How do import companies recruit, select and motivate sales talents

All companies, no matter their size, no matter what industry or project they are engaged in, rely on people to get things done. Therefore, how to select talents and form a team becomes very important. This article will explore how foreign trade companies should operate from the perspective of recruiting and selecting sales talents and how to retain and motivate these talents.

Type and number of sales personnel

Foreign trade companies are generally pragmatic in terms of employment. Basically, one person has one post, or even one person has multiple posts. When a company starts up, it is impossible to recruit all personnel in one step, and the cost factors of the company must also be taken into consideration. Recruiting sales personnel requires overall planning based on the size of the enterprise and actual business volume, so that everything is managed and everyone has something to do, so that they can be responsible for following up on customers and market dynamics in a timely manner. With the rapid development of the Internet, various new sales models continue to emerge. When an enterprise recruits domestic sales personnel, it needs to form a sales department or sales team based on its own sales model. Generally, it needs to include the following personnel: marketing management personnel, sales personnel (dealers, direct store sales personnel, etc.), e-commerce personnel (online platform Sales personnel, etc.), marketing personnel (brand promotion, advertising, art, etc.), after-sales service personnel, etc.

Competence requirements for sales staff

When foreign trade companies recruit and appoint sales personnel, they often focus on results and want outstanding talents who can sell goods. Before appointing a salesperson, the company needs to conduct the following assessment on its comprehensive ability:

• Professional skills: Determine what abilities are required for the specific position of the salesperson being recruited, and understand the applicant’s ability level through his or her work experience.
• Character and Virtues: Understand the personality traits and moral qualities of salespeople. Personality determines to a large extent whether a person is qualified for the job. Taking into account moral character, companies prefer to focus on cultivating people with both ability and political integrity.
• Work Attitude: Any job requires continuous innovation, so it is necessary to examine whether the sales staff has the enterprising spirit of bold innovation, as well as whether they pay attention to details and whether they have a sense of responsibility.
• Learning ability: Examine whether sales staff can continuously update their knowledge base, keep pace with the times, and improve their business level.

Retain and motivate sales talent

Whether a foreign trade company can attract and retain excellent sales talents depends on whether the company can meet the needs of excellent sales talents in the following aspects. The more they are satisfied, the more stable the talents will be.

• Salary level: When recruiting and appointing sales talents, foreign trade companies should refer to industry standards to determine the salary level of sales staff. They should not miss out on outstanding sales talents by reducing labor costs through low wages. The salary level of employees reflects the company’s respect for talents and recognition of their abilities.
• Promotion space: Everyone has career ideals and career plans. Enterprises should provide employees with opportunities to learn and exercise, space for continuous promotion, and a stage to display their talents. In this way, employees can demonstrate their personal ambitions and realize personal value, thus creating more value for the enterprise.
• Corporate Culture: A strong corporate culture is the centripetal force for enterprise development. A good corporate culture can give employees a sense of security, honor, and respect, encourage employees to devote themselves to work and improve work efficiency. Therefore, companies should create a good culture of working together for company development.
• Specific needs: The company treats its employees well, pays attention to their specific needs, provides employees with help when they need it, and solves their specific difficulties, which is conducive to strengthening the connection between employees and the company and reducing the mobility of company employees. This ensures the long-term stable development of the enterprise.

Institutional training and management of sales talents

Excellent companies have sound management systems. Foreign trade companies need to continuously establish and improve various systems of the company based on the company’s industry characteristics, business scale structure, and development status, such as job responsibility standards, daily affairs management system, regular work meeting system, performance appraisal system, reward and punishment system, education Training system, financial system, etc. to facilitate the cultivation and management of talents. The system construction of an enterprise cannot be completed in one step. When the enterprise determines the system, it must ensure that the system is operable based on the actual situation and update it regularly according to the actual situation.