🚨 Warning: Before You Hire a Salesperson...

You want to grow revenue so you're thinking about taking the next logical step and hiring a salesperson. It feels right. It makes sense. 

...let's chat for a second.

I've seen too many agency owners and consultants make the mistake of hiring a salesperson before they were ready. Here are some warning signs that you might not be ready for a sales hire:

1. You don't have a CRM in place. Imagine being scared to fire your underperforming salesperson because they have an Excel spreadsheet of every single prospect on their desktop. With a CRM (and a process in place for its use), you have full visibility into who your sales team is reaching out to, what they are saying to them, and where in the sales cycle they are. This way, when your salesperson quits or you decide to fire them, you aren't left high and dry without the resources to pick up where they left off.
   
   
2. You don't have sales email templates. Hiring a salesperson without giving them a clear script to follow is a sure-fire way to tarnish your brand's reputation. Who knows what they will say in their emails to your prospects? I cringe just thinking about it. You know your brand voice and what your prospects like to hear. A new hire needs guidance on what that looks like. 
   
   
3. You're not very good at sales yourself. When agency owners suck at sales, they often think they need to bring in a salesperson to do it for them. Unfortunately, this approach never works. You have to hone in on a sales process that works for your business before you can offload it to someone else. Otherwise, you are going to have the same problems and you'll be paying your problems a salesperson's wage.
   
   
4. You haven't outlined your target audience. We have all had at least one nightmare client (let's be honest, there have been a few). It is imperative that you have a clear, written down, ideal customer profile that you can share with your new sales hire. Otherwise, what's stopping them from bringing in a bunch of nightmare clients that don't fit your business model and force you to absolutely pull your hair out?
   
   
5. You don't have clear services. If you are in the "we build custom plans" business or the "we do a bunch of different things" business, bringing in a salesperson can do more harm than good. You know what your team is capable of but, without a defined list of services, how can you expect someone else to know that? There is nothing worse than walking into a kick-off call with a new client only to realize you cannot deliver what was promised to them during the sales process. 

In case you couldn't tell, I am passionate about ensuring that agency owners and consultants have the sales processes in place to ensure growth, regardless of how big their sales team is. 

Bonus Tip: HubSpot has an absolutely free CRM (no catch, I promise) so there is no reason why you can't get started tracking your leads and building email templates today. If you need some help setting it up, reach out. I am more than happy to chat!