Let’s begin by asking a question: what do you think attracts top sales performers to a role?
- Is it recognition?
- Is it the organization’s culture of accountability?
- Is it the challenge?
Well, in our experience, it’s all those things.
Top performers want to work hard and report to a leadership team that recognizes their efforts. They are ready to take on any challenge that has a defined path to your future success and they welcome personal accountability. The best of the best need to see how their skillsets will make a difference to your organization and their values need to be aligned with your culture.
Your ideal salesperson will be measured by the contagious can-do energy they exuberate, or the passionate response to the common icebreaker “so what do you do?”.
Therefore the aim of your job posting is to attract candidates who are excited by the unique challenge that has been presented and who want to be tested by a robust hiring process.
Inspect Your Team
Now, if you look around your current team, how many seem to be underperforming in their role? Who really wants to be there, and who is putting in the work to be successful?
Before you decide to embark on hiring another new salesperson, you need to ask why these employees are demotivated.
- What kind of environment have we created?
- Is our environment one where top performers thrive?
- Do their values and purpose match ours?
- Did we hire the right person, both from a culture and skill-based perspective?
The reason why I bring this up is the sales hiring process needs to be right every single time. If not, the cost of a bad sales hire will have a significant impact on the bottom line, the revenue targets your team need to hit, as well as many other opportunity costs. Furthermore, your best talent won’t want to stick around with dead weight either.
So how do you recruit the ideal sales professionals for your business? Here are our top three recommendations:
Clearly determine the type of person you want to hire for the vacant role.
Top talent doesn’t become available too often, and when a perfect candidate comes along, you’ll want to be prepared to execute on your recruiting and hiring strategies effectively. So, it’s critical for you and your team to determine what characteristics and traits you’re looking for in your next salesperson hire. Think hard here about the team fit, culture fit, and personality fit of your ideal candidate.
Focus on what your ideal candidate would want and build the job posting around that to attract top talent.
Now that you know what type of person you want for the job, it’s on you to clearly outline what you want and need. Try to avoid generic job descriptions that would apply to anybody else’s culture or organization and instead, emphasize the most significant aspects of the role upfront to ensure your candidates are fully aligned with your expectations and requirements. Throughout the hiring process, actively listen to their expressions of pain points from past job experiences and mold your efforts around their feedback.
Outline a game plan for categorizing who you will or will not interview for the position.
It’s one thing to attract top talent, it’s another to get a “YES!” when you offer the position at the end of the interview process. Put together compelling compensation plans, benefits packages, and other add-ons that help differentiate your offer from the rest of the companies they may be in final round interviews with.
