Rivalry is an early stage technology company. We have one person running sales and marketing (me) and another building the product. Over the last 5 months we’ve had to balance our efforts with marketing, sales, and building the product. Below is our story of what we’ve done and what’s ahead.

Marketing and Selling without a Product – Marketing something not yet created is tough. Selling it is almost impossible. Rivalry’s doors opened in January with the expectation to build an MVP as soon as possible.

The First 4 Months Without a Full Time Developer – the first 4 months of Rivalry included finding the top talent. That process took four months. In Atlanta, there are 4 job openings for every 1 developer. Finding great talent is hard.

Our target market is small to medium-sized businesses. This is great; many of our prospective companies find their products via the internet. In pre-product stage, what do you do? The simple answer: write. Write blog posts, guides, white papers, best practices, and write until your heart is content. Create as much evergreen content as possible.

The first stage of your content marketing should prioritize SEO much higher than any other time in the company. Search Engine Optimization needs time and when a startup is pre-product, now is the time to invest in the future of marketing. Target keywords your prospects will not only type into Google tomorrow, but 5 years from now. If done right, a well-worded blog post is the gift that keeps giving by providing a constant stream of leads. Learn more about the convergence of SEO, social, and how product development fits in to the mix.

Customer Develop While Writing – now is the time to start planting the seeds with your first customers. There’s no need to sell at this point because nothing substantial is available to show prospects. Building relationships with future customers is a top priority.

When you build relationships with 10-30 potential customers a few things occur:

• They start becoming interested in your product.
• You understand their business very well.
• The very early stages of product-market fit take shape.
• Trust is built. Trust bring patience and tolerance to the relationship and it will be needed the first time you put the product in front of them.

The MVP is Built – The moment the minimum viable product is about 80% built, now is the time to turn your marketing efforts from seeds to spears. Hopefully from your writing and content marketing, you’ve picked up a few hundred leads along with the 10-30 folks you’ve cultivated as early prospects and “product-drivers” via customer feedback.

The moment a prospect can use the product, now is the time to place a higher priority on “sales” than “marketing.” The term “sales” is used in the activity-based POV and not the monetary one. Since the MVP is about 80% complete, now is a good time to show as many prospects that fit your rough ideal customer profile.

This is where the dance of finding the product-market fit begins. The 80% finished product is likely nothing but a hypothesis based off some loose market feedback and an idea.

Honing in on a Product Market Fit – Now is a good time to hone in on the product-market fit. The only way to do accomplish this is go back to each prospect you’ve cultivated over the past few months as well as find new ones. The past prospects should see the product every week or every other week. Since new features are being added, they’ll help guide your decisions. Keep asking the question: “what would you pay for?”

Navigating the balance of business development and full blown sales is difficult for many people, but it’s the purest mix of science and art in entrepreneurship. When times get tough, embrace the journey.

Sell while Building – Simultaneously, show it to new prospects i.e. new spears. Do this through traditional sales methods: cold calls, emails, twitter, word-of-mouth referrals.

Keep your dev team in the loop of customer feedback and customers in the loop of product roadmaps; a tighter and quicker product-market fit will result.

Once product-confidence is reached and multiple businesses are saying your product is a “no-brainer, how much?” bring on a sales rep and start scaling!

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How to Be a Good Sales Manager: 3 Steps

It’s a story told many times a year in sales organizations: a new sales manager is hired and tasked with leading the troops to greater productivity. Immediately, the first action item of the newly-minted sales manager is to head straight to the numbers. Questions arise: Which reps are performing the best? What are the daily activity reports of each rep? How much effort is put into pushing leads through the sales process? This is just the beginning. Before the sales manager knows it, his sales team thinks he/she is a number crunching sergeant and the team has been relegated to nothing more than a button-pushing, task-field filling, “unit.”

A few top performers quit because they’ve been micro-managed to a fault and the lowest performers can’t take the scrupulous , hard-natured leadership tactics of the new sales manager who’s been hired to “get more out of the sales team.”

Six to nine months into the job, the sales manager has 2-3 team members voluntarily quit, he’s building a case with HR to fire the top producing rep who won’t update salesforce.com with his daily tasks (in order to get the numbers), and worst of all, morale is at an all-time low.

Tip number 1: don’t be this sales manager.

3 Ways to Becoming a Good Sales Manager

Work Harder Than Your Sales Team – there are two types of sales managers: ones that sits in the office and “strategizes” about numbers all day and ones that coach, get in the trenches, and show their team how to work. Great sales managers have the mantra: “the moment I’m working harder for you, than you are for yourself, there is a problem.” Show them that you’re working for them and “strategize” when necessary.

Tell them the “Why” – sometime you will be holed up in a corner office for a few days looking at data and reports. Provide as much transparency as possible to your team of the “why” behind your decisions. If they feel your struggle and understand your why you’re analyzing the performance of the team, it will make them appreciate and respect the responsibility you have.

Communicate Clearly With Each Sales Rep – it is very important to have an individual relationship with each of member of your sales team. As the sales manager working with a team of 7-10 reps, having a real relationship with each rep with candid conversation is vital. The once-a-quarter review doesn’t cut it…even for your top sales folks. Tell them your struggles and align goals with theirs, your’s and the company’s. This will motivate them to produce results.

Take these three steps to become a better sales manager.

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It’s a scene played across hundreds of sales organizations each day. The sales guy walks over to the marketing department, buddying up with one of the marketers looking for “more leads.” The marketer looks at the sales guy, makes a joke, and then laughs at him. It goes down just like it did in The Big Lebowski for the Dude when asking a cop if they had any more leads for his case.

Put the Power in Your Own Hands

You already know how to prospect in sales like a detective, now it requires you to take action. Start small. Leads are out there…yes hundreds of them and being at the whim of the marketing department just won’t fly. The last thing you want to be is the helpless victim like The Dude.

1. Get Social - If you’re not on Twitter or LinkedIn, you must get on it. Those are just the basics. The tools that leverage them are becoming extremely sophisticated.

2. Become Your Own Thought Leader – whether you know it or not, you are an expert as something. Your product or services has a community of people who want to know something about what you’re selling. Start writing.

3. Connect with Other Thought Leaders - Do you think you’re the only sales rep or sales manager who is frustrated with the marketing team and wants to put the power in your own hands? NOT. EVEN. CLOSE. Find the others, who feel the same and are doing something about it. They are out there. By becoming social, you’ll be able to do this much easier than ever before.

If you do these 3 actions, you’ll never feel helpless like The Dude and leads will always be on the horizon.

Download our sales schedule to show you the best time prospect and create your own leads.

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Congratulations, you’re hiring a sales manager. The company is growing and your sales teams needs a little more “ooomph”. Coaching, structure, and additional hires are on the horizon. We’ve written about the top priorities of a sales manager, now we want to list some requirements of the actual job position. After reading this list, not only will your job description be clearer, you’ll also know what to expect with the journey ahead.

Hiring a Sales Manager: What’s Required

Sales management is the set of processes used by the company to organize its sales personnel and manage their execution of the revenue process. There are three main compartments of sales management: setting up the organization, running it, and working with corporate headquarters.

Setting Up the Sales Organization:

• Recruiting and training
• Assigning accounts and territories (if applicable)
• Assigning quotas
• Designing compensation plans
• Designing channels
• Writing standard contract terms

Running the Sales Organization:

• Adjusting quotas and territories
• Designing key accounts, account teams
• Accurate Sales Forecasting Revenue
• Monitoring Sales Cycles
• Account Reviews
• Handling escalations
• Scheduling executive calls
• Handling splits, commissions

Working with Corporate Headquarters

• Executive/board meetings
• Forecast roll-up, reconciliation
• Budgeting and staff changes

Hiring a sales manager is much more than just a list of action items and tasks. Christine Lagorio of Inc, has a good piece on what other factors to consider when hiring a sales manager.

One of our favorite requirements outside of the traditional job role is the ability to motivate your sales team. Salesforce motivation is a powerful tool.

Each one of these tasks can be augmented with the help of a sales process management software. Of course, earning buy-in from the sales team is step number one. Sales management is constantly changing with the help of new tools, new processes, and continual shifts in the sales industry.

How is your current sales process? Download this sales process evaluation to find out.

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Being in technology, it’s no surprise we like coffee and coffee shops. In Atlanta there are many great coffee shops, it’s tough to just pick one. The hold-up with picking one coffee shop in Atlanta is that we’re a city with what seems like 8 different towns; comparing a coffee shop in Buckhead to another in Old Fourth Ward doesn’t work. So we’ve broken this quarter’s Rivalry into geographical locations : Buckhead, Westside, and O4W/Virginia Highland.

Best Coffee Shop in Buckhead: The Ritz-Carlton vs. Caribou+Starbucks

The Ritz Carlton – It may sound abusrd, but the The Ritz -Carlton Buckhead, slick has some of the best coffee and tea in the city: it’s cheap and…pause, yes the paper is free. New York Times, AJC, and Wall Street Journal lay in racks for any paying customer. DON’T TELL ANYONE. The biggest issue for the me at the Ritz is looking the part. Our normal work attire consists of tee-shirt’s and jeans. Whenever I make it a morning at the Ritz I’ll try to throw on a jacket or button up to attempt to the look the part for a moment or two. Take our insight on this, stop by the Ritz for a 15 minute coffee break, catch up on world news, and valet your car while doing it (only 2 dollars). The total trip will cost you less than the paper you’ll walk out of there with.

8+ Caribou & Starbucks - Yes, it is ridiculous the amount of Starbucks and Caribou Coffees in the Buckhead area. The one redeeming quality each one has is the amount of activity going on…if energy is your thing. You’ll never feel like Atlanta is placid when hanging around one of these shops. Whether it’s the carpool mom with the line of kids or the investment banker closing a deal on the phone, the energy is real and infectious. Getting caught up in the hustle and bustle will likely motivate you do whatever you’re doing, faster. These coffee shops are littered all over this part of town from Lenox Mall to the corner of West Paces Ferry; spend a few hours in one of these shops and let it ride. As for the coffee..well you likely already know how it is.

On the Come Up: Octane @ Atlanta Tech Village - Be on the look out for the Octane Coffee in the works at the Atlant Tech Village. The first independent coffee shop in the heart of Buckhead is about to pop up in the most unexpected of places.

Best Coffee Shop in WestSide/Midtown: Octane Coffee (Westside) vs. The Warhorse

Octane Coffee – Westside

Octane Coffee (Westside) – The original Octane Coffee is a significant staple in this town. It seems more artwork has been showcased on those walls than at the HIGH sometimes. Back in 08′, Octane was one of the first few places where TweetUps were held and co-working with friends just seems to happen here. The mix of artists, students, business folks, and technologists make it a place where the diversity keeps you guessing of one another’s story. The coffee is some of the best in the city. Hands down. Time seems to escape and focusing on the task at hand becomes much easier.

The Warhorse Coffee Joint

The Warhorse Coffee Joint - Nestled in a corner of The Goat Farm, the Warhorse doesn’t slow time down, it practically stops there. Entering the small shop leaves even the regular visitor on their toes. New books always show up on the bookshelf; vintage cameras and typewriters appear with consistency. The coffee is the last thing you’ll be interested in when entering this hidden gem of Atlantan establishments. Go with an open mind and respectful attitude or you won’t last long.

Best Coffee Shop in Virginia Highland / OFW: San Francisco Coffee vs. Dancing Goats Coffee (OFW)

San Francisco Coffee Atlanta

San Francisco Coffee – There may not be a smarter coffee shop in the city. Every time you look over, it seems as if a teacher is grading papers or a PHD student is wrapped in their thesis. The coffee is exceptionally good here. Outlets have always been a pain so bring a charged-up computer. The chair and tables are small giving it a Parisian feeling, but the vibe here is one of the bests in the city.

Dancing Goats – Ponce City Markets

Dancing Goats Coffee (Ponce City Market) - This Batdorf & Bronson coffee roasters shop definitely has the best outside setup in the city. Lounging swings, adirondack chairs, and cushy pillows make you feel like you’re on a porch in Charleston not in the middle of Atlanta. This coffee shop will only get more popular as the mega-renovation of Ponce City Market progresses. Great coffee, great people, and and an outdoor setting unparalleled in the city.

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Yesterday we wrote a piece on 2 ways HubSpot is changing sales forever. Valuable insight is there for any organization looking to align sales and marketing.

We thought it was good enough that it might get a tweet from HubSpot *fingers crossed*.

Imagine the possibilities.

At 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8th, Rivalry received the first ever tweet from @HubSpot. Our message was broadcasted to thousands of small to medium sized businesses across the world.

HubSpot’s making some waves in sales these days:hub.am/12gUfO1Thanks, @rivalry cc: @mroberge

— HubSpot (@HubSpot) May 9, 2013

Feel free to RT to your community.

Excitement rendered us restless.

The Benefits of a Tweet from a High-Profile Brand

The TODAY Show crew wasn’t exactly outside our headquarters in the Atlanta Tech Village when we walked into our office this morning, but we still had some positive effects from the Tweet.

Total Reach:

HubSpot has 248,733 followers on Twitter.
There were 14 Retweets and it was “favorited” 4 times.

Benefits:

62% increase from average daily traffic
4 new twitter followers
3 new leads (downloaded a piece of content)
1 new person in the Google+ circle

If we had Roberge-like analytics (we don’t yet) then we’d easily be able to quantify the monetary value of that tweet — particularly based off the lead value score.

Things to consider when looking at the number include the time of the tweet and the conversion rate of our visitor to leads.

Overall, it was a great way to get some exposure for a very early-stage startup.

The post What’s a Tweet Worth From a Brand with 248,733 Followers? appeared first on Rivalry.

Every time HubSpot opens the door to their magical factory of marketing and sales alignment, we peek our heads inside and take notes. Last week, sales oracle and HubSpot VP of Sales, Mark Roberge (pictured) shared the innovative sales processes they’re using at HubSpot. They’re changing sales forever in two ways.

Two Ways HubSpot is Changing Sales Forever

1. Marketing Is Now Accountable…Say What!?!

Mark is a self proclaimed “quant guy.” He runs everything down to the numbers and science. Mark knows if he gives his middle market reps 150 leads, it’s statistically proven that his team will connect with half of them, create 30 opportunities, perform 15 demos, and as a result, there will be 5 new customers.

Knowing this data, Mark can reverse engineer the value of a lead. Yep, that’s right marketing department…wait for it, cause it’s coming.

The big disconnect between sales and marketing teams has today is not all leads are created equal.

Mark breaks the leads down even further and places a numerical value on the type of lead. He knows the probability that each leads will close based on where they are in the sales process. For example, Mark knows a webinar lead closes at 1.5% conversion rate but a demo lead closes at 5.1%

If Mark multiplies the conversion rate by the average spend of acquiring that customer, that gives Mark a lead value.

Below is a good chart explaining Mark’s system.

Now Mark can put his marketing team on revenue quota — unheard of! He can now go back to the VP of Marketing, Mike Volpe, and say “Mike, I need $78,270 in lead value,” instead of the traditional, “Mike I need 17,000 leads.” It doesn’t matter if they come through x number of demo requests or x number of webinar leads. Powerful!

This is true sales and marketing alignment.

2. Sales Teams Don’t Have To Think About The Unnecessary

Through real sales process automation salespeople do not have think about the unnecessary. Salespeople shouldn’t think about “when do I need to call this person again?” or “how long should I try before I give up?”

Mark has data that shows the ideal number of times to call a lead broken down to different industries. Now the sales team is held accountable to those metrics.

What’s even better, now Mark can build alerts into his sales process management software triggering his sales team when to reach out to the lead and with the ideal message at that perfect point in the sales process.

Sales people want to think about the necessary: who is this person, what type of business needs do they require help on, and creative ways to build rapport.

This level of analysis and data driven iteration creates an opportunity to keep the entire team accountable for their productivity.

Mark is writing the blueprint on how to build a sales and marketing machine.

The post 2 Ways HubSpot is Changing Sales Forever appeared first on Rivalry.

This is a guest post from Jenny Poore of SalesEngine.

When it comes to productivity, there’s no shortage of advice, tactics, and strategies to squeeze every ounce of momentum out of your day. Everyone wants to know how to become a productive rockstar at work so that they have more time to be a rockstar outside of work. Time is money in sales & learning how to use your time wisely can reap some serious rewards. A good sales manager knows how and when to optimize the team so that the sales engine drives smoothly.

Productivity is very personal. Each salesperson on your team will have a different way of working toward their sales goal. This guide should help you understand how you can help them. (Consider forwarding this guide so that they can make changes in their workflow on an individual basis.)

Add structure to the business day.

Think of a business day as separated into different phases. You may be making 80-100 phone calls per day depending on your sales process, but what kind of calls do you make at which times? Making cold calls for 3 hours straight can be draining. Instead, consider making cold calls for one hour, followed by calls to follow up on leads you have already spoken with, and another hour of cold calls. Break the day into miniature sprints. Train your brain to focus on specific types of phone calls for shorter periods and the work will seem more manageable. Besides, customers know when you are not engaged. Your mental breaks between cold calls will allow you to be positive and motivated when calling on a prospect for the first time.

Attach a reward to a task that requires a lot of motivation.

Let’s say you are having a customer service issue with a current customer. Even though you are the salesperson, it is up to you to keep this customer happy at times. You know you have to make a difficult phone call. Before doing so, think of a personal reward that you can give yourself for resolving the issue. Don’t be extravagant, but be realistic. I often give myself a mental 15-minute break where I read an interesting article that a friend forwarded or watch a trailer to an upcoming movie that I’m excited to see. A small reward can, again, give you the mental break you need to continue making sales calls. You can’t be “on” all the time. Give yourself the time and space to turn your brain “off” for a few moments throughout the day.

Stick to your “touch” strategy.

If your team doesn’t have a touch strategy, do it as a group exercise. Establish the first, second, and third ‘touch’ to the prospect or customer. For example, first touch is a call, second touch is an email, and the third touch is a second phone call with a specific message. It’s a process; establish how much time can or should pass between each touch. Success in sales depends largely on the level of discipline you can exhibit. Be patient but vigilant. Avoid the urge to call a new lead several times in two days and allow him or her the time to respond before trying the second touch. When you deviate from the touch strategy, you are either communicating with the prospect too much or too little. Once you find the balance, stick to it. Align your daily work with a process so that each interaction is meaningful and the workload is manageable.

Learn to recognize when you are just “busy”.

Just because you’re “busy” does not mean that you’re productive. As salespeople, we can spend a lot of time doing a lot of little tasks. But, not all of them lead us to a new sale or a new customer. (Was it really necessary to spend an hour updating or editing your email signature? Probably not.) To stop yourself from getting into a busy trap, learn your own productivity patterns. Each day for 5 days, take notes about your work. Nothing is too small. Write down when you had a good call, when you said something that was unclear to a customer, when you procrastinated a cold calling sprint, etc. Take note of both the good and bad things about your work. At the end of one business week, you will realize when you were truly productive and focused and you can learn to avoid being just ‘busy’ by attaching rewards to productive periods of work (see above).

Provide value to your customers and avoid “checking in”.

We’ve all received calls from a salesperson who just wants to “check in”. These calls are pointless and do not lead to a valuable conversation on either side. Avoid making these types of calls by providing concrete value. If the customer is valuable, consider providing a piece of information that can help them do their own job better. (These 5 free tools can help you keep a pulse on your prospects and customers.) If you don’t have something of value to offer, have a list of impact questions on hand to ask. It’s exceedingly rare today that we are asked questions that make us think. Your customers will appreciate it. Have a specific reason for calling each and every time you pick up the phone.

———

Written by Jenny Poore. Jenny is the Director of Sales and Digital Marketing for Sales Engine, a company that helps firms build and tune their sales engine. You can find her on Twitter and Google + .

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Sales leadership is essential to a growing sales organization. It takes discipline, gut, and a whole lot of work. At Rivalry, we’ve come across all sizes of sales team. Some are scaling 1 salesperson a year others are hiring 4 salespeople a month. It’s very tough to scale and build a strong sales team. The first step is getting the right sales leadership in the company.

Know the Type of Sales Leadership You Want to Bring On

The job of the CEO is to find which style of sales leadership fits best with the company. This can be tough but it always goes back to the culture of the company. Sales author, Steve Martin (not the comedian) wrote of 5 different types of management styles from a VP of Sales.

• Mentor – this style is lead with charm and panache. Sales results come in two ways: exceeding goals and cultivating an environment where the entire team can succeed. Consultative selling is this manager’s preferential sales strategy and are normally fairly hands off.
• Expressive managers – this style comes from the manager who can put anyone at ease. Monotonous tasks will bore this manager and their inclination and drive to be in the field will be too great to hold back.
• Sergeants – loyalty is their biggest characteristic…so much so they often times put their loyalty for the team over the loyalty to the company. Priority always rests on the “troops.”
• Overconfident manager – this style is lead with bravado almost to a fault. The team consists of mentally strong “gladiators,” who’s discipline is unmatched.
• Micromanagers – very organized and responsible down to the fine grain. Sales members of their team will carry out their instructions to a tee.

Source: Harvard Business Review

Know When To Bring On The Perfect Type of Sales Leadership 

There is the perfect type of VP of Sales for every stage of your company. Jason Lemkin enumerates each type of VP required for the different company stages.

• The Evangelist (Revenue 0-$1,000,000) – This person is smart and very customer centric; they can think creatively and cross functionally. They’ll talk the ear off of any prospect with eloquence and conviction. The problem with the Evangelist: He or she has never scaled a sales team before. The best step to take is too look for these skills in your first sales rep hires.
• Mr. Make-It-Repeatable (Revenue $1,000,000 – $10,000,000) – Post initial traction, this is the person. This phase of the business, you have some customers but now need to put some process behind the organization. This is your person. They’ve done it before and have the experience.
• Ms. Go Big (Revenue $10,000,000-$40,000,000) – the VP of sales coming into a company with $10-$20mm in ARR is going to focus on the process evenmore: hire the right people, work on SDR program, get field sales churning, and dominate out-bound. Coordinating the entire revenue generation model with the VP of Marketing is key here as well.
• Mr. Dashboards (Revenue 40,000,000+) – this person has likely been at a big cos for awhile. This guy has the look, the golf game, and the board will love him. At this level, he’s meeting with managers and figuring out strategic ways to move the company forward. This VP of Sales should definitely be the last one you hire one you’re on the path of total industry domination.

Source: Sasstr

Know How to Enhance the Culture of You Company

This is the final and most important piece. Regardless of your style or the company stage, if the culture you create isn’t one where the best sales reps in the world want to work, then the talent war is already being lost to a smarter competitor. We’ve already explored the best types of sales reps for a sales organization but how does a company create a corporate culture to attract these reps? We have two ways:

• Inspire, motivate, and build confidence in your team – there are many ways to do this, but the best one we’ve found is through coaching. Mark Roberge of HubSpot wrote a great piece on sales coaching worth reading. Bottom line: schedule time to coach your reps and turn their weaknesses into strengths.
• The best sales reps are competitors. Cultivating a culture of friendly competition among your sales team will do wonders for the performance and culture of your company. LevelEleven has a great blog on ways to do this.

Company culture is highly indicative of the leadership skills and characteristics of the organization. The best companies will constantly seek out ways to improve their culture by surveying employees and exerting immense amounts of creativity into the company culture.

These are three “must knows” when deciding on sales leadership.

The post 3 “Must Knows” When Deciding Sales Leadership appeared first on Rivalry.

This post is for the 1% of VP of Sales who understand the value of keeping a constant stream of all-star sales reps craving to come work for you.

If this isn’t you, our sales process steps posts are worth reading too.

By the time you’ve finished reading this, you’ll know 4 key sales personas required in your sales organization to keep it desirable for new hires.

We already know the characteristics of great sales rep — the ones that bring 80% of the business. Now let’s go out and get them. To understand how to get them it’s important to identify what they want.

Money is the bare minimum. A great sales rep knows he can make bank by picking up the phone and slanging product for any company. Money is the bare minimum.

Sales reps want to improve, be coached, and hang around people better than them…in certain areas. This is why your sales organization needs the following four types of sales people.

4 Types of Sales Reps Required in a Prosperous Sales Organization

The Killer Closer: other reps feel weird talking to this guy because he’s so good. Chit-chat at the water cooler…he’s never done it. Why would he? He’s in his own world of straight closing all day.

Why have the Killer Closer? One of the first questions any great sales rep will ask you is “how much can I earn?” You, being the savvy VP of Sales, respond with “our top guy made X ($200k+) last year.” The rep being recruited automatically assumes he can match it, if not beat it. What they don’t know is how insanely good this guy is at his job.

The Ex-Jock: he may not be the best sales rep in the organization, but he likely played D-1 ball somewhere and has the stories to prove it. As long as he’s not living in the past too much, this sales rep is a must have in your organization.

Why have the Ex-Jock? Who doesn’t like hanging around someone gravely superior than them in one aspect of life. Even if it was 5 or 10 years ago, it won’t matter because a great sales rep will recognize — and respect — greatness in any form.

The Popular Connector:  he’s probably the most politically inclined. In a perfect world, this person is either on the rotary, a young member of the country club, or the head of the young alumni association of their university. As long as he’s not a cheesy brown-noser, this type of sales rep is essential to your sales team.

Why have the Popular Connector? As you tour the sales floor with the prospective hire, this is the desk you want to stop by and make small talk. There will likely be a picture of the him with a Senator or maybe even a golf calendar. Name drop that he’s on the membership committee of the local country club or always organizes the best after-work drinks. The future sales rep will know there’s potential benefits more than just money if he comes on.

The Gracious Helper: This sales rep isn’t the killer closer, doesn’t have the athletic ability of a D-1 athlete, or have the charisma of the connector. That’s not his role. In addition to being a solid sales rep, he’s also the first one to help transition new hires. He’s not threatening and always helpful.

Why have the Gracious Helper? It’s probable your sales organization is competitive and not everybody, including the Killer Closer, has time to help a new hire. As much as you coach and train your new sales reps, there’s still going to be certain questions they just feel dumb asking. Having a Gracious Helper will speed up ramp time why still maintaining confidence in the new hire.

Have these 4 types of sales reps in your sales organization and watch your culture and the attractiveness of your organization soar.

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