Tabletop Recruiter
There has been a lot of talk recently about attracting young talent to the foodservice supply industry. Senior managers are waking up to the fact that our industry is aging and there is an urgent need to inject new perspectives and renewed enthusiasm into our fantastic business as a whole.
If you are going to be able to hire and indeed retain blue chip up and comers, senior management has to realize that it is how the company supports the sales person and his or her sales efforts that is the major part in their success and retention.
The tools, the training and the encouragement to achieve will determine the sales person’s belief, effort and outcome. Setting goals and quotas as a major part of their job requirements is common place but in reality it’s a small part of their ability and desire to do the job.
Company leaders are all too eager to judge their sales force’s ability to produce the goods but rarely will they step up to bat and self evaluate their own effort to support and encourage their sales people.
If, for instance, the quota level is set to a height that requires a significant amount of cold calling more than 70% will not make the grade. They will become discouraged, unhappy, feel pressure and ultimately quit or be asked to vacate the premises.
These sales people resent the fact that their sales training is often focused on product training rather than on selling skills.
Management has to take the responsibility for improving the selling skills of its sales team and quite often management does not because of its own inadequacy in that area.
It does not matter if you are managing hundreds of street sales people or a rep group owner with a team of two or three, the manager has to be prepared to have his sales force see him or her succeed or fail. Making that cold call either in person or by telephone with your sales person watching, listening and learning is often not what a sales manager feels comfortable doing.
Can the sales manager put on a tabletop presentation that, whether it succeeds or fails, was a learning experience for the sales person?
If your young talent can be mentored in sales excellence you have gone a long way to enhancing your ‘brand’ as the place to be and also the place to stay!
Here are a few of the additional responsibilities that owners, general managers and sales leaders have if they are going to attract and keep young talent as well as re-ignite the passion in veterans.
· Impeccable company, product, and service reputation. This is foundational and fundamental to a sales person’s belief system. Belief fuels enthusiasm. Reputation arrives way before sales people turn up at the door.
· Sales people need information and answers in order to make sales. The right training will both help and encourage the sales person. If they can access sales information on their mobile device while waiting for an appointment, sales people will gain a new self-confidence that will help them make the sale. On-demand, web based sales and personal development training is here to stay.
· The ability to differentiate from competition. Sales people need a value proposition, value-based statements, and value-based questions to genuinely engage any customer or prospect. And that value must be perceived as value by the customer.
So there is much to do at the top level in order to recruit and retain young talent, and we have not even touched on the need for a strong company social media presence or making sure that you know the right recruiter.
Mike Hawkins is a hospitality tabletop sales management expert and President of Michael J. Hawkins Inc. a top tabletop recruiting firm based in the Chicago area.
