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ated, to make sure production goes
smoothly
• A bookkeeping/accounting person who can
handle all customer invoicing and accounts
receivable as well as receiving vendor bills
and accounts payable
These roles quickly pay for themselves if
you are able to leverage the time for you or
your team to be able to sell more. Do some
simple math: if one of these roles costs approx-
imately $50,000 including benefits, vacation
etc., then all you need to bring in is an addi-
tional $10,000 per month in sales. By hiring
for any of these roles, you should easily be able
to free up enough time to achieve that.
Building And Scaling A Sales Team
Now that you have a good model
going—customers who buy what you’re sell-
ing and a brand with purpose—it’s time to
scale the sales team.
There are two approaches you can take to
achieve this:
• Farmer Model
When the account coordi-
nator you have hired has been in the role
for a year or two, promote that person to
account manager where he or she can
manage a portfolio of clients. This allows
you to remove from your portfolio some of
the smaller accounts that have potential
but which you don’t have time to groom.
This frees you up to bring in more oppor-
tunities, and it results in solid organic
growth from the existing client base.
• Hunter Model
If what you need is more
sales quickly, and you don’t have the
patience to grow in a more organic fash-
ion, you can bring in a “hunter” whose
responsibility it is to bring in new busi-
ness. This is a very different skillset from a
“farmer,” so be sure you are looking for the
right skills.
Hiring a hunter in the promotional
industry is difficult. Hiring from another dis-
tributor rarely works, as the new person
comes in with baggage from another distribu-
tor who runs their business differently. If the
other distributor has done a good job of
building their brand, their clients should
want to stay with that brand, not follow the
individual salesperson to a new company. If
someone promises to bring a book of business
to you, you should be skeptical about the suc-
cess of retaining all of that revenue. It also
sets up the potential that the new salesperson
will do the same thing to you one day—leave
and take their customers with them.
To gain a better understanding of how
these new roles will fit into your business and
what they will be responsible for, check out
the sample skills matrix on the next page.
Mastering The Hiring Process
Hiring sounds easy, so why is it so hard to
find the right person? Hiring failure usually
happens as a result of one of three things:
1. The wrong job description
2. The wrong interviewing techniques
3. The wrong onboarding process
So let’s talk about how to get these things
right so you can avoid these potential pitfalls.
1. The Job Description
When crafting a job description, be clear
on what skills the person needs to be success-
ful. Identify what skills are non-negotiable
and what are things you can teach with the
right attitude.
The biggest mistake we see is people
describing roles too generally. If the job
description is too broad, then the specific
skills the person needs to be successful will
not be as clear. For example, if you are hiring
for a production and administration role, the
person needs to thrive off of working a
checklist and derive satisfaction from finish-
ing tasks. People in these roles don’t mind
working in an environment where their inter-
action is primarily virtual, so be sure not to
hire a major extrovert who gets his energy
80 •
PPB
• JANUARY 2016
THINK
When crafting a job description, be clear on what skills the person needs to
be successful. Identify what skills are non-negotiable and what are things you
can teach with the right attitude.
“
”
Sample Hiring Questionnaire
1. This position involves the following key skill sets. Please provide examples
demonstrating experience with each of these skills:
a. Juggling multiple priorities
b.Managing highly detailed projects through from start to finish
c. Sourcing or researching ideas/products
2. What do you think are important skills in a customer service position, and how
have you demonstrated these skills in the past?
3. Culture is very important to us. Tell us why you are the right fit. For more
insight into our company’s culture, please view the following:
a. Company website
b. Social media links
c. Other
4. What are your professional strengths?
5. What are you not so good at or not interested in doing professionally?
6. What are your career goals?
7. What are your salary expectations?