Sales Hiring Blog

Since we all know that engineers aren’t known for “selling aptitude” generally at least, manufacturing companies wanting more sales volume have challenging questions to strategize.

1.  How do we get our sales engineers to do more prospecting? (unlikely)

2. Can we teach them to at least up-sell? (also unlikely)

3. Must we change our engineering culture to hiring sales hunters and have an engineering support base so sales people can get technical questions answered and be available for new client introductions? (more likely)

4.  Is there an inexpensive way to get our technical experts, our existing sales engineers, in front of more qualified prospects daily to garner more market share? (very likely)

A couple years ago we took on a project for the number two Global compliance testing company to change their sales culture. Their existing engineers were not up-selling or opening new doors and the company wanted to improve annual sales.

With the assistance of an assigned internal recruiter who hired engineers for support, we identified, interviewed and facilitated 22 hires for the company. They replaced their engineer sales model with hunters and their numbers sky rocketed. This project was completed in 18 months and all sales people hired were still there after a two year stint. I realize this retention is hard to duplicate.

The project also required a VP of Sales change as the previous one was of the engineer mindset. The whole project was expensive but ended up paying for itself.

A methodology that is less expensive is hiring an inside sales person to set interviews for your existing sales team. This can be a home run type of asset if the process is directed by a Sales Director with experience creating new business in this manner. At worst case, one high activity sales person given direction and support from the Director can really pop your sales effort.

This could also cost you since there are many technical sales engineer types who still may not get it and need to be trained on “how to”. Again, the right Director can adjust to selling styles of those types and set appointments accordingly.

The “right” Director will be responsible for targeting key accounts, identifying the most profitable ones for your services based on company history, training, managing follow up and driving new appointments. This will lead to more sales. Every sales person appreciates new potential business and your retention of sales people will be higher when you furnish a lead resulting in new business. Everyone wins.

Filed under: General by Mike McCandlish