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Increasing sales appointments can lead to more signed contracts, but only if you've hired star quality performers with the passion to succeed. It's about finding those who can turn face-to-face appointments into cash, those who know how to make your investment in B2B lead generation and even telemarketing pay big dividends.  

The recession deepens - unemployment soars - 3,000 a day are made redundant in the UK. Yet, some businesses are hiring. A recruitment advert this month offers a nice package in any economic climate to an account executive.  The successful applicant will be targeted on generating new business.

THE PACKAGE:
Basic Salary: £27,000 - £35,000
Commission/Bonus: OTE £45,000
Company Car: Audi A4
Benefits: Mobile, Laptop, Healthcare, and Pension

Now, that is a major investment, or risk this company is taking, especially now. With perks, it's a £70,000 plus gamble. But deemed worth it, if this recruit brings in the business.  The problem is that by the time the smoke clears, the employer can be deep in the hole.

It may not be a very British view, but one US sales expert has this bit of advice: 
"Only hire sales people who love money and like people. Great sales people love money and the things it can buy them and the people they love."

He argues that a sale executive who isn't making it within 6-8 weeks needs to be shown the door, along with any hope and unfounded optimism a sales director might have that a few more days (and investment) will make a difference.

It's not just bottom line revenue the non-performer is squandering, but their presence delays the moment when someone who can handle the job and bring in the business is hired.

In 1919 W.Clement Stone began selling insurance door to door. He grew his operation into a billion dollar business and became one of Aon Insurance's largest subsidiaries.  The title of his seminal work summed it up, Success,Through a Positive Mental Attitude. Yet he lamented so few have it. In 1937 he wrote words that ring true today, "One salesperson in ten deserves to be called a salesperson, the rest have been able to make a sort of living without ever really trying."

That of course is in the good days. When the economy is surging, it's said anyone can make money. It takes tough times like these to separate the top performers from those who coasted to a good living and now find the going pretty grim.

This is something we've discovered in the five years Achieving Quality Leads has been generating new business opportunities for our clients. Attracting new business has not been the challenge, but finding consultants who can do the business to our standard.

Recruitment is the single biggest expenditure for Achieving Quality Leads. For every consultant who joins the team, at least a hundred are rejected.  It's not down to intelligence, most applying are highly intelligent, however there are a very few who have the listening and questioning skills and the business acumen to be successful. Those are hard to teach, but necessary if clients are to receive the service they need.

"We find it frustrating, costly and incredibly time consuming," says AQL Director David Lester, "but we won't take on people unable to represent our clients professionally. Jobs are out there if you are something special. Being satisfactory is no longer good enough."

And that's the challenge; finding people with the ability to take your business to a higher level, staff with star quality. Competition is more than tough. Without this resource it will be hard to survive.

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