Whether you are managing a small, medium or large company, a sales team is a must. Only startups may afford to combine the roles of advertising/marketing/sales teams for several reasons, one among them being the non-availability of funds to hire more staff. People with multiple skills thus would be an asset here.

Parameters for selection of a sales team

1)    For startups, another important criteria is to employ someone who is into multi-tasking. Someone who can discharge the roles of a marketing and sales guy in order to save the startup some money.

"In new markets you need to have a different breed of people who can get you the volumes and give your brand a head start," says Ravi Kiran head, Projects, Brand Map.  So if yours is the first company in India to have launched an automatic shoe polishing machine, you need a sales person who can get you as many customers as possible. Since there was no such product before, he needs to find brand new clients.

2)     Established Markets: "In established markets, you need more of relationship managers rather than sales managers. These people already know the market and the customers and their contacts can translate into sales," says Kiran.  But if you are a well-known car manufacturer, then you need a customer relations manager who does not really do hard selling of the car, since the market is already familiar with the company and its cars. One of the things he needs to do is to contact his earlier clients and ask them to sell off their old cars and buy the new one.  

3)     Stepping up from a Start up to an SME: When your startup moves into the small or medium enterprise stage, you need to then hire a sales team that has had experience of working in a startup and which is now ready to take up bigger responsibilities.        
"In this scenario, you need to have a mix of people from different industry back grounds. People from other industries come with fresh ideas and can
create miracles," says Kiran.     

4) The right traits:  "You should hire a person who has a pleasing personality, is a good communicator and has the drive to go out and meet the
customer; somebody who can bag the order. Normally, people seek talent from the same industry as the guy is ready from day one and has the contacts," Kar adds.

"Before hiring, you must have a budget and team composition in mind.
The structure of the sales team should also be in place, explains Kishore Kar, Vice-president, Sales & Marketing, India and South East Asia, Pharma Secure.

Here's a quick checklist before you hire:

> Understand the overall market you are about to enter
> Do your market research
> Understand the exact capability required of your sales force
> Identify the territory your salesmen will work in
> Assign a department budget
> Give the potential sales employee a clear idea about his pay package
> The salary-commission ratio should be 60:40 (incentives like a commission make the sales team perform better)

Where do you go looking for qualified and experienced sales people?

There are many avenues:

> Professional talent hiring firms
> HR firms
> Within the company if it is not a startup
> By advertising the job vacancy offline and online
> Business associates and customers
> Education institutions if you are looking for new recruits

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