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Sales Recruiting --Sales Recruiter's Top Five Tips to Building a High Powered Sales Recruiting Machine

Guest post by: Sonja Hastings

Article Overview: When it's time to grow your company, getting the right sales recruiting strategy in place can solve a lot of problems that not having the right sales recruiting strategy can create. If you take the time to develop and implement an ongoing and consistent sales recruiting strategy, while keeping the following five tips in mind; you will be on your way to building a world class sales force.

Sales Recruiting --Sales Recruiter's Top Five Tips to Building a High Powered Sales Recruiting Machine

Hiring top sales professionals is a challenge on many levels. If you decide to take a consistent and proactive approach, finding your next sales performer will be faster and more profitable. Here are a few simple concepts to help you get started:

#1: Always be recruiting sales professionals: In sales, the acronym ABC refers to “always be closing.” In recruiting, the mantra is similar: always be recruiting. If you are interested in building an all-star sales team, you should employ a consistent recruiting strategy designed to cover a broad range of channels in order to attract your next sales hire. Even if you don’t have an opening on your sales team today, you should still be actively recruiting. You never know when you might need to make another strong sales hire.

#2: Use a variety of sources for your sales recruiting efforts: It doesn’t take but a few top sales people to make all the difference in your company’s performance. The 80/20 rule applies to recruiting just like anything else, however you don’t want to find yourself overly reliant on one source for top sales talent. It is best to employ multiple recruiting channels, even if one or two methods produce eighty percent of the results. It won’t be long before the highest producing method tires and becomes less and less effective. Always be on the lookout for new sources, new ways of communicating with candidates, new forums and new technology.

#3: Never stop improving your sales recruiting process: Look for was to identify candidates faster, cheaper and of a higher caliber than you have in the past. This might be through the use of more effective processes, better technology or deeper relationships with referral partners. The best way to hire better sales talent is to constantly improve your sales recruiting methods. Look for ways to make a consistent effort, implement proactive tactics and enhance the applicant experience.

#4: Make a lasting impression on every sales candidate you interview: Hubris in recruiting is extraordinarily expensive. Believe it or not, sometimes companies don’t get back to applicants they have interviewed. The candidate will try and follow up only to receive deafening silence on behalf of the interviewer. This is a big mistake! If you don’t want to hire the person you have interviewed, you owe them the professional courtesy of closure. Even if the sales applicant is rude, annoying or downright weird, it is still important to leave a positive impression about your organization.

If you don’t take the time to relay feedback, you will fail to generate additional high-quality referrals that could lead to top sales candidates. You will miss out on additional opportunities to build a strong brand by demonstrating that you value human capital. Respect the fact that you are getting paid to interview people. You are on the payroll “clock.” The sales applicant is interviewing for “free.” This may help you remember to be considerate of everyone’s time and courteous when it comes to telling sales applicants that they are not a strong match for the position. Most interviewees can handle the news and appreciate the closure that happens only when the words “we are not moving forward with your candidacy” is spoken to in a brief but “final” phone call.

#5: Consistently strive to develop and build your own professional network: When you are recruiting for top sales talent, you need to “be everywhere.” Make it a point to be involved in your trade organizations, industry meetings and professional associations. The more people you come in contact with, the more you will be expanding your network over time. Recruiting and networking is a cumulative process. It takes constant work and time to see strong results.

Try as we might, it is difficult to predict with 100% accuracy where your next top sales rep will be sourced from. You may meet him/her at a networking event, a company party, or even on a social media site. The most important thing is to work multiple recruiting channels consistently, keep a steady stream of fresh referrals coming in and treat all those you meet like the important people they are. If you can keep these five concepts in minds as you execute your recruiting strategy, you will be on your way to building a word class sales force!

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Article Tags: sales headhunters, sales recruiting, sales recruiting agencies, sales recruiting tactics, sales recruiting tips, sales recruitment



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