The How-To Guide To Recruiting Sales Professionals

Recruiting sales people can be tricky.  Recruiting the right sales people is crucial.  Remember they are the ones who drive revenue for your organization.  They are the first person a prospective customer will come in contact with.  To simplify the process of elimination, I have created a brief guideline to measure the viability of a sales candidate:
 

1.  What motivates them? Although they come in many personalities, sales people are driven by one thing – MONEY.  If they are not – get them out of your office as soon as possible.  In this marketplace you want "A" players who will drive revenue.  They are out there!!

2. Where do you find them?  Not on the job boards.  If you are not using social networking sites then you are simply not "LinkedIn".  Jigsaw, LinkedIn and FaceBook are a few examples of outside the box resources to tap into for talent you won't find on the job boards.

 

 

3. Explaining Sales Goals: It is no mystery that companies are challenged by the economy. But sales people want to know that their goals are realistic. Don't set them up to fail before they even accept the offer.

4. Are they the real deal? Sales people know how to talk a big game.  Remember they are SALES PEOPLE and will be in SALES mode when you are interviewing them. The art of recruiting sales people is figuring out how much of their brag book is fact or fiction. You can accomplish this by asking these 6 questions: what does their product cost?, What is an average size sale? How long is the sales cycle? What was their goal and what did they come in at? How much money did they make? Do the math.  If it doesn't add up, or they cannot give you a straight answer, then you just figured them out. Next….

5.  Don't procrastinate:  Yes, there are a lot of sales people looking for jobs.  But don't get greedy. If you meet a talented individual who meets your criteria, fits into your culture and has proven that they can & want to be a contributing part of your team – HIRE THEM.  Just as quickly as they stepped through your doors they will step out and into your competitors. Ouch!