When to Recruit Sales Staff for new business?

Recruit Sales Staff 

(Step 14 of our how to set-up new business guide)

For starting a new business, you need to be multi-tasking and must handle more than one department. Sales is one of them. You or your partner need to handle it. If you decide to handle sales part for your business then you aren’t alone, most of small business start-ups and owners handle their sales part by themselves. When you reach a certain level, you can add salesperson in your business. 

Requirement of sales staff depend at your business type and scale. If you are starting with small level and want to work by own then you can skip to appoint sales team but if you are going to set-up at good level, you may need to recruit sales team for your business. In some cases, even you are starting with small scale but if you don’t have sales knowledge or experience then you may need to recruit sales staff.

A good sales team can do extra ordinary for boosting your business whereas a wrong selection will only increase your expenses and will not provide any benefit to your business. At initial level you need to be aware about whether you have need of sales team or not. Before going to hire sales staff or team you should consider following factors:

• Does your business model require a salesperson or sales team?
• Do you really need salesperson or sales team?
• You or your partner aren’t capable of handling sales task.
• Do you afford to have salesperson or sales team?

If above question answer is ‘Yes’, then you can go to recruit salesperson or sales team. But if above questions answer is ‘No’. Then you shouldn’t go for sales team and minimise your expenses.

Does your business model require a salesperson or sales team?

Some business models like online selling don’t require to have salesperson. These business models require specific type of knowledge and talent. Some business models like prescription marketing in healthcare sector require to have salesperson whether its you or your recruit. Requirement of salesperson is business model dependent.

Do you really need salesperson or sales team?

Your business scale, expansion or requirement tells that possibility of having salesperson or not. You should carefully analyse your business scenario and decide whether you really need a salesperson or not.

You or your partner aren’t capable of handling sales task.

You have business model that requires sales work and you or your partner don’t have sales knowledge and experience then you must recruit a salesperson. For example, you are starting a pharmaceutical company and selling through prescription then it’s not easy for anyone without sales experience in pharma to convince a doctor to prescribe their brand (and worse scenario is that you are a new company). In that case you will need to recruit a salesperson.

Do you afford to have salesperson or sales team?

Keeping expenses in control and investment is one of the most crucial factors when starting up a new business. Sales is directly related to revenue, but salespersons are one of the highly paid staff members. Along with salary, travelling expenses and daily allowances are also cost to business. Whether you can afford these expenses or not will directly effect your decision of recruiting sales staff.

Conclusion: 

In your business, you are the person who can really understand your situation. So you should decide whether you need to recruit sales team or not. 

Other Steps:

Check out : Sixteen Easy Steps to Set-up New Business
Step 1: Market Research
Step 2: Business Plan
Step 3: Arrange Finance for Business
Step 4: Finding a premises for Business
Step 5: Name your business
Step 6: Trademark Registration
Step 7: Registrations and Licenses
Step 8 : Product Selection for Business/Start-up
Step 9: Name a Product and Service
Step 10: Recruit Staff/Employee
Step 11: Execute your business strategy Effectively
Step 12: Promotion and Marketing of Business
Step 13: Supply Chain: Set-up a Distribution Channel

Step 15: Start taking Orders
Step 16 : Closing the sale (Supply Goods/services and collect payment)

Hope above information is helpful to you…