This piece was originally published in December of 2008.
A couple issues back I wrote about the biggest mistakes I have made while growing my landscaping company, one of which was not hiring a salesperson soon enough. I thought I had to do all the selling myself, but now that I have a talented sales team in place, I see the error of my ways. So to spare you the pain and time of having to learn this lesson through your own trials and tribulations, I would like to share with you some of the best ways to find, hire, and train a new salesperson for your team.
First and foremost, you have to find good candidates. Become familiar with area schools that offer programs in landscape architecture or design. Arrange to speak to the students about the landscaping field and give them a glimpse into what kinds of opportunities await them once they finish their schooling. Take them to lunch and give them a company hat and your card – you want to leave a positive impression and make certain they remember your company name. You should also arrange to speak at your state association’s annual trade show and seminar. Over time, your name will become well-known and potential hires will be more likely to seek you out. I also recommend participating in the recruiting dinner PLANET (now NALP) organizes every year in conjunction with their Green Industry Conference; go to their web site at landcarenetwork.org (now landscapeprofessionals.org) to learn more. You might also consider taking on a student intern, enabling a student to gain the experience he or she will need to get started after school and allowing you to observe what kind of employee he or she will be before committing to a permanent hire.
I myself have had great luck finding talented sales people by advertising positions in this magazine, on monster.com and in the local newspapers. I’ve also mailed our company’s newsletter to area students, along with a note encouraging them to give me a call sometime.
In all of these instances though, you’ll want to make an initial overture and then step back and wait to see who takes initiative in contacting you. If they’re not willing to grab their own careers by the reins and sell themselves, then it’s quite unlikely they’ll be able to sell for you. Successful salespeople do not sit around and wait for the phone to ring, and you shouldn’t waste your time hiring someone who conducts his or her life that way.
Once you’ve lined up some good prospects for your sales team, you need to learn about their motivations. Obviously most of us seek employment because we need to earn our livings, but money isn’t everything. My best salespeople are those who are motivated by both money and their passion for landscaping. I once interviewed a guy who bragged that he could sell ice to an Eskimo. To me that’s a guy who will sell anything to anyone so long as he gets his commission check, which is exactly the type of guy I don’t want working for me. I’ve striven to build my company with integrity, and I’m in this business for the long haul. I want my clients to trust me and know that my company is not going to cajole them into buying products or services that are not appropriate to their needs. I want my clients to buy the best for themselves and not feel like they were sold something less.
Ideally in our industry you want to put together a sales team of professionals who can both design and sell, which is admittedly difficult to do. The two skills – designing and selling – often seem to be at odds with each other. Even the best designers can be timid about setting the price high enough for you to be able do a job correctly, they can be afraid to talk openly about expectations with the client, and they can seem to take the side of the client when they should take the side of the company. They may never have taken a single sales or business class in school, focusing exclusively on design. This is not to say that a designer can’t make a terrific salesperson – he or she can. You just have to understand where they’re coming from and figure out a way to translate their passion into actual sales.
Lastly, I find there’s a very simple but extraordinarily telling litmus test that I apply before I hire any person to sell for my company. I ask myself: Would I myself buy from him or her? If the answer is yes, I extend an offer. But if the answer is no, then no matter what other skills he or she brings to the table, I say thank you for your time, walk away and begin my search anew.