Talent isn’t always easy to court, nor is it particularly easy to maintain – the word “talent” is also nebulously defined, with the old, generalized adages about charisma and assertiveness not really holding water in the modern age. This is all to say that hiring the right salesperson can be tricky.
Business is contingent on how well your sales staff perform, and yet salespeople can sometimes be a revolving door, leaving your company on unsure footing. How does one counteract this? How does a company consistently hire the right salesperson? Here are four tips for how to go about it.
Use a Sales Recruitment Company
Quite simply, the best way to ensure consistent results in the hiring process is to enlist the services of a recruitment company like Sales Talent Agency – not only will they be able to draw from a much broader database, but they use a DNA PRO methodology for assessing candidates’ soft skills as well as their experience, professional background and relevancy. No list of tips about hiring the right candidate should be without at least some mention of this service; it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process, and is by far the safest bet when looking for quality deal makers.
Leverage Your Attractive Brand
What you have to understand about hiring a salesperson is that, more often than not, you’re hiring them away from somewhere else. That pits your brand against the candidate’s existing company.
Market yourself according to the kind of sales reps you hope to attract, and write compelling job descriptions and social media content that has a clear audience and aim. According to Monster.ca, the employer brand experience is all about delineating three key areas: the functional benefits of a job, the emotional benefits of a job, and external validation of the company’s worth.
Test Them For Real Life Situations
In the interview process, there should be no reason to hold back on assessing a candidate, and if you’re going to choose the right candidate, they need to be able to prove a real-world proficiency in the available position. Role-playing exercises are good, but they don’t pack the same punch as a real sales call because there aren’t the same stakes attached. Of course, this is all in addition to some well-thought-out sales questions.
Hire Specifically For The Task
As mentioned, the old generalizations about sales reps – that they ought to beassertive, attractive, have“presence”, or whatever else – aren’t really sure bets. In fact, according to this Harvard Business Review article, those things have very little effect on performance. Instead, it’s recommended that hire for the task, according to the product or service that’s being sold.
Again, the easiest way to do this is with a sales recruitment company, as they can pull very specific candidates from their large databases.
Conclusion
In summary, hiring a great sales candidate is in part about presenting an attractive brand, and partly about knowing how to target a wide pool of prospective candidates. Make use of a sales recruitment company, test for real-world situations and ensure that the candidate is right for the specific task.
Talent may not be easy to come by, but these four tips will certainly help.
