focused, more analytical. However, there are also those who are more affable while others are more pragmatic.
There is no right or wrong profile, but there is one that best fits a role.
Understanding what are the skills and characteristics needed by your sales team will certainly make you find the best employee.
Sales CHA
CHA is an acronym that means “knowledge, skills and attitudes”. That is, it establishes the competencies that an individual needs to have to perform a certain task.
This concept has spread widely in the business world, mainly in the commercial sector.
Therefore, the Sales team of Nova City housing society has these three pillars which strengthened in order to achieve the company’s success.
Below are some suggestions of what a seller needs to have, but remember, they are not dogmatic, each team has its ideal CHA.
Knowledge
- Know the company’s history and its values, objectives and goals;
- Mastering information about the products and services you sell;
- Know the competition and the market situation.
Skills
- To be organized;
- Serve the public well;
- Able to identify the customer’s profile and adapt the service to him;
- Mastering sales techniques;
- Get around objections.
Attitudes
- Have confidence when making the approach;
- Always prospect for leads;
- Take initiative;
- Keep the customer base active;
- Indicate closing on time.
How to hire a good sales manager
You have admitted suitable salespeople to your sales team, but to get the best out of the team you need a competent manager same as the manager of Capital Smart City.
If you are the manager, regardless of whether you consider yourself fit for the position, always look for ways to improve. In other words: read, study, follow pages that talk about management, take the training!
On the other hand, if you are not the manager and need to hire someone for the position, remember the hiring tips and look for someone who is a true leader.
More create rules, goals and say what the team needs to do. Leading is giving feedback, having a high level of demand, but still knowing how to support and understand the particularities of each person on the team.
What is it to be a leader? – IEV
In addition, there is also situational leadership, which is the ability to understand the team’s profile and adapt leadership to it.
Certainly, this type of leadership adapts to the needs of the team and reduces inequality, as it takes each person’s way of thinking.
How to develop a proper compensation plan
Thirdly, on how to create a sales department, comes the question of remuneration!
When the sales team is underpaid, a series of bad consequences can arise, such as team dissatisfaction, poor performance, not meeting targets and also increased turnover.
Having a team with the right salary means managing professionals who will recognize that they work in a good place. As a result, these practices aligned with others will encourage salespeople to grow.
How to create a sales department by standardizing the sales process
By standardizing the sales process, you are not only optimizing each step, but also improving performance and facilitating the customer experience.
Imagine a salesperson who makes a totally consultative sale and it takes about an hour to close it, on the other hand, there is a salesperson who makes a transactional sale and takes around fifteen minutes to sell something.
Both achieve results, but in the same quantity and quality?
You need to understand the Ideal Customer Profile (PCI) and standardize your sales processes according to it and the products you sell.
Remembering that PCI is different from Persona. The first talks about the type of customer that is most successful when purchasing your business solution. While the second, Persona, is mostly used in marketing, it goes into detail to describe the “ideal person” and tailor the communication.
Difference between PCI and Persona – IEV
Therefore, analyze which type of sales process best fits your company’s profile and standardize it. If it is the most suitable, it will certainly increase results if all salespeople practice it.
How to establish performance indicators
Performance indicators are essential for managers who want to learn how to create a commercial department. Not measuring team success or failure, in fact, results in disorganization and confusion in setting priorities and objectives.
Advantages of defining Performance Indicators – IEV
Therefore, exercise good results measurement practices so that you know what is subject to improvement at the moment.
Just to give an example, some of the most used performance indicators are:
Average ticket
It is the result of all transactions made over a period of time, which is defined by you. In short, it is the sum of the values obtained in this interval divided by the number of business transactions.
With this information, you can know what your company’s profits and expenses are, as you can see if the average ticket increased, decreased or remained stable.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The CAC is an important measurement instrument to find out how much, financially, it is necessary to apply to acquire a customer.
To reveal these amounts, just add up the expenses of all stages, from marketing campaigns to sales, and divide by the number of new customers.
Unless the CAC is less than or equal to your average ticket, you will be at a loss.
Another important point about CAC. With it, it is possible to understand most profitable ways to win new customers, as it shows the total amount spent on a certain strategy. Thus, it is possible to compare it with others and see which are the cheapest and which reach the most suitable people.
Conversion rate
In order to measure the performance of the team, the conversion rate measures how much contacts are transformed into customers. Divide the number of orders/contacts made by the number of opportunities created/sales made. Multiply the result by a hundred and you will find the percentage.
There are other performance indicators that can help you create the sales department, but remember that their excess or lack is a problem.
Study your team’s needs and goals and decide what to prioritize.
Continuous improvement and training
As Peter Drucker said, “The only things that will evolve of their own accord in an organization are clutter, friction, and poor performance.”
Having the mentality that it is always possible to improve is to leave the comfort zone, since when the results are satisfactory and the goals are reached, it is natural for human beings to settle in the position they are in.
The idea of continuous improvement comes in contrast to this natural stagnant behavior of man. To prove it, reflect on your own life, how many opportunities for growth have you missed and missed?
Fast courses, new experiences or just everyday reading, everything can be opportunity and learning.
Improving yourself is like going against gravity, but it must be done constantly and with training.
Kaizen is the name of this philosophy. It preaches the thought that it is always possible to evolve, there will always be problems to be solved and solved.
Kaisen Method of Continuous Improvement – IEV
Fixed and incremental mindset
However, it is not just Kaizen that talks about human improvement, there is also research on mindset that studies the way people’s mindsets are developed.
Professor Carol S. Dweck, from Stanford University, in California (USA), was responsible for the popularization of this term.
The fixed mindset is one that the person does not believe in personal growth, it preaches that someone has or not the talent and aptitude to develop something. On the other hand, there are those with an incremental mindset, or growth, who believe in evolution and learning.
Both mindsets are present in salespeople’s lives. There are those who believe that they “have no talent for the area”, while others, even without an affinity with the sector, strive and seek to learn and always improve.
Understanding that these two thinking profiles exist makes it possible to understand the attitudes of many people towards a problem.
Knowing how to create a commercial team is also understanding that the growth mindset needs to be developed and instigated, training has to exist.
Constant evolution is not an option, it is a requirement for any team!
Engagement of the commercial team
Having a team that wears the company’s shirt and enters the game performing its best performance in each match is certainly a difference between a winning team and a losing team.
Engagement among salespeople should not be their responsibility alone, but something encouraged by the manager.
Establish the vision, values and take it seriously. Create a safe and comfortable environment for everyone to work and of course encourage unity and improvement. Some practices that help achieve this goal are:
- Create collective goals;
- Bonus in addition to the commission, for example, with trips and dinners with the right to a companion;
- Recognize good results and give feedback, not only when you have a problem;
- Provide training and always be willing to help and clarify doubts;
- Offer the opportunity for individual and collective growth.
Now that you understand how to create a commercial department, review the lessons learned!
In short, all you learned from this content was:
- It is extremely important to hire the best sellers in the market and not settle for the “least worst”.
- The recruitment and selection process needs to be done properly, at the right time and not be totally subjective.
- Respecting the profile of the vacancy is very important.
- Everyone on the team needs to have a well-developed CHA.
- It is essential that you be or hire a good commercial manager who develops an adequate compensation plan for the team, encourages the continuous improvement of each one and instigates engagement.
Now that you’ve chosen a strong team and structured it well, don’t forget that the process of evolution is constant. Don’t get stuck in time, evolve! And for that, do training that empowers the entire team.
