Both questions could be answered with, "yes," but that depends on your long-term business goals, corporate culture, ideal customer base and more important factors. Your search for the right salesperson begins with developing an Ideal Candidate Profile.

If you're asking this question, the answer is probably "no." In our experience, sales leaders start asking this question when they get a gut feeling that something is wrong - stagnant sales, missed opportunities, lost long-term clients are all signs. Now that you know the answer, what are you going to do about it?

In most cases, yes. Oh, sorry, that was an 'or' question. No, you don't need business development salespeople or account managers, you need business development salespeople AND account managers. More importantly, your sales staff should not double as your account managers. We've worked with companies to define roles, compensation packages and strategies for both.

Compensation should be determined by a number of factors including salesperson performance, position expectations, skills required, travel and more. For most people, pay is a motivation. If you have a well defined sales strategy, rewarding sales and new customer acquisition, your sales staff should be motivated to meet or exceed your goals. Unfortunately, many companies haven't established a realistic strategy, meaning their sales staff is either over motivated to underperform, or they aren't motivated enough to perform at all. Is your compensation [...]

If you have a panic button, now would be a good time to think about pressing it. You could have the best sales staff in the world, but without great leadership your team could be severely underperforming. If you're interested in growth, you need great sales leadership, and we can help.

Trick question! Your company's individual sales and growth goals should determine the metrics you should be evaluating your team with. There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but there is an answer.