There comes a point where your business cannot grow without a team of great salespeople. A solid sales team serves as cheerleaders for your product or service and keeps your client pipeline moving. Great sales teams are collaborators who see opportunities to improve the business - not just land another deal. The best salespeople at fast-growing organizations are doing a lot of internal collaboration with marketing or finance. They are being asked to contribute to R&D and product development. The best salespeople are collaborators.

Here is how to hire a sales team that rocks:

• Screen for skills that your stars demonstrate: If you already have top sales performers at your organization, use an assessment tool to identify what makes them successful and then hire for those traits. Most organizations have some type of profile or assessment that creates a standard relative to what's needed to succeed. A lot of good sales organizations are trying to validate their selection decisions with assessments that go beyond subjective interviews. Using an assessment tool can help you create a behavioral and situational interviewing process that screens for the traits and competencies that ensure success at your organization. Because innate traits are difficult, if not impossible to change, you can help ensure your new salespeople are a good fit from the start. For instance, either you are ethical or you are not.
• Look for natural helpers: The best salespeople are the ones that genuinely empathize with customers and care for their needs. Therefore, when hiring a salesman/woman look for natural helpers. Customer needs are different and expectations higher in this era of informatics, where customers don't even need to leave the couch to buy whatever they want. Thus, the new salesperson needs to know in advance what each customer likes and needs. They have more information and alternative choices, so they have elevated expectations when it comes to personalization and customization. That puts a new kind of pressure on both the sales organization and the individual contributors. When hiring salespeople, look for people who think of themselves as helpers and teachers. They will be helping customers think, execute, solve problems, and approach business differently. They are almost more like consultants. The helper approach also works internally as well. You will see that the best salespeople and fast-growing organizations are doing a lot of internal collaboration with marketing or finance. Salespeople are being asked to contribute to R&D and product development. They are the best collaborators as they know the customers' needs better than anyone in the organization.
• Ask about data skills: The line between being a sales rep and a product analyst, nowadays is very thin, as data is increasingly important in sales tools to evaluate prospects, customers, deals, and even technique. As the use of data and data analytics grows throughout organizations, look for sales candidates who can evaluate and mine data for insights and also use emotional data for insights to the needs and expectations of the customers. Sales professionals who are excited to work with technology and data are a huge asset to your entire company, not just to your sales team.
• Look for micro marketers: Micro marketers are the forward-thinking salespeople who are using social media and other tech tools to gain online social presence and influence of the company. As you hire salespeople who understand social selling, look for sales candidates who have a robust and professional presence on social media. They have the digital mindset to be brand ambassadors and thought online leaders and influencers. They share insights from others as well as original ideas and information on how companies can use those insights for themselves. Understanding the value of social media and promoting ideas through social media is a vital skill for salespeople.
• Compensate based on performance: Research has found that salespeople are more committed when they have some kind of incentive or variable-based compensation. Thus, compensate your sales team based on performance through incentives and bonuses and they will be more engaged.
• How would you handle an angry customer who was promised the delivery of the product on a certain date but because of manufacturing delays the company was not able to deliver on a timely basis? The answers to this question will give you the insights to assess if the sales candidate has the emotional intelligence traits of empathy, self-management, conflict-resolution, adaptability, and social skills to handle the situation.