Guest Post by Skornia Alison

The Head of Sales holds one of the most critical roles in an organization. Since he or she plans the roadmap for the company revenue, client retention and future strategies to upscale the sale, he is ultimately the one the CEO turns to for opinions on scaling up the revenue, making him one of the most important people in an organization.

A Head of Sales is responsible for strategizing the goals of revenue, executing sales tasks, streamlining the daily sales activities and performing the periodical review of sales. Considering the sensitivity associated with this job, it is important to hire someone who can  handle this amount of responsibility.

Here are some things you should consider prior to making a selection:

1. Your Sales Manager Has to Be a Brand Ambassador

A sales manager is the face of your brand. He is the one who is going to close hundreds of deals on your behalf. Considering that he is going to represent your business to the world, would you bring onboard a Head of Sales who lacks the personality, experience and qualifications of what defines a great hire?

Considering yourself in the shoe of your prospective customer, you need to ask yourself the following question before making a final selection:

• Is this the person I want making business deals?
• Can I trust this person?
• Will he be able to deliver results?

If you nod in affirmation to all of these questions, then you have got your man.

2. Does He Have History in Social Selling?

Social media is increasingly becoming one of the points of sales activities. Triblio reveals some surprising facts about social selling. According to the website, there are 72.6% of salespeople who surpassed their peers with 23% more completed sales as a result of social media. The survey also unveiled that 82% of leads can easily be reached by means of social media.

Knowing that social media is a big part of sales, it is important to invest more in this position by hiring a candidate who is adept at social selling. The cumulative audience on major social media websites constitutes up to 2.5 billion users, making them one of the potential resources for finding your target buyers.

Since you have a huge audience available on social media platforms, the scope of revenue growth becomes even higher. Therefore, you should prefer hiring a person who can augment your sale roadmap with an effective social selling strategy to help you scale up your business.

3. Can He Forecast?

Forecasting makes up a big part of running a business and a perfect candidate understands its significance in sales. Just like a financial analyst would forecast the financial trends and a technology analyst would predict the future of technology, the role of Head of Sales requires immense forecasting in sales.

What this means is that your prospective candidate should be able to have enough insights to make profitable future decisions. He should be able to draw from his knowledge and experience to make future deals in the financial interest of the organization. Do you find these requisites in your future Head of Sales?

4. Is He a Visionary?

A Head of Sales has to be a visionary. Just like any great leader, he should be able to foresee the upcoming challenges and find  timely solutions. He should be able to train the team, invest in the infrastructure and acquire the talent to increase the profit size of his organization.

Making a wrong selection for this position will result in loss of sales. Unlike a visionary sales leader, the wrong hire would lack the thought process needed to make beneficial decisions and could potentially look for easy ways to grab deals, even if it caused a loss in the long-term.

He would compromise the stakes of the organization by undercharging the services or making substantial concessions just to meet the sales quota.

5. Is He a Team Player?

A Head of Sales is responsible for his team. Being the captain of the ship, he should be able to take into confidence each of the members of his team. He should be able to effectively delegate responsibilities to his team, train them for future success and help them reach their full potential.

Similarly, he should be able to stand with his team and represent them to upper management. Can you expect good results from a Head of Sales who cannot make a case for his team to the hierarchy? How can such a person represent an entire organization to the business partners?

6. Is He a Fit for Your Organization?

Considering that every organization has different budget sizes, tax thresholds and profit margins, the role of a Head of Sales can be quite different from the rest of the positions. If a candidate manages to impress you with his $1m contribution to sales at his previous organization, it does not mean that can be recreated in your organization.

What you should look for in a candidate is the ability to adapt to your particular organization. Will he be able to tackle the challenges of your organization? Can he mingle with your work culture? Is he a fit for your particular company size, i.e. small, medium or large?

All of these are important factors you should consider prior to making a hiring decision for this important role.

7. Can He Meet Your Company Goals?

Every business has a different sales infrastructure which is crucial in setting its goals. Let’s say your organization lacks the effective systems and processes to streamline the flow of information. Your primary goal would then be to create the applications and software that would complement your sales department.

A perfect Head of Sales would have insights into the strategies you should implement to meet your goals. With his knowledge and experience, he should be able to give you the plan to overcome the existing glitches in your sales infrastructure so that you can achieve better results in the future, whether it requires technological improvements or staff training.

The role of Head of Sales demands utter professionalism, experience, commitment and integrity. But more than that, it requires that a candidate has the intellect, insights, adaptability and vision to help an organization scale up its business and this is what you should look for in a prospective candidate.

Meet the Author:

Skornia Alison is a sales analyst at Essay Valley. She is a professional blogger who has a knack for writing insightful articles on sales strategies, future trends and the best practices.