9 Tips To Help Avoid Hiring
A Payroll Salesperson Who Can’t Sell
By Glenn Fallavollita, President - SellMorePayroll.com & Drip Marketing, Inc.

• Word Count: 446
• Read Time: 1.8 Minutes

There is an epidemic of failure in the payroll industry among salespeople, as 66%* of all payroll service salespeople quit or are fired in their first 4 to 12 months of employment. In fact, I saw one payroll service owner hire and fire four salespeople and one sales leader at a cost of $200,000+. By the way, each person was employed for an average of 6.4 months. Ouch!

9 Tips To Help You Avoid Hiring The Wrong Salesperson.

If you want to hire a sales professional, I have listed several tips for you to consider below.

Tip #1: Review Your Hiring Process – Before you hire a salesperson, review the following:

• What are your interviewing, reference-checking, and onboarding processes?
• What type of marketing database do you have on file for them to leverage?
• How do you plan on training the person?
• What sales reports do you want them to use (which will help you manage them)?

Tip #2: Pay A Bounty - Go to your staff, contact database, and vendors and say, “I will pay you $5,000 if you can help me recruit a salesperson.”  By the way, you will only pay the $5,000 if the salesperson produces $X in revenue in their first 12 months of employment (a lower amount based on employment/revenue produced).

Tip #3: Check References – Reference checking is critical when hiring a salesperson, as 57% of all people embellish their resumes when it comes to their “skill set,” according to a CareerBuilder.com survey.

Tip #4: Ask Their Past Employer(s) This Question - “If you had the chance, would you hire <first name> again?” Their response, or lack of an answer, will be eye-opening.

Tip #5: Look Deep Into Your Rolodex, LinkedIn Contacts, And Vendors - When you have an open sales position, reach out to your contacts to see if they know of anyone who might be interested in a sales position at your company.

Tip #6: Test Candidates On The Computer – Before you hire a salesperson, test every candidate on their ability to type, as there is a direct correlation between technology skills and sales success. 

Tip #7: Don’t Hire Salespeople Who Will Work From Home - If you can avoid it, hire a salesperson within a reasonable driving distance from your office. 

Tip #8: Develop A Formal Onboarding Process - BEFORE you hire a salesperson, make sure you have a formal onboarding process (sales training manual, sales tracking reports, databases, sales scripts, etc.). 

Tip #9: Mandatory Things To Do - BEFORE you hire a salesperson, do these two things:

1. Ask the candidate to role-play with you to test their discovery question-asking skills.
2. Ask them to give you a presentation on what they are currently selling.

About The Author:

Glenn Fallavollita is a nationally recognized keynote speaker providing money-making advice to help payroll service owners, sales pros, and marketing gurus build more profitable relationships with their database of prospects, referral partners, and clients.

Additionally, Glenn is the president of SellMorePayroll.com and Drip Marketing, Inc. and has written 50+ whitepapers and three sales/self-marketing books; Supercharge Your Payroll Sales NOW!, Stop Whining AND Start Selling, and Drip Marketing: A Powerful New Marketing Strategy That Gets Prospects To Buy From You. He also writes blogs for LinkedIn and other national websites.

© Drip Marketing, Inc.  All Rights Reserved May Not Be Used Without Written Permission.

How To Build A CPA Drip Marketing System
(Print And Share With Your Sales Leader)
By Glenn Fallavollita, President of SellMorePayroll.com & Drip Marketing, Inc.

• Word Count: 162
• Time To Read: 37 Seconds

To help you develop a drip marketing system that targets your database of CPAs/referral partners, you will find below a list of seven steps all sales leaders and owners need to consider:

1. Define Your Sales & Marketing Objectives
2. Build A Database of CPAs
3. Create An Enticing Marketing Message
4. Develop A Low-Risk Offer or Call-To-Action 
5. Create A Landing Page For Your Website
6. Create A Follow-up Phone Strategy For You & Your Sales Team 
7. Develop A Marketing Deliverables Date and Sales Follow-up Calendar

After writing out your marketing strategy, you now need to roll up your sleeves and get the following things done:

• Build a database of local CPAs/CPA firms.
• Design three (3) e-mail marketing campaigns to be sent to your database of CPAs (#1: press release, #2: press release follow-up campaign, and #3: a second follow-up campaign).
• Create a powerful low-risk offer for the above-mentioned campaigns.
• Before you send any of the above-mentioned campaigns, proof each campaign BEFORE you hit the send button.
• Write a phone script for your sales team to use in their follow-up efforts (train them on it, too).
• Tell your sales team to be available for two to three MANDATORY 90-minute phone blitz sessions.

Your Drip Marketing Strategy...

Remember, drip marketing is all about sending the right message at the right time to the right audience at the right frequency! 

About The Author:

Glenn Fallavollita is a nationally recognized keynote speaker providing money-making advice to help payroll service owners, sales pros, and marketing gurus build more profitable relationships with their database of prospects, referral partners, and clients.

Additionally, Glenn is the president of SellMorePayroll.com and Drip Marketing, Inc. and has written 50+ whitepapers and three sales/self-marketing books, Supercharge Your Payroll Sales NOW!, Stop Whining AND Start Selling, and Drip Marketing: A Powerful New Marketing Strategy That Gets Prospects To Buy From You. He also writes blogs for LinkedIn and other national websites.

© Drip Marketing, Inc.  All Rights Reserved May Not Be Used Without Written Permission.

10 Proven Tips That Will Jump-Start Your Payroll Sales

(Print And Share At Your Next Sales Meeting)
By Glenn Fallavollita, President - SellMorePayroll.com & Drip Marketing, Inc.

• Word Count: 170
• Read Time: 42 Seconds

If you want to improve your sales performance and ensure your survival in today’s competitive payroll sales environment, I have listed several tips below (in no particular order) to help you master the sales profession.

The 10 Tips Are:

1. Set goals for yourself.
2. Keep a weekly record of your sales activities/meetings, proposals sent, and OUTBOUND calls made.
3. Create a massive e-mail database of active payroll clients, prospects, CPAs, referral partners, etc.
4. Develop a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) statement (AKA your Elevator Pitch).
5. Become more effective at asking questions during sales calls.
6. Know your competition cold.
7. Focus on the correct type of prospects and/or referral partners.
8. Improve your prospecting and networking skills.
9. Make more phone calls to your database of prospects and referral partners.
10. Build a Business Development Center for yourself/sales team.

The payroll sales environment shifts rapidly, from new competitors emerging to competitors lowering the price of similar products and services you sell, to new technology rendering your solution obsolete, to a competitor receiving a large sum of capital from an investor.

If you would like to learn more about SellMorePayroll.com, call my office @ (856) 401-9577.

About The Author:

Glenn Fallavollita is a nationally recognized keynote speaker providing money-making advice to help payroll service owners, sales pros, and marketing gurus build more profitable relationships with their database of prospects, referral partners, and clients.

Additionally, Glenn is the president of SellMorePayroll.com and Drip Marketing, Inc., and has written 50+ whitepapers and three sales/self-marketing books, Supercharge Your Payroll Sales NOW!, Stop Whining AND Start Selling, and Drip Marketing: A Powerful New Marketing Strategy That Gets Prospects To Buy From You. He also writes blogs for LinkedIn and other national websites.

© Drip Marketing, Inc.  All Rights Reserved. May Not Be Used Without Written Permission.