How To Scale A Sales Organization Quickly, with Amir Reiter, Episode #107

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All of us are looking to scale our sales organization - it’s what will enable us to serve more customers and generate more results. My guest on this episode of #SellingWithSocial wanted to enable leaders to scale their businesses by having the ability to focus more on their product or service. That meant one of the most helpful things to take off the plates of those leaders was the recruiting and training of their teams. He envisioned what that would look like to provide that for busy leaders and went about creating it.

Amir Reiter has built his company - Cloudtask - for the purpose of providing managed customer service, managed B2B sales, and managed live chat for any organization. I wanted to talk with him about scaling a sales organization because he’s done it like nobody else. Cloudtask has grown its team of sales and customer service reps from 1 to 135 in just over 3 years and is currently bringing on 10 new team members per week.

In this conversation we dig into Amir’s thoughts behind scaling an organization, with an eye toward how his lessons-learned apply to sales organizations like you and I want to build. Join me for an incredible conversation.

This podcast is brought to you by the Annual AA-ISP Leadership Summit. Receive a 30% discount on your registration. Join us this April 3rd – 5th in Chicago, IL - Visit http://bit.ly/AAISPVengreso and use the code Vengreso30%.

You Need A Process To Scale And Grow Your Sales Organization

As Amir and I spoke I wanted to get right into the guts of the conversation so I asked him to outline the top processes that need to be in place in order to scale a sales organization rapidly. But before he would let me go there, he wanted to emphasize something vital: you first need to understand that processes are required. The kind of growth we’re talking about, at the scale we have in view is not possible without systems and processes in place that enable it to happen.

The first thing you have to put into place is what Amir calls “a beginning and an end.” By that, he means a clear view of what you’re shooting for in the end - a happy customer you have helped - and a clear idea of your beginning, which takes the form of a clear buyer persona and profile. Once you have those in place, the “middle” of your process can be addressed.

I asked what Amir includes in those middle stages of his process, and he was quick to point out that it will be fluid throughout the lifecycle of any organization. But there are some clear issues that need to be addressed, including decisions surrounding whether you’ll first pursue inbound or outbound sales channels, mapping your content and resources to the buyer journey you are targeting, and more. Listen to get all the details.

Sifting Through Candidates To Choose The Best Team - #NoResumes

As a sales organization grows, team members have to be vetted, selected, and trained. That’s not an easy our brief process no matter how you slice it. And when your organization grows as quickly as Amir’s (remember, he’s adding 10 new team members per week), you have to do it efficiently and well.

Amir says the CouldTask team utilizes the following in their selection and onboard process:

Personality tools: These are quick ways to get a feel for who candidates are and whether they will fit on the team. Group assessments: Enables them to view people in an interactive environment, see how they respond to others, and understand their approach to situations and challenges. Revealing application steps: Candidates need to complete projects and tasks that show how they approach situations and deal with scenarios. Multi-person assessment: Many different people within the team assess the candidates. This helps avoid blind spots and highlight red flags that may arise.

And in case you didn’t notice the hashtag in this header - no resumes are used in their entire process. #NoResumes

Tips For Training A New Team For Your Sales Organization

As any sales organization builds out its team, effective training is essential. The average time frame for getting a sales rep up to speed is right around 6 to 8 months. But the CloudTask team is able to get team members up and running within 90 days. It’s an incredible accomplishment and I wanted to understand how Amir and his team are pulling it off.

Amir says that they work to avoid centering the training around bookwork and exams. They want new team members in hands-on situations right away. For example: They want to see them building connections on LinkedIn, doing research, and actually picking up the phone within days.

That doesn’t mean there’s no value in the typical bookwork and testing needed to learn products and services well, it just means it’s integrated into the experience of the training to help team members digest the materials in scenario-based situations, which is far more effective.

How To Reduce Churn In Your Sales Team

One of my concerns about growing a sales team so quickly is the likelihood of taking on team members who are a bad fit for the company. This could result in high employee churn rates. But Amir’s team has seemed to avoid that, so I wanted to know how.

First, he says they focus heavily on communication during the training process. Every sales rep they hire is assigned a customer success manager that they work with. This person gives feedback, guidance, and help as the new employee navigates their new role.

They also employ a simple, 4-question Google Forms survey at the end of week 1, the end of week 2, the end of week 3, and then again at the end month 1 and month 2. The responses they receive help them keep the training on target and impactful. What are the magical 4 questions they ask their new trainees so often?

How do you feel about the training? How could we improve it? Are you comfortable with the organization you’re working with? Do you feel comfortable telling them that you don’t agree with something or don’t understand?

Amir says their goal is to let their team members know that they are in an environment where the leadership wants to make them successful. That means they keep communication open, ask lots of questions, and cultivate a culture of ongoing learning.

On this episode you’ll not only hear the story of a rapidly growing company, but you’ll also get some of the details regarding how they pulled it off. I was enriched by this conversation and I know you will be too..

This podcast is brought to you by the Annual AA-ISP Leadership Summit. Receive a 30% discount on your registration. Join us this April 3rd – 5th in Chicago, IL - Visit http://bit.ly/AAISPVengreso and use the code Vengreso30%.

Outline of This Episode [1:48] Who is Amir Reiter and what does CloudTask do for its customers? [9:06] The processes you need to scale and grow any organization [15:52] How do you sift through a ton of employment candidates? [30:01] Tips for training a new sales team [32:11] How to prevent churn of team members and nurture their growth Resources Mentioned Amir Reiter on LinkedIn Amir on Twitter: @AmirReiter Amir on Instagram: @AmirReiter Amir’s favorite movie: Forrest Gump CloudTask - where Amir serves as CEO Hubspot Drift Lucidchart Whatsapp S.M.A.R.T. Goals Humantelligence 16 Personalities BOOK: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There Modern Marketing Engine Podcast - Bernie Borges Connect with Mario! www.vengreso.com On Facebook On Twitter On YouTube On LinkedIn

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