On this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, our guest is Adam Stonehocker, Head of Sales at Gemini, a workforce planning and analytics tool for every company’s most important resource – its people.
Having been in the industry for 15 years and worked with brands such as MarketStar and peek.com as a director of sales, Adam knows a thing or two about building and leading a successful team.
Our conversation with Adam covers:
Episode Highlights:
1) Top Skills for a Career in Sales
Adam Stonehocker points out skills that he wants from their sales representatives. The best salesperson should be natural with a strong mindset towards achieving goals. They should be competitive and resilient. They should keep trying even after failure, and improvise.
He does not believe great resumes and attractive degrees make the best salespersons. Sales skills come gradually with experience. People should be ready to learn, humble, and coachable.
2) Effective Ways to Structure Team
He does not believe in SDR (Sales Development Representative) or BDR (Business Development Representative) for small and medium businesses. These structures are viable for large corporations and organisations. For smaller companies, these positions can cause high cost, attrition etc.
The better option is having AE (Account Executive) and assigning them a task to get four to five calls a week. For medium-scale companies, smaller teams are a good option.
3) How to Build a Great Salesperson from Scratch?
An employee should know their day in the life at work, even before starting an actual job. Adam conducts a hiring event every month in his organisation, where the candidates go through an orientation before the interview. They explain their expectations and job role such as quota, activity metrics etc.
Companies should be aware of new employees about the work culture at the organisation. After that, show them perks and ramp them up with the system during training.
4) Developing a Feedback Culture in your Sales Team
A feedback culture is crucial, especially during contemporary WFH situations. They conduct feedback sessions after every 3 or 6 months. Managers should be taught to become better coaches.
The manager should focus on the consistency and productivity of employees. They should build a one-to-one relationship. The effort and ability to perform among employees is very crucial. He believes tools such as HubSpot, Salesforce can help to identify activity metrics and performance.
Consistency is a superpower; it has snowball effects on the organisation's structure and functioning.
Follow Adam on LinkedIn