On today’s episode of Sales From the Street, Anna Talerico tells us how growing account executives breeds more success for companies that do it well.
Anna co-founded Beacon9 to help SaaS companies grow faster and more efficiently. She shares her experience today so that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel; we can learn from her experience and apply what she learned to our own situations.
Find the right people.
In the beginning, Anna said she wasn’t as strategic as she could have been. She hired SDRs but discovered they were never going to become AEs. Some weren’t good fits for the company. Some just didn’t have the right skillset to become AEs.
She realized she had to find people who would be ready to be AEs within a year. Anna also recognized that they needed a specific kind of person.
The difference was night and day when she shifted her recruiting efforts.
Within a couple of months, she could see that her SDRs were developing. It wasn’t going to take two years for them to move into the new role; they were getting there much more quickly.
Breed more success.
When she focused on hiring entry-level people or people with some experience who were interested in sales, Anna found that there were plenty of diamonds-in-the-rough available.
Though it took a couple of years to implement the process, she found that they were successful where they hadn’t been before. She found people who weren’t ready to be AEs, but who had the skillset to learn the job.
The company found success and hit their quotas.
Then she discovered that her success bred more success because as she was recruiting new SDRs, she could demonstrate a path of mobility.
She took a holistic approach to the process, and it all came together. Anna called it rewarding to watch a program that they incubated produce effective AEs.
Have a process.
The biggest hurdle in sales recruiting is developing a repeatable process. Before you recruit, you must determine who is likely to be successful.
- What are the characteristics you’re looking for?
- What background would you like recruits to have?
Judge every candidate through the same lens so that everyone is viewed and measured the same way.
You cannot use an ad hoc approach. You have to know what skillset you’re looking for and be rigorous in following it.
“Growing Account Executives” episode resources
Connect with Anna Talerico at beacon9.com, or on Twitter @annatalerico.
Check out the Video Jungle podcast, which teaches you how to utilize video to stand out from your competition. Plan, create and share your way to better content and strategy. You are a brand, and video can help you set yourself apart.
Our friends at Wiley have provided a free excerpt of the book Stop Selling & Start Leading. Based on research and interviews with buyers, the book provides a blueprint for sales professionals. Read an excerpt of the book here.
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