How to Assess and Hire Sales Consultants?

You've started to scale, have a wonderful product, and have some excellent customers. But something doesn't seem to be working. You're not getting the growth you expected.

Perhaps it's time to hire a sales consultant.

Sales consultants can be a huge help, whether you're seeking to grow your sales staff or your present one is having trouble. They have the knowledge to recognize issues and the aptitude to put a fix in place.

In light of that, here is everything you need to know about sales consultants. 

Who is a Sales Consultant?

A sales consultant is someone who works in close association with the sales team to increase productivity. They are experienced salespeople who boost key results, such as outreach rates, revenue, or productivity.

They are usually appointed for a short period of time or for consultation at regular intervals of time.

They could be hired to solve a specific problem, or they might just be expected to identify issues on their own. In any case, they are entrusted with creating and implementing fresh methods of operation with the ultimate aim of enhancing the effectiveness of the sales team.

Role of a Sales Consultant

A sales consultant has the following roles:

• Building an inbound and/or outbound sales process your team can follow
• Assessing and locating problem areas in your present sales process
• Helping you define a clearer ideal customer profile (ICP)
• Creating inbound email sequences and workflows
• Writing cold emails or cold calling scripts
• Setting up sales operations and CRM
• Improving the product demo process
• Training sales representatives to implement new technology to increase sales.
• Creating and maintaining a healthy working relationship with clients. 
• Increase product knowledge and understanding of the market and competition with the aim of increasing sales. 
• Teaching sales representatives what record-keeping is. 
• Liaising with the marketing department to come up with new strategies to increase sales and brand awareness.

Skills to look out for in a Sales Consultant

A sales consultant should possess a wide range of skills and abilities to handle the business of an organization. However, some common ones include

• Detail-oriented

Inefficient processes. Poor sales scripts. Lack of effective collaboration with marketing. There are other multiple things that could be wrong with your company’s sales team. To solve this problem from the root, a sales consultant should be detail-oriented and should be able to focus on all potential areas for improvement and identify those that will make the biggest difference.

• Positive Attitude

A good positive attitude is essential for the sales consultant profession, as it is for any sales position. A little optimism might go a long way in inspiring and motivating the various salespeople in the company.

Another important aspect of this is that it helps consultants to be able to speak constructively given that the function is all about identifying issues and altering current behaviors. Nobody likes hearing that they are doing anything "wrong," after all.

• Persuasion

Consultants must be able to persuade sales representatives, executives, and other stakeholders that the solutions they provide are the best for the company.

These solutions frequently require significant upheaval and may even be expensive. The consultant might have to persuade senior leadership to spend money on a pricey piece of software or to begin marketing in a different method. They should be able to effectively defend their position since they can anticipate challenges regarding their recommendations.

• Emotional Intelligence

Every sales company is different. The exact solution will vary depending on a variety of factors, from the personalities and strengths of the sales reps to the size of the team and the budget they have available for things like training and software. Sure, similar problems may arise across multiple companies, but the exact solution will vary depending on a variety of factors.

To understand how members of the team feel about suggested modifications to systems and processes, it is crucial for the sales consultant to have good emotional intelligence. To effectively communicate their arguments, they should also be able to modify their language and messaging.

Salary of a Sales Consultant

The average salary of a sales consultant is around 60k per year. An entry-level salary for the same job role starts from 40k per year. While those of an experienced candidate can go up to 105k per year. 

On an hourly basis, a sales consultant charges an average of 29$ per hour. 

When to Hire a Sales Consultant

A business might not always need a sales consultant but when it does, these are the signs to look out for,

• Inaccurate sales forecasting that stops you plan effectively for the future
• A lack of clarity around your existing sales process, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies
• Big changes to the external business landscape, such as disruptive competitors entering the market
• Very high staff turnover among your sales team
• Very high churn rate among new customers
• Declining margins or sales volumes
• Inability to scale your sales function

How to Assess a Sales Consultant?

• Logical Reasoning and Analytical Ability Tests

A basic logical reasoning test tells whether a candidate is able to make logical arguments and what is their thought process during the entire hiring process. 

An analytical ability test measures the critical thinking and problem-solving abilities of the candidate. These assessments help the hiring manager to gauge the candidate based on their soft skills.

• Communication Skill Assessment Test

Communication is the key, it is crucial for every salesperson, especially sales consultants. Assessing the candidates for excellent verbal and written communication skills can give you an insight into the overall personality of the applicant.

An applicant with good communication skills along with a command of the language can persuade the sales team easily. Basic email etiquette is also necessary to check as sales consultants have to interact or follow up with the stakeholders over email frequently.

• Psychometric Test and Sales Skill Test

Psychometric tests help in quantifying the soft skills and the sales skills of the candidate. These tests reveal the actual strengths and weaknesses of the applicant. 

Artificial intelligence is creeping into our lives slowly but making a deep impact every day. All these pre-employment assessments are now available on the web and can be customized according to your needs and help you to pick the best sales consultant for your organization.

How to Hire a Sales Consultant?

Organizations need to develop a plan, a method, and a mechanism to evaluate performance in order to hire better sales consultants. Traditional employment practices are no longer sufficient. 

You need to establish the ideal overall match between your business and the position's requirements for a particular set of sales talents when hiring and selecting salespeople. Ability and prior experience are critical, but the potential for success in your particular company environment is just as crucial.

A thorough procedure that will guarantee a better success rate is created by well-planned recruitment, selection, and sales assessment tactics. 

You can't "just tell" if someone is the correct pick. In today's complicated and rapidly-evolving corporate world, a comprehensive approach is crucial. 

Here is a 5 step plan to help you hire better.

1. Draw in Promising Candidates

Finding the appropriate candidates to engage with is the first step in the hiring process. You must ensure that top performers enter your hiring funnel in order to hire top performers. You want to entice the most promising candidates, but in order to complete the deal, you must position your business as an attractive place to work. 

You can lose out on someone truly remarkable if you restrict your search or don't market your business as a fantastic place to work.

Companies should explore all options to uncover those potential top performers. Smart professionals use social media, which can be a useful tool for inbound recruiting. Even your own staff members can act as efficient recruiters.

By using technology and online resources in your application processes, you can improve the hiring process by evaluating candidates' knowledge and skills as well as important character qualities and values that are most compatible with your business.

2. Use Pre-employment Sales Assessments

The next step is to put their abilities to the test after you have attracted the talent. You'll get the most convincing outcomes if you use all of the resources at your disposal to streamline your processes and improve that process. Base your sales evaluation plan on corporate goals and culture as well as job-specific needs.

The best information about each applicant's pertinent skills and likelihood of success as a salesperson can be obtained from pre-screening and assessment tools, particularly sales assessments. Assessments produce real data and lessen the employment process's innate subjectivity. You can more easily identify the people who are most likely to succeed in your organization by using predictive analysis to examine the information. You can delve much further by conducting personal interviews.

A strategic evaluation plan can help recruiters save time, prevent accidentally passing over excellent candidates, and ensure that unqualified candidates are not hired.

3. Create a Plan

By identifying specific talent requirements, such as crucial sales-related competencies, a targeted staff development program supports business success as well as hiring success. You should be on the lookout for these qualities in new hires because they are shared by high-performing salesmen. Along with increasing sales and profits, the proper sales consultant can give your business tactical and strategic advantages.

Create a dashboard to track evaluation and performance, list the skills that your present staff members have to offer, and pinpoint any gaps that need to be filled as well as any upcoming needs.

4. Build on what you have

Keep the good ones and strive to improve them. Include employees in planning and thinking since people-centric businesses typically perform better. Employees frequently work more closely with customers, so they are aware of what customers require and need, thus asking for their opinion demonstrates that their voice matters and opens the door for fresh ideas. 

5. Measure Success

Finally, it's time to gauge your organization's success once you have some understanding of what works for it. "Success" is defined differently by every business. Finding candidates of the highest caliber will be made easier with knowledge of the traits that mesh well within your business. systematically collect data and utilize key performance indicators in its analysis.

Errors in hiring are very expensive. Better forecasting wise decisions, relevant data, and effective analysis aid in risk management and dramatically lower these unnecessary expenditures.

Concluding Thoughts

Working with the right sales consultant should feel like a partnership, not a vendor/client relationship. The more your partner understands your team and shares your vision, the greater your chances of success. 

It is, therefore, necessary that you hire a sales consultant who skyrockets your sales numbers and helps you in becoming a giant in the market.