How to Find a VP of Sales in 2016

VP of Sales blog

If you currently don’t have a VP of sales or have an ineffective VP of sales, now is the time to consider a change. This position is too important to the success of your enterprise not to have an effective leader and salesperson occupying the role. To help you make the best possible hire, we have put together a list of effective recruiting tips:

  • Focus on Recruiting Acumen – It’s often the job of the VP of sales to build your sales force. You want someone with a demonstrated ability to recruit, hire, and onboard top talent. They should be particularly good at luring talent away from competitors.
  • Analyze the Process – Successful sales people rely on processes, not intuition. You want your new VP to understand the importance of these processes and find ways to improve the ones you have in place already.
  • Prioritize Forecasting – Executives have to look forwards, not backwards or sideways. A large part of their job is forecasting short- medium- and long-term opportunities/challenges, and then finding ways to adapt. As you vet candidates, find out how they approach the forecasting process and how successful they have been in the past.
  • Provide Long-Term Planning – The best VPs know that the sale you made today was first initiated nine months or even a year ago. As a result, executives must focus on more than just the current quarter and be able to effectively make long-term plans. Shortsightedness is a sales professionals worst weakness.
  • Watch Out for Egos – You don’t want a VP who is eager to take the credit for every sale or success. Instead, you want a VP whose priority is setting the team up for success and assigning credit where is credit is do. A big ego can seem impressive during the recruiting process, but it usually proves to be a liability once it’s in your office.
  • Scrutinize Discipline – Long-term sales success is all about consistency, and that requires discipline. Sales executives like to make big promises and rousing speeches, but their most important job is instilling a sense of discipline in the team and ensuring that every process is followed to the letter.
  • Consider Character – Your new VP of sales needs to lead by example and hold himself to the same standards he expects of his employees. You might connect with a candidate who has an impressive sales record, but if their character is spotty, it could compromise your entire sales force.

Finding a candidate who meets all of these criteria is going to take a lot of time and resources. You can expedite the process while connecting with more impressive talent by working with a staffing partner. Contact the sales staffing experts at Artemis Consultants before we get any further into 2016.Artemis_CTA_ContactUs_v02

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