This past Friday, Evan Addams spoke to our class for the 2nd time, primarily about the $40 million sale of NoWait to Yelp. However, he mentioned one point in regard to sales that piqued my interest. “Scalability is the magic word for sales.” He didn’t have time to go into detail about this aspect of sales, so I decided to write my blog about this to learn a little more.
An article I found discussed the 4-step process to a scalable, high-functioning sales machine. The 4 step process includes:
- hire the same type of salesperson
- put them through the same sales training, so you have similar output
- provide them with the same quality and quantity of leads
- hold them accountable to the same sales process
When discussing what to look for when hiring a salesperson, the article mentions recurring theme with a company’s top sales people. Attributes included internet market experience, brevity, adaptability, prior success, initiative/passion, and intelligence. 40% of the top sales people in the company had high scores in these categories when initially interviewed. The biggest aspect was coach-ability, though, and the innate maturity to take critical feedback and be willing to learn and apply the learning points.
In terms of training people, the model addressed was not to put the new salesperson with the best salesperson in the company (a shadowing strategy) because this diminishes the new salesperson’s unique art to selling. Instead, they suggest putting new salespeople in a classroom setting to learn a sales “blueprint” and then allow the salesperson to add their unique “flavor” afterwards.
Generating the same quality/quantity of leads includes finding people who are versatile enough in their skill that they can sit down with someone in the company, regardless of department and create quality content.
Lastly, holding people accountable to the same sales process refers to the notion that there are 3 steps every salesperson must work to follow: research, prospecting, and connecting with buyers.
BoweryJE22
I think this is great. Thank you for further explaining this idea of “scalability”, as I was extremely curious as to what he meant exactly by that. I think the four steps is crucial and I understand how beneficial this would be as an organization as well as a salesperson working for these respective businesses who are scalable. I loved the paragraph about generating the same quality/quantity of leads and the reasons why this is so important and the idea of being able to create quality content, so important.
Great work here, Hannah! I love how you provided some concrete steps and strategies for making a sales force scalable. I feel like I am sometimes daunted by the big picture of a business, but it’s hard for me to think of good solutions for meeting goals! It’s awesome that you provided that!
This post is the perfect follow-up to Evan’s lecture. After hearing his story, it definitely leaves one wondering about what it means to have a scalable business. Your post has helped me understand this topic better.
When you said “In terms of training people, the model addressed was not to put the new salesperson with the best salesperson in the company (a shadowing strategy) because this diminishes the new salesperson’s unique art to selling” I really think that adds to what Professor Sweet was saying in class today when he was talking about helping a client the guy mentioned about him and the girl being oil and water. Differentiate yourself and your salespeople and capture their own unique strengths and positives.