Many smaller businesses are originally set up with virtually every function depending on the owner\/founder. This means that the owner also ends up being the main sales and business development person within the business. As they grow, these businesses may experience a rocky transition.\u00a0 This is especially true when building their sales teams and letting go of the daily chores of the sales cycle.\u00a0 This post lists three common blunders that small-to-medium-sized businesses make in sales recruitment and business development recruitment.\u00a0 These three blunders have been drawn up from experience working with small-to-medium-sized businesses in different industries and geographies.<\/p>\n
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In many businesses, there is usually a degree of clarity on who the client could be in terms of the client persona, segments, characteristics, and main behaviours. However, there are situations where business owners\/management are not clear or in agreement on how to approach the market. This lack of clarity may influence how the sales and BD function will be built, funded, and recruited.\u00a0 The downside of such ambiguity could result in candidates being recruited under unstable conditions with changing goals and targets.\u00a0 This could also lead to a higher level of sales employee turnover.<\/p>\n
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The next blunder we encounter is when technical employees are assigned sales duties in a phase of the sales cycle be it lead generation, lead negotiation or closure.\u00a0 Technical employees are often knowledgeable about a product or technology and their skill is perceived as useful for the sales cycle.\u00a0 While this may work as a temporary solution, the sales and business development function requires a different skill set, aptitudes and personality traits.\u00a0 Experience shows that these requirements do not usually align with more technical profiles.\u00a0 In addition, technical employees are frequently selected based on their ability to maintain relationships with current clients.\u00a0 Such decisions can be a misjudgement since these skills are more suitable for ‘Account Management and Customer Support’ roles.<\/p>\n
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Another common scenario is where a sales or business development employee is recruited impulsively to solve an immediate need.\u00a0 This is also a common mistake in other recruitments and it is not exclusive to the sales and business development function. Since businesses are dynamic, with markets, customer segments, and geographic spread changing with time, there is a higher risk that such recruitment may not meet the company’s long-term requirements. This could lead to the realisation that the employee has ‘outgrown’ their role, necessitating the recruitment of a different calibre of resource.<\/p>\n
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Sales and business development functions are critical for a business’s survival. While we have discussed three common blunders in businesses setting up their functions, there are solutions to each one.\u00a0 The challenge is to analyse the present and future situation of the business<\/a>, predict potential challenges, and prepare for them beforehand<\/a> to prevent rather than tackle them. CMG Consulta is happy to discuss<\/a> your sales and business development functions, helping you optimize your teams to drive the most value to your organisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many smaller businesses are originally set up with virtually every function depending on the owner\/founder. This means that the owner also ends up being the main sales and business development person within the business. As they grow, these businesses may experience a rocky transition.\u00a0 This is especially true when building their sales teams and letting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,32,29,28,36,39,34,30,38],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n