How to Build Your Management Team – Part 1 of a Series

Subtitle: Senior Sales Executive Position

This is the first of a multi-part blog series on How to Build Your Management Team once you have a startup company up and going. I will address the following areas in this series:

• Top Sales Person
• Chief Financial Person
• Top Marketing Person
• Top HR Person
• Chief Technology Person
• CEO
• Additional Resources

Today’s blog is on the Senior Sales Executive position.

In the case of a startup company, growing to the point of adding a sales manager is a significant benchmark moment in a growing company’s life. There are studies that show many, if not most, businesses don’t grow because the owners have usually carried the responsibility for sales. While the desire not to give up something they enjoy and have worked at hard is one reason for not giving up the duties to a focused senior sales executive, another reason is that many entrepreneurs avoid or delay bringing in sales help simply because hiring a sales executive can be expensive. The minimum rule of thumb is that for each $1-million you intend to add to the top line, you should budget at least $100,000 in additional sales compensation costs. Then there’s the challenge of deciding what kind of sales manager you want. A common mistake is to promote a successful salesperson into a management role for which s/he is unqualified or under-qualified.

What is your goal

Before you begin recruiting a sales manager, it is important to determine …

1. Am I hiring someone to bring in large accounts
2. Someone to manage the accounts we already have
3. Someone to manage a team of people who will manage my accounts
4. Someone to bring in new business
5. Someone to add and develop a sales team through focused sales efforts and growth

If the third option is your answer, consider looking for a candidate who has a record of accomplishment for building and managing teams, rather than a salesperson who has beat every sales quota s/he has ever seen. You need someone who can grasp the big picture and understand the company’s recent successes and long-term goals and objectives for growth through sales. If your goal is to bring in large accounts, you need to go with a connected results oriented closer. If your plan is to grow through adding a sales team over time as sales grow, then you need to look for someone with actual sales experience but also a knack for working with people and building teams with a vision in mind.

As in all my hiring ventures, I always look for work ethic as the number one ingredient. Someone with work ethic is a worker, a doer, a fixer, and a thinker who is always scheming how to do better with a commitment for excellence and teambuilding. Don’t settle for anything less, ever.

What are your ideas on growing the sales side of a startup company?

Next: Part 2: Top Financial Person

© Phil Hoffman 2012. All rights reserved