I started my career as a CPA and then become a CFO and CEO before starting a media company called NY Report. Up until I was in a position where I was out selling advertising for the magazine, I thought I knew how to sell. When I was a CFO, I was riding my sales managers and salespeople, asking why things their pipeline was taking so long to convert into revenue.  Looking back, I was probably wrong more than I was right, because I didn’t know crap about sales.

When I started in NY Report, I was the only salesperson. Within six months, I realized how bad I was at selling and took sales training classes for about three years. Between the training and non-stop selling, I became pretty good. Then I started to hire salespeople and added sales manager to my responsibilities (by the way, I don’t believe that the CEO should be the sales manager, but that’s an article for another time). I have also interviewed over 300 sales candidates and extended offers to about three percent of them. So while I don’t profess to be the best salesperson, sales manager or CEO out there, I have learned a few things. Here is my list of what a CEO, who is not a salesperson, needs to know about salespeople:

The Good

    * Sales is mostly science and a little art. And it is a process. Sometimes that process takes more time than you think it should.
    * You will get more out of a good salesperson by not hounding them. If you are hounding them, either you don’t trust them or they don’t deserve to be trusted, and you should let them go.
    * Better salespeople know that they need to develop rapport first, which means no selling. Let them do it. It takes more time, but cutting it out to speed things up rarely works.
    * Top salespeople will not take a position at your company unless they think that you, your company, and your products are great.

The Bad

    * A lot of salespeople are not controlling the sales process. If you don’t control the sales process these days, you are dead.
    * Good salespeople know everything about their clients and prospects and their industries. They can speak like an insider. Less than 10 percent do that.
    * Many salespeople don’t prepare for appointments (agenda, desired outcome, etc.). Another kiss of death.
    * The killer: most salespeople talk more than they listen (which is what I thought sales was about before I took sales training classes).

If you are a CEO and don’t have good sales experience, you have options. Hiring a good sales manager or getting some help from a good sales trainer is a great start.

What have you done to make sure your company has a great sales team?