11 Tips on How Human Resources Can Drive Sales Success

Traditionally, human resources and sales department do not work together. Human resources deal with recruitment and solving employees’ issues while the sales department focuses on driving sales for the company. However, today, in many workplaces, these two departments are integrated where the HR department is also now tasked with helping the sales team to succeed. The following are 11 tips on how human resources can drive sales success.

1. Know-How the Company Products Work

The HR department must understand the company products and the sales strategies used in marketing them. This will allow them to understand what talent is needed and in what places to find the candidates. HR and sales leaders should have conversations. The conversation should discuss on topics like the products that provide the biggest sales return, types of sales resources that are needed, expected sales productivity, and whether they have the right people in the company.

2. Recognize the Different Sales Roles

The HR department must recognize all the different sales roles within the sales department. There is a total of 14 specialized sales roles. If they know how to identify different roles, they will be able to choose the right talent for the job position. They must emphasize differentiating each role in recruiting new employees. This is because all too often, they treat all these roles the same and only focus on customer service. Many sales-people who get hired did not flourish because they were put in the wrong positions. If the HR department had put them in the correct position, they would have helped the company to increase productivity.

3. Understand the Recruitment Requests

Human resources should not just hire people for the sales team according to the recruitment requests. Instead, they should work with the sales department to understand the requirements they are looking for in the prospective employees. They should find out about the responsibilities metrics for the job descriptions. For example, if the sales department needs more sales-persons that can retain existing customers, they should not just give the HR department request for recruitment on sales-person. Instead, mention the requirement that they need salesperson with experience and skill in retaining existing customers.

4. Perform Screening on Candidates

HR has the tools to perform a background check on the applicants. They can determine whether the provided resume is accurate and whether the claims that it made is real. They can use scorecards and other processes to screen the candidates so that only the capable ones will pass on to the interviews.

5. Provide Training for Middle Sales Team

Sales managers cannot give their attention to all the employees. They tend to put a lot of focus on the top and bottom performers. However, the middle section where most power lies often get neglected. Therefore, the HR department should incentivize the middle section by arranging some programs for them to participate. This will allow them to move on to a higher level. For example, they can provide access to free seminars and tuition reimbursement programs. They can also hold meetings to educate the staff in the sales department on how to use various resources.

The HR can also use a screen recorder to make training videos for the employees. The training screencasts can be used to educate the employees about the work procedure and how they are to carry out their job duty. Providing access to training videos can attract strong candidates and boost employee retention rate. Training videos can reduce overhead cost by half. The HR can have a staff that is knowledgeable to create these training videos.

6. Be Supportive of the Sales Team

It can be stressful to work in the sales field as they have a quote to fulfil. HR can help to reduce their stress by listening to their problems. They can also organize motivational sessions to boost the morale of the employees. HR should provide support for all groups of employees, not just those who aren’t performing well.

7. Create a Compensation System

Human resources should work with the sales department to develop a compensation system that meets with the company goals. The sales manager should discuss with the HR department about the incentives they offer for the sales team so that they could incorporate them into the compensation plan. The compensation plan can motivate the sales team to keep in a good performance and meet the company goals. They should also take into account the recession when creating compensation packages. In this way, the company can reduce risk in losing profitable sales workers that are hard to replace. You can also check compensation consulting services for more information.

8. Measure Employee Performance

Many sales-persons seem to be doing well and exceeding quota. In reality, they are burning out for overworking. And if they keep continuing in these circumstances, their productivity level will drop. If the HR and sales team can measure the employee performance, they could fix the situation to ensure that these employees don’t burn out themselves. The HR has all the metrics and analytics which allow them to measure the performance of the employees. HR can provide new perspectives to help the sales department improve their performance.

9. Make the First Working Day Special

HR can help in making the first day of work for employees in the sales team less stressful. HR can create orientation programs for new workers to learn more about the office environment and their job roles. They can make the first day of the job special to help the new employees to adapt to their work. The HR department should engage key persons in the sales team in the planning. After orientation, HR should monitor the progress to see how well the new workers are adapting to their workplace. They can use the milestone from 1 month – 1 year to keep track of the progress.

10. Perform Personality Testing

HR can perform personality testing to determine the best role for the candidates. Personality tests can reveal the interests and skills of the candidates. It can also reveal the personality style of the candidate. A personality test can also determine whether the employees can adapt to another culture.  For example, a candidate that has high self-esteem but cannot understand others is suitable for a position in recruiting new customers.

11. Create a Diverse SalesForce

HR plays an important role in creating a diverse sales force. The diverse sales force is especially important when the customers are made of different gender, race and ethnic. If the company did not maintain a diverse sales force, they can be accused of discrimination. The diverse team introduces fresh ideas and different perspectives from people in different backgrounds for boosting the company image. It can help to foster a positive image of employee brand that can attract top sales performers to work for your company.