How to Attract and Hire TOP Sales Talent

When it comes to sales, your company is only as good as your sales reps. These are also some of the hardest positions to fill. It may surprise you to learn that sales professionals are the top in-demand role of all job functions, even more than engineers. This makes it challenging for employers to find and keep good talent.

Just finding a good salesperson can be challenging on its own but that's not even a guarantee that they'll work out. Approximately 50% of sales reps don't meet their quota and a bad hire can be waste of revenue, time, and team morale.

This is why it's essential that companies learn how to attract the top performers for their company. Having the appropriate hiring process in place will vet potential candidates and get the best of the best. A real job hiring takes more than just an interview.

Prepare for Providing Compensation and Support

Salespeople need to understand what they're getting themselves into when it comes to salary and work environment. Before you even post a job, get executives and all key players on board to provide resources such as training, technology, compensation, and sales operations.

Take a look at the compensation for the position. Most high performing sales reps are also going to be looking at an attractive compensation package. This can not only provide incentives but also attract top performers. Take a look at the budget and what a competitive salary is in the area. Companies should also consider what non-monetary benefits to offer such as vacation or flex time, training, and prospects for advancement.

Being able to offer not only a competitive salary but non-pay advantages can set your company apart and make it more attractive to potential employees.

Tomorrow I will continue with additional steps to make sure you get the best candidate before the hire.

It's also important to set up the process for sales reps to onboard smoothly and get to work as quickly as possible. While each team may have a slightly different process, there are some basic areas to cover and make sure are in place:

• Ensure the onboarding process, playbook, and documentation is ready to go

• Look at the sales process to determine if it's well-documented and successful.

• Review sales and marketing automation technology to ensure it's up-to-date with the latest advances.

• Administrative and customer support work should be excellent and well-understood

• Review how many people are dedicated to sales support functions- usually 50-60% of sales employees are adequate.

If any of these areas are not adequate, consider delaying the hiring timeline until improvements are made.

Define the Ideal Hire and Develop a Job Description

Not all companies need the same type of sales rep. Understanding why you need a new rep is a good way to get started defining the candidate needed. Meet with the sales team to discuss what characteristics are needed in this new hire. Maybe they need someone focused or someone who is innovative.

Talk to customers as well to see what matters to them in a salesperson. What do they want when it comes to their reps and is there an area that they feel is lacking? What really resonates with them as customers?

Job descriptions should also be built around the basic Sales DNA. These fundamental characteristics need to be present in each rep: ambition, competitiveness, confidence, perseverance, optimism, and resilience. These are areas that tend to predict success in the long run.

Consider using a standardized interview format

Sales hiring should be objective and quantitative so consider using a scoring rubric to do this. It may also be a good idea to use psychometric tests and assessments which identify aptitude, motivators, and behavioral skill sets.

After you've compiled these areas, then write the job description. Provide an idea of the culture and values of the business and sales team rather than simply writing a list of responsibilities. Specificity is the key to doing this well. Talk about what will make a sales rep successful in their new role. Specificity and creating a firm view of your brand are keys here.

Build a Candidate Pipeline

Using a recruiting funnel for candidates allows companies to build relationships with developing sales personnel until they are ready to take on the high performing role at your company. These may be professionals who are not currently looking for a new job and already performing well at their current position. Therefore, it's important to be proactive and seek out relationships to develop long-term with the help of events, content marketing, and even one-on-one outreach.

If done correctly, you will already have a batch of potential candidates when jobs open. Teams should also use their own networks for referrals as sales reps often have a strong network of leads. With these options, hiring managers can recruit and track top performers to contact with job openings.

Interview with a Rubric

To ensure that interviews are structured and objective, use the same criteria when interviewing candidates. Develop a set of questions for each candidate. Consider adding psychometric assessments to test for Sales DNA and other required traits as well.

Develop a rubric to score the answers. It may make sense to weight certain answers more than others. For example, a salesperson is hired to sell products and services that solve a client problem so the questions looking at problem-solving may mean more to a company. Look for how the candidates not only have a strong knowledge base of sales but also have the skills to relate themselves to the company position.

Tomorrow I will conclude with final step to make sure you get the best candidate before the hire.

Taking the Next Steps

Once you've gone through the interviews, it's time to organize a competitive compensation package and make the offer. Make sure that the onboarding plan is ready to go and outlines goals for specific periods of time such as the first 30, 60, and 90 days.

Once you have these steps in place, you are ready to get started building a top sales team. Following these steps allows for smoother hiring processes and will keep staff morale high during the process as well. Sales talent is expensive to recruit and maintain so make sure to follow these steps for greater success.

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