Hiring the right salespeople can make or break your kitchen design business. Your sales representatives are essential for connecting with your customers and identifying their needs. They help establish profitable relationships and their work brings in the most measurable results for your company. Our team of kitchen designers in North London wouldn’t be able to deliver our bespoke, Italian kitchens to our customers without our sales team.

With that in mind, hiring and recruiting the best salespeople are fundamental for the success and growth of your kitchen design business. Here are 5 things to look out for when hiring a kitchen sales rep.

Match Your Ideal Hiring Profile

Before you dive into the hiring process, you should identify your personal needs. What role, specifically, will your kitchen sales representative be filling? Will they be joining an existing sales team or will they be your first sales hire? You’ll need to examine things like your growth targets, distribution strategies, and sales force organization to properly identify personnel needs.

Having pinpointed these requirements, you can start building an ideal profile as well. Isolate the skills and qualifications you’d like your new salesperson to have. You can put these in your job adverts, so prospective candidates know exactly what you’re searching for. Having a profile to work from will also help you narrow down your hiring decision.

Align with Company Culture

A vital characteristic of any new hire in the kitchen industry is a sense of shared values. Your new salesperson will be interfacing directly with customers every day. They could be the first point of contact your customers have with your company, so you want to ensure they represent your company culture well.

Apart from interacting with customers, you and the rest of your company must work with the new kitchen sales rep as well. Someone who understands and empathizes with your company vision will be easier to work with. Regardless of what capacity they’re in, employees who show up to work every day for largely the same reasons will make work a much more pleasant place to be.

Previous Customer-Facing Experience

Ideally, you want someone who’s held previous roles in sales. And even better if they’ve worked in the kitchen and bath design industry. If they don’t have sales experience specifically, then any position where they dealt with customers directly would be good too. Customer service or customer technician roles would have provided them with the necessary skill set.

With this characteristic, you want someone who knows how to handle themselves with clients. A sales rep who can expertly answer questions, address concerns, and ultimately, sell the product. If they appear to have no experience pointing in this direction and they don’t demonstrate a willingness to engage with customers on a regular basis, then that might be a warning sign.

Willingness to Learn

A sales representative is a dynamic position. And the kitchen design industry is constantly changing as well. Someone who’s willing to change their approach, take on additional training, and grow into their changing sales role is someone you want to hire. Even if they have a stellar CV with substantial sales experience, there’s always more to learn.

This can be especially true for salespeople who’ve come from different industries. If they haven’t worked in the kitchen and bath design sector before, then they should understand they’ll have a slight learning curve starting out. As long as you and they are both fines with your new hire learning as they go, then that will make for a skilled, knowledgeable salesperson. A sales rep who grows with your company becomes a valuable asset to it.

Professionalism

Finally, your new sales rep should demonstrate heaps of professionalism. The way they dress, act, and speak at the interview will be your clues into how they conduct themselves in a professional capacity. Salespeople should hit high marks when it comes to presentation because they’ll be dealing directly with customers. To ensure a professional reputation for your kitchen design business, hire professional salespeople.

Another crucial aspect of professionalism is effective communication. Salespeople should be articulate as well as good listeners. These are qualities you can suss out during the interview.

Final Thoughts on Hiring Kitchen Salespeople

If you keep an eye out for these 5 things during the recruiting and hiring process, finding the right salesperson won’t be such a challenge. Take it from North London’s kitchen design experts – invest in your hiring process and you’ll have great results!

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