Follow Treeline on Twitter and Join Our Sales Network
A new job order has come in and within minutes all of our 300 followers have been updated with our latest tweet: “Are you an aggressive Sales Rep with 2-5 yrs B2B experience? Rapidly growing Tech Company located in Wakefield, MA looking for Inside Sales Rep- $70k: http://tiny.cc/hklfa0″
The link brings you to the job description on our website and a link to Join Our Network. Simply fill out the application and before you know it, you have applied for a position and have become part of our network of sales professionals. Not only will you be considered for the job you applied for, but also other jobs you are qualified for.
Twitter has emerged as an easy way for us to keep our sales community in the know. As the Social Media Network Representative at Treeline, I use Twitter’s real-time communication capability to create a constant feed of updates. When a new job comes in, a new blog is posted, or we just want some feedback, I take to Twitter as my go-to networking site. The brilliance of using Twitter is that my tweet not only reaches all of our followers, but they can also re-tweet our update and let their followers know what’s happening at Treeline.
This is how we build relationships with our sales community. A recent article in Social Media Today, 10 Newbie Twitter Mistakes Made By Businesses, by Mike Johansson examines how many businesses fail to use Twitter effectively. Johansson found that many businesses do not engage in dialogue with their followers and build a relationship. Many times, if one of our tweets is re-tweeted I make sure to re-tweet one of their posts.
Creating a relationship via Twitter is similar to building a relationship with someone you meet at a networking event. Handing out your business card is like following someone on Twitter. You have to take the next step and engage in dialogue. Our followers learn about us and we learn about them by asking and answering questions. I try to respond to any @TreelineInc tweet as soon as possible, usually within the same day. Helping others on Twitter is easy and I have found that you get more than you give.
With over 6 million users on Twitter, we hope to reach as many as possible. Here at Treeline, we update our Twitter status to keep you in the know. We want to build relationships and find out what you think about us, what’s happening in the sales community, and what we can do better. Follow us on Twitter!
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Tracking the Sales Hunter
Every sales executive dreams of having a stable of hunters – especially during a recession – yet how do you identify, motivate and keep them on board?
When it comes to sales reps, you could say there are two kinds of employees – hunters and farmers. Hunters live to uncover and seize new opportunities while farmers are better suited to up selling and cross selling to an existing client base.
While both are invaluable to a company, when it comes to surviving in lean times, the hunters are being hunted more than ever because of their ability to create new opportunities and see them through to profitability.
As a sales executive, you know you need to cultivate an environment that will enable the hunter to thrive, despite a challenging economic climate that presents fewer leads and has created slower sales cycles.
While experience and instinct has taught you what makes a good sales rep, it’s not always easy to identify the characteristics that differentiate the hunter from the farmer.
Based on extensive research conducted with sales professionals over close to a decade, what follows are the 12 traits Target Teams has uncovered of the sales hunter.
Along with outlining the pros and cons of each characteristic, you’ll also find helpful tips on how to manage and retain the hunter so that they are working to their full potential for their careers and your bottom line.
1. Hunters like to solve problems on their own and on the fly.
Pro: the autonomous sales rep will close the deal with little handholding.
Con: team collaboration can present a challenge.
Tip: break down the responsibilities of the team to ensure the hunter is still able to own and drive part of the effort.
2. Hunters like to lead whatever projects are on their plates.
Pro: they will successfully lead and execute sales initiatives.
Con: they can present a challenge to the manager who is trying to lead the team.
Tip: provide opportunities for the hunter to independently manage projects and ask them to demonstrate the results in a public forum to the manager and the executive team. This will allow the hunter to gain public recognition without usurping the role of the manager.
3. Hunters want (and need) to be around people because they thrive on the energy of others.
Pro: they naturally gravitate toward meeting new people and initiating cold calls and are comfortable addressing a larger audience at the prospect’s site.
Con: if this hunter works from home or is based in a small regional sales office, they will feel disconnected and are more likely to disengage.
Tip: Find a reason to bring them into corporate headquarters several times a quarter and arrange for meetings and other interactions with colleagues and executive personnel. Also, be sure to regularly check in with them on a personal level as hunters appreciate and come to rely on their 1:1 personal connection with their manager.
4. Hunters like working on a lot of different projects at the same time.
Pro: they can successfully manage more territories and service more clients.
Con: they may interrupt existing processes and defined roles in their pursuit of juggling lots of activities simultaneously.
Tip: provide a wider, well-defined territory so that the hunter can tackle lots of projects without negatively impacting other staff.
5. Hunters like change.
Pro: they’ll easily adapt to change whether it’s ushered in by internal or external forces.
Con: they will get bored with routine.
Tip: include changes in the hunter’s role every 12-18 months for renewed enthusiasm.
6. Hunters have a strong sense of urgency.
Pro: they want sales to close quickly. No prodding required from their management team.
Con: their patience is tested when it comes to deals that may require longer sales cycles.
Tip: consider matching the length of the sales cycle with the “sense of urgency” of the rep – i.e. small account sales rep with sales cycle of 2 weeks vs. global account sales rep with a sales cycle of a year and a half.
7. Hunters tend to bend the rules.
Pro: hunters will creatively solve problems (and potentially bend some rules) to creatively progress with prospects –typically leading to an increase in sales.
Con: this trait can frustrate those responsible for enforcing the company’s administrative and business processes.
Tip: provide flexibility in the sales process — require process requirements if they are absolutely critical.
8. Hunters dislike entering sales forecast data.
Pro: they have an innate ability to hold a great many facts in their head and this helps to support their primary focus on active selling.
Con: lack of accurate rep forecast data can impede management’s ability to accurately forecast for the executive team and make critical business decisions.
Tip: require only critical forecast data — potentially sales operations or administrative support to capture and document rep conversations with regard to sales status and forecasts.
9. Hunters want to be paid — and paid well — for their high performance.
Pro: greater profitability for everybody involved.
Con: reps are highly motivated when paid immediately. If not paid well, they will leave and chase compensation elsewhere. A reps loyalty is to results and top compensation.
Tip: work with your finance department and CEO to create easy to understand compensation plans that are tied exclusively to performance.
10. Hunters are naturally politically savvy.
Pro: they are superb at recognizing power players inside of an organization and winning them over in the pursuit of their career as well as closing the deal. They love the game of competition.
Con: they will thrive with visibility with senior leaders within their own company that may not always be available.
Tip: establish mechanisms for the hunter to connect with senior leaders in your organization so that they are recognized publicly and privately for their efforts.
11. Hunters are systematic problem solvers.
Pro: they are curious and ask questions making them the ideal consultative sales person.
Con: they don’t like to be told how to do something, even if they or the processes are new because they love the challenge of figuring something out on their own.
Tip: encourage and reward questions from reps – as well as challenges from them when they seem to act as if they know everything.
12. Hunters love to learn and to teach others.
Pro: they are highly useful to colleagues, prospects and clients in breaking down and explaining complex topics and ensuring that the team and client has the information to either succeed in their job and/or make an informed purchasing decision.
Con: they can sometimes come off as a “know it all”
Tip: provide an opportunity for the hunter to share their knowledge with their peers or with other departments (i.e. customer service, product development, marketing, executive team).
Certainly, there are many variables that contribute to sales hunters being successful. Yet, more often than not many of these 12 traits appear consistently in sales teams of many sizes and industries.
Businesses spend money, time and effort training, coaching, changing compensation plans, redefining territories, changing sales management — often without examining the most critical element of sales success — the sales professionals themselves.
Greta Roberts is CEO and founder of Target Teams, a recognized leader in creating solutions to help businesses align their Talent Strategy with Business Strategy.
Special Offer:
- Does your existing sales team include top performers that you wish you could clone for your open sales positions?
- Do your candidates sometimes interview like hunters but perform like farmers?
- How valuable would it be to “know” what the makeup is of your current sales team? How would that affect your hiring decisions as well as your coaching, training, and mentoring?
Contact Target Teams directly at newsletter@target-teams.com to inquire about how to quickly audit your existing sales team members, clone your top performers, fine tune job requirements for your open positions and build a sales team to help you achieve your business goals.
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Playing to Your Sales Strengths
Treeline, Inc. specializes in bringing together top sales talent to meet the needs of businesses. They understand the business goals of their clients and help them to compose sales teams that help them meet their organizational needs.
Different business goals require different candidate characteristics. If a business is focusing on increasing renewals to their services – they may wish to focus on hiring more sales “farmers” – sales teams that will naturally want to service an account for long-term account loyalty.
At times, when interviewing sales candidates, Treeline can “feel” a disconnect between how the candidate is “selling themselves” and their natural characteristics who they “really are”.
As a sales candidate it’s important to know yourself. What are your best characteristics? What are your strengths? What is an ideal environment to show off those strengths? When you posture and pretend, Treeline can tell and potential employers can tell.
- Do you prefer a strategic sale or an activity-driven sale?
- Do you” live” to uncover and seize new opportunities or are you better suited to cultivate and develop loyalty within an existing client base?
- Do you prefer selling in person or behind the scenes?
- Do you prefer selling with a team quota or as an individual performer?
- Do you prefer selling “direct” and to the end user customer or to a “channel” in an indirect model?
Target Teams has spent close to a decade learning to know businesses and their needs for a variety of sales candidates that help them accomplish their strategy. Of the variety of sales professionals, our extensive research has resulted in the following common traits of Sales Hunters and Sales Farmers.
Both are critical for business success. Be honest. Which one “fits” you more closely?
Extraordinary Sales “Farmer”
- Farmers tend to prefer a more team collaborative approach. The collaborative sales person wants to get a full picture of an opportunity prior to attacking it.
- Farmers like and are good at getting directives on priorities. Farmers enjoy collaboration and input from a manager, other team members or their client teams.
- Farmers prefer working on a few, longer-term, key projects. They excel at greater patience with the time it takes for some leads to close. They are comfortable working with situations that require nurturing.
- Farmers may excel at being more patient when it comes to deals that may have longer sales cycles.
- Farmers work well with more predictability in their accounts and their goals. They excel at creating bridges to help customers embrace change. Farmers have a longer-range approach.
- Farmers want to be paid well for their performance but they may enjoy more of a team quota, team approach or overlay position.
- They may recognize and appreciate the greater benefits provided by an organization and may be less focused exclusively on a financial compensation plan.
- Farmers enjoy understanding the needs of the customer and work to help them achieve their goals. These characteristics help the farmer create long-term, extremely loyal client relationships that extend into the future.
- Farmers love to help and support others. They enjoy taking the time to support clients and prospects even if pieces of that support do not directly impact their own personal sale – they see this as a long-term investment of time and resources.
- Farmers may sometimes be a little offended at the lengths the sales hunter needs to go to achieve their own goals. They may sometimes feel as if the sales hunter is a little selfish.
- Sales farmers may sometimes prefer selling using an indirect or “channel model”.
Extraordinary Sales “Hunter”
- Hunters like to solve problems on their own and on the fly. The autonomous sales hunter wants to close deals with little outside collaboration.
- Hunters like to lead (by themselves) whatever projects are on their plates. They will successfully direct, lead and execute sales initiatives.
- They will want to direct a team of people to help them achieve their own goals.
- Hunters like working on a lot of different projects at the same time. They can tend to be more comfortable working on a greater volume of leads, territories and clients.
- Hunters have a very strong sense of urgency in everything they do. They want sales to close quickly (no prodding required from their management team to move more quickly).
- Hunters thirst for change. They immediately adapt to change whether it’s ushered in by internal or external forces. They are spontaneous and don’t mind if priorities shift as long as it benefits them in the end.
- Hunters want to be paid well financially for their individual, high performance. They would prefer to have their own quota and not a team quota or an overlay position.
- Hunters are naturally very competitive and politically savvy. They are superb at recognizing power players inside of an organization and winning them over in the pursuit of their career as well as closing the deal.
- Hunters love the game of competition.
- Hunters tend to focus on achieving their own goals.
- Hunters are systematic problem solvers. They are curious and ask questions making them an ideal consultative sales person.
- Hunters are thirsty to learn information. This information helps them as they sell – they are consultative sales professionals.
- Sales hunters are highly useful to colleagues, prospects and clients in breaking down and explaining complex topics and ensuring that the team and client has the information to either succeed in their job and/or make an informed purchasing decision.
- Sales hunters may sometimes feel as if the sales farmer gives too much away or over services the client.
Special Offer:
To a large extent, you are who you are. During an interview, prospective employers can “see” you. When your resume paints you as someone “different” than what you present in person it causes confusion and they don’t know which one is the real “you”. Potential employers want clarity, safety and confidence.
We suggest you fully embrace who you are. Market yourself to your greatest advantage. Highlight your natural sales strengths. Play to your strengths – be proud of them. Write your resume to show off who you really are. Take away anything that may be confusing.
It might be useful to complete a quick online assessment to validate some personal characteristics about yourself.
Target Teams is providing a special $95 assessment for sales professionals. This personalized sales assessment will provide you with the following types of information:
- Clarify your resume
- Communicate more effectively in an interview
- Gain insight about your selling style
- Understand more about your approach to networking
- Hit the ground running in your new role
- Identify a business culture that rewards what is important to you.
- Learn about your selling and management style, to help you manage sales teams more effectively, build more effective sales teams in your next leadership role.
- Learn why you may prefer an individual performer sales role instead of a more sales leader sales operations role (or vice versa).
Please send an email to blog@target-teams.com to order your own assessment and validate personal characteristics to help you “sell yourself more effectively in your interview and in your new role.
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Meet Treeline’s Newest Hire: Amanda Musto
Meet Amanda Musto, the newest member of the Treeline team. Amanda recently graduated from Roger Williams University in May 2009, with a double major in Communications and English Literature. A proud member of “Generation Y”, Amanda looks at social media, online marketing as a “way of life”.
Amanda has always been competitive and works hard to be the best. A natural athlete, Amanda grew up playing field hockey, tennis and swimming. Amanda is a great team player with a positive and upbeat personality, and is always cheering her teammates on.
While attending Roger Williams, Amanda interned as a Marketing Assistant for a Wholesale Distributor. In this role Amanda was responsible for the entire company’s social media/online presence. Amanda also gained invaluable experience as the social media assistant for a New York City fashion designer, where she was responsible for sending email blasts, and maintaining and updating all social media outlets.
After having lived in Rhode Island for four years while attending Roger Williams, Amanda started to miss having the city of Boston within arms reach. A native of Middleton, MA, a small town twenty minutes north of Boston, she decided she was ready to come back to Massachusetts.
Cognizant of the challenged job market, Amanda started exploring job opportunities in the Boston area. She never expected to find a role like the Social Media Marketing Role she has recently accepted at Treeline. As the newest member of the team, Amanda will leverage her prior experience and continue building out Treeline’s online community.
Amanda comes to the team with tremendous optimism and willingness to do her best to ensure that Treeline continues to grow to be the best executive sales recruiting team in the nation.
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Job Trends of 2010
The new market has created several new market trends for 2010, however one of the most significant trends we see here at Treeline is found in the technology industry. Our technology clients are currently the most aggressive when it comes to hiring sales professionals and the majority of our open roles are for software companies. They certainly have the most urgency and are the most progressive to adapt in the new market. They have adopted many new sales strategies that have proven to be not only effective but efficient. The majority of the changes have been in the structure of the sales team. The traditional technology sales force is comprised of a lead generation team, inside sales team and a field sales team. In the late 90’s and for the decade that followed many technology companies built a very large field sales presence. Over the years, we have helped many companies build large field sales teams however over the past year and a half the sales model has changed. With cloud computing and the conversion from applications to Software as a Service (SaaS), we have seen a rise in consumer confidence and an adoption to purchasing products via web demos and conference calls. Therefore the need for a large field sales presence is not as cost effective or efficient as it once was. Technology companies are progressively moving away from a large field sales force and more aggressively trending toward an inside sales presence.
The market has shifted and consumers on the business to business front find more comfort building relationships through conference calls and web demos. The pay-as-you-go SaaS model is very effective for both buyers and sellers. As a result, many technology companies are finding little need for a face to face meeting and a hand shake. The average sale size has been reduced due to a monthly reoccurring subscription cost and the ability to close deals over the phone is continuing to increase. In some cases we are seeing our clients close business up to $500k in products and services without ever meeting their client.
What does this all mean? It means that business to business sales as we know it are going through a very dramatic shift. Consumers purchase products differently due to new online technology and technology companies in many cases are leading the way to changing their genetic sales make up. They are trending toward a large centrally based sales force and a small field sales presence. What this means is that field sales professionals will find their new roles will require a greater percentage of time inside as opposed to being on the road. A new wave of sales professionals are being developed and they are learning how to buy and close business via the web. Companies are trending toward a central location where resources, energy, camaraderie, and culture can be shared and built. Not only is this model strong and scalable, but companies can build depth quickly and build organizations rapidly. More importantly, companies can reduce the cost of sale and become more profitable by bringing their sales force to the inside. After the market crash, every company has the common goal to increase revenue while reducing overhead.
Like it or not, agree or disagree, one thing is for certain: times are changing. Sales organizations are adapting and changing and as a sales leader it is imperative that you change with them.
Join Our Network! Treeline, Inc. has created one of the largest sales communities on the internet.
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