The How-To Guide for Hiring Marketers and Salespeople

A quick guide for hiring marketers and salespeople to get those sales leads and then convert them to paying customers. We all know that good marketers and salespeople are an incredible asset for any growing business to generate leads, undertake sales prospecting, run social media campaigns while filling the sales pipeline. They can raise your business profile, bolster your reputation, reach more customers, and benefit your bottom line. However, hiring the right sales and marketing personnel can be tricky. Employee churn, high turnover rates and lack of skills in the market means that good people are not always easy to come by. To help you make sound hiring decisions, The Bitter Business offers this mini-guide on how to hire salespeople and marketers:

How salespeople and marketers can benefit your business

Marketers raise awareness about your product or service among your target audience and ideal customer profiles. Depending on the nature of your business, they can also manage your various marketing and advertising endeavors – your newsletter campaigns, blogs, SEO, and social media posts, for instance. Salespeople will then take the leads (from potential or existing customers) who have expressed some level of interest in your product or service with the aim of converting them into paying customers. Good salespeople will also prospect for new business, develop relationships, and maximize any opportunity to sell. They should also make your customers more loyal and amenable to doing business with you again. As Chron puts it, sales is the foundation of profitability and a positive public image for any company.

Freelancers or full-timers – Which is better?

You have the option of hiring freelancers and full-timers. Freelancers are flexible, easy to hire, and typically more affordable than full-timers. However, they may not be trainable, not fit well into your work culture or processes, and generally not be as reliable as full-timers. Full-timers are easier to train and retain. They can be expensive, though, and the investment can take longer to see a return. Keep in mind you could also outsource work to a sales or marketing agency if necessary. 

What qualities do you need from your people?

It’s important you pick the right people with the right attributes to be on your team. Remember – your people represent your business. You’ll want people who make a good impression (this is especially important for salespeople). For marketers, Marketing Sherpa recommends attributes like creativity, knowledge, and strong communication skills. For salespeople, you likely want someone likable, friendly, and motivated. In all cases, your people should fit your work processes and work culture.

How to find and hire salespeople and marketers

You can find salespeople and marketers through all the usual ways – via job boards, niche groups, recruitment firms, schools, referrals, networking, and more. To make sure you attract the right people, create a specific job profile, and then write a description to match. Include details like skills, responsibilities, pay, and preferred background. Then interview, shortlist, and hire people.

Onboarding and training will be necessary.

Onboarding and training are critical. Even the most experienced marketers and salespeople will need onboarding and a basic work process to start from – and you likely won’t be able to afford someone experienced unless you’re a larger company. This means some personal supervision may be necessary, and you will need to prepare sales training material for your new people. Also, you will need to set concrete goals for them to achieve. For instance, salespeople need a sales pipeline, a playbook, sales goals, and examples of successful sales to start with. You can use the free sales training resources on our site to train your people. It’s important you think things through and hire with an eye to the future.

Keep your sales and marketing files and documents organized.

Keeping your sales and marketing files and documents organized can help you with recruiting, onboarding, training, supervising, and collaborating with employees later. Consider organizing your documents digitally in PDF. If you need to share files with employees (or anyone else), PDFs are often the preferred format. If you want to create or edit documents, you can use an online conversion tool to convert a PDF into Word and easily make edits. Simply upload your PDF, convert the file, start working in Word, and then save it as PDF when you’re finished with your edits. Try this tool.

Guide for hiring marketers and salespeople – the Conclusion.

It’s a good idea to take your time when hiring salespeople or marketers. Take a leaf out of the pages of successful companies by following hiring best practices – network, build up a good recruiting pipeline and vet candidates thoroughly. A problem hire or recruiting the wrong profile of person could waste months of your precious time, not to mention they still need to be replaced afterward.