The sales roles an SME needs, and the order to hire them in

Many owners hire in the order of the job they like, or the person who impressed them at an interview. A better order follows where your own evenings go. First you are chasing enquiries, then you are the only one who can visit, then paperwork swallows the day, and only last are you the person every decision waits for. Hire the caller, then the seller, then the coordinator, and the manager last. Each role below has a sign that it is time and a way to check it works from a sheet.

The caller: first, because enquiries die quietly

The caller takes every enquiry on the day it arrives, asks the qualifying questions, books the visit or sends the quote request, and rings back when nothing comes. It is the work owners drop first when busy, and where a good share of lost enquiries die. You need one when you return calls at night or find rows on the enquiry sheet nobody has touched for a week.

The questions are short and trade-specific. A shoe maker's caller asks for pairs per size, the shop's town and whether the retailer pays on delivery; a spares dealer's caller asks for the machine model and part number. Write those questions on one card so a second caller can pick them up.

Wait if only a handful of enquiries arrive weekly. A caller with nothing to call fills the day with cold lists and picks up bad habits.

The seller: when good enquiries wait for you

The seller meets the buyer: visits the dealer, walks the site, negotiates. The role needs product knowledge, travel time and a stated limit on price. The reason it comes second is that a visit is only worth its travel when the enquiry has already been qualified. A caller makes sure the seller's day is spent with buyers who have a need, a budget range and a date. The test is plain. Are qualified enquiries waiting more than a few days for a meeting you cannot attend because you are in the factory? If yes, the next hire is a seller.

Do not hire the seller before the caller is producing meetings. A seller with an empty diary starts ringing old directory lists in a personal style, and the brand ends up with three pitches.

The coordinator: the hire that gives selling hours back

Quotes, price lists, sample dispatch, order confirmation, payment reminders. The coordinator is the least glamorous hire and often frees the most selling time, because sellers stop writing quotes at night. A longer treatment is in sales admin that eats selling time.

The sign is a seller who answers "when will the quote reach me?" with "after the visit, at night". If one person still clears the paperwork in an hour a day, do not add a salary to save an hour.

The manager: last, and only when you are the bottleneck

A manager sets targets and settles who owns which customer. You need one when three or more people sell and you still approve every discount. Sooner, and you pay for a layer over two people. If you are still the best seller in the firm, wait. You will probably overrule the manager within a month.

Write each role as a sentence and a check

A role you cannot check is a hope. Give each one sentence for the job and one thing you can read from a sheet.

• Caller: every enquiry gets a first reply with the time logged beside it. Check the time column on the enquiry sheet.
• Seller: every qualified meeting ends in a quote or a dated next step. Check the visit log.
• Coordinator: no quote leaves without the price-list version and a validity date. Check five at random.
• Manager: every seller's open deals use the same stage names. Check a review sheet in front of you.

If you cannot name the check, you are not clear yet on why you are hiring.

An Agra shoe maker who hired the second role first

Take an invented case, every detail made up: an Agra footwear manufacturer sold to retailers in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The owner, tired of long journeys, hired an experienced seller first at ₹35,000 a month. The seller was good, but enquiries came in at about one a day and the owner still answered them personally. The seller had few meetings, began visiting shops from an old trade directory and quoted prices the owner had never approved. One retailer received two different rates in a week.

The owner reordered the work. The seller was told to do visits only. A caller, a local college graduate paid ₹12,000 a month, answered every enquiry and booked those visits. One rule went on a card: any price above the printed list needs the owner's text. The seller's diary filled with qualified visits, and the owner stopped taking calls after eight in the evening. It was not clean: the text rule slowed one large quote by a day, and the retailer who had seen two rates never ordered again. The roles simply arrived in the order of the work.

If you cannot pay for four people

You will not have four people for a while. Draw the four roles as four columns and write names under each, yours included. A person standing under three columns is overloaded, and the column that is failing tells you the next hire. Where one person must hold two roles, keep the dull one on the calendar first: a seller who is also the caller will always choose the visit.

Only some firms follow this order. If most of your sales are repeat orders from known buyers, the coordinator may come first, and a firm selling only through dealers may need a dealer manager before a seller. Use the columns to decide, not the sequence.

Draw the columns this week

Take a sheet and write the four roles across the top, with a name under each. Put your own name under every column you are covering, circle the column where enquiries or quotes are slipping, and write its one-sentence check beside the circle. That circle is your next hire, and the check tells you what to ask of the person you hire into it. Sales team structure and role definition is the work of drawing the roles up for your firm, and the sales section shows how they connect. To start, tell us what you need.