There’s no doubt about it: There has NEVER been a better time to upgrade your sales staff. Previously, I've written here in Radio-Info.com that the talent pool has never been wider and never been deeper. There are MORE experienced sellers available AND more EXPERIENCED sellers available.
In the constant struggle to find and hire adequate, “feet on the street,” this is, absolutely, “The Best of Times and the Worst of Times.” The “Best,” because great sellers are out there, ready, motivated and excited to talk to you; the “Worst,” because their previous employers, for a whole host of reasons, are not their employers now. Most often, that reason came down to money, the ability (or lack of same) to be able to afford to keep these sellers on board during lean (really lean) times. That’s not much different than you, eh? Even though there are terrific sellers out there, men and women who really get the sales process, you're probably struggling with how to keep the ones you have, never mind adding more.
You are left with two competing answers, classic “devil and the deep blue sea” or “from frying pan into the fire” solutions. Let’s take a look, using the old plus and minus chart:
Plan One: Bite the bullet and add a few top applicants to your current crew.
Pluses include having fresh faces, minds, ideas, and techniques in the sales office. Remember, this is NOT about adding some rookies. Nope, these are experienced sellers, who should be bringing in a history of success and a great deal of formal sales training. And bringing in bigger billing, too!
Minuses: Oh, of course there are minuses: No matter how experienced, these sellers probably don’t know much at all about how RADIO works. You MUST give them adequate, on going, training. Training should ALWAYS be a formal process, not just an informal event. That takes time and dedication on your part. Are you willing/able to give it? (A side note here: There is nothing wrong at all with informal training events as long as they are part of a formal process. Unfortunately, too many managers don’t have a clue as to the difference. And the results from their training efforts invariably show it.) Another potential minus is the effect these hires can have on your less experienced, up and coming sellers. They need to have their own training process. Will the hire of more senior sellers steal time away from them? You KNOW it will, so admit it and plan on how you'll handle it. During tough economic times the intensity and occurrence of both training and supervision of ALL your sellers MUST be ratcheted way up. Will you be ready?
Plan Two: Hire some top applicants and pay for them (both in terms of money and the attention they must be given) by jettisoning an at least an equal number of your lower performing sellers.
Pluses: The same as Plan One, plus you have (in theory, at least) evened out the level of capabilities of your entire sales staff. While individualized attention and training is critical, you'll find that the “learning from each other” part of the process is often enhanced when capabilities, expertise and experience are closer. You should absolutely expect (and demand) that bigger sales come faster. If not, why are you doing this?
Minuses: The loss of sellers w/less experience often means a loss of youth, and I don’t know of many stations today that need LESS youthful enthusiasm; most of them need WAY more. The “graying of Radio” is a serious issue and Plan Two will, overall, just add to the problem. One of the inarguable assets of youth (whether in age or in time spent in sales) is the motivation to prospect, seeking out new business. As Clear Channel’s new owners discovered when they got rid of so many sellers earlier this year (focusing instead on higher-performance senior level sellers) the absolute, very first result was an immediate cratering of new business totals. This was right out of the Handbook of Unforeseen Consequences: The vast majority of senior sellers haven’t had to prospect for years and years; statistically, most new business comes from your more recent hires. So, if senior sellers are now going to be responsible for all your new business, they'll first need to re-learn prospecting skills. That means that someone (probably YOU) needs to re-teach those skills and then monitor/coach their prospecting activity to see that it sinks in. Second, these newly hired, experienced sellers will need to immediately get up to speed with the active clients of the sellers you've just released in order to pay for the new ones. This is a huge amount of work for both YOU and the newly hired sellers. And the selling hasn’t even begun!
I refuse to tell you if Plan One or Plan Two is better for you and your situation. Each is filled with Pluses and Minuses; some detailed here, some known only to you. For better or worse, the decision is one that YOU must make. But please don’t let that keep you from making it. The greatest opportunity to upgrade your sales staff comes around, by definition, only once. This is it. Go for it!
Next time, join me in thinking about a huge issue in every-sized market, the polar-opposite of the article you just read. Instead of finding new senior sellers, we're going to talk about keeping the senior sellers that you have. The pluses and minuses of retaining senior sellers comes next.
