The challenge:

Avenir regularly helps private equity-sponsored businesses recruit B2B sales teams—sales managers, sales reps, account managers. We often partner with newer or smaller sales organizations where each hire is critical to get right and where the client's sales organization is still being built (e.g. clear processes, strong sales management, supporting tools and technology).

Our clients look for similar traits when evaluating new sales talent, including a minimum years of experience in a similar role, track record of success (e.g., consistently meeting or exceeding quotas), experience in similar industries, understanding of the target customer, and perhaps a rolodex of contacts, among others.

Sales as a science, not an art. 

These traits are important. However, in Avenir's experience, the best performing sales talent is structured and process-driven; views sales more as a science, than an art; and has a solid understanding of the key elements of sales force effectiveness.

Avenir's approach to evaluating mid-level sales talent digs deep into these topics. A few examples that apply equally to hunting, farming, or hybrid roles are:

• Does the candidate's sales approach demonstrate a systematic, structured process for targeting, prospecting, nurturing leads and opportunities, and progressing to closed/ won?

• Does the candidate have a sound understanding of how to prioritize their time, e.g., which are the highest value customers or prospective customers and why ? (Ideally backed by data/ metrics)

• Are tools and technology, like consistent use of a CRM system, included in the candidate's sales approach?

For supervisory roles, is the candidate's management approach

• Metrics-driven with specific examples of how data/ metrics are used monitor and coach sales reps

• Include a standard cadence for meeting with and coaching reps in the field

• Emphasize consistent processes for everything from onboarding to targeting/ prioritization, to territory planning

The best supervisory candidates can provide examples of how they improved B-players to A-players on their teams.

Why does it matter?

Yes, these topics are relatively basic, but we see a high percentage of candidates articulate an unstructured approach led more by instincts and relationships over good foundational sales practices.

In our experience, the latter has a higher likelihood of success (e.g., quicker ramp up, lower turnover, more consistent performance against quota). This is particularly important in newer or smaller sales organizations that may not have a well-defined sales approach, placing greater emphasis on the individual sales rep's approach.

We would love to share more about our approach and discuss how we can support you on your next hire. Please reach out to Avenir Talent's commercial recruiting team at recruiting@avenirtalent.com .