Everyone knows the B2B Sales buying process has changed and now sales reps have to focus on why and how their product or service will help the prospect to meet his/her business objectives.
To keep up with the changing recruitment trends has forced Sales leaders to turn to strategies and sales methodologies that attract talents who can adapt to this new environment.
CSO Insight’s Sales Talent Study report highlights that it takes sales reps an entire year to reach to their full productivity.
Being a sales recruitment company and working with multiple clients, we’ve gained some learnings and put together these 5 steps to follow while recruiting high-performing sales talents :
1. Build an Ideal Candidate Profile
An Ideal Candidate Profile is not a Job description that is very generic in nature. Instead, focus on the type of sales talent you want in your team.
It’s important that the profile is specific to what your company deems relevant experience and mandatory expectations of the role. This should also cover what is expected out of this role in clear measurable terms.
It’s important your Ideal candidate profile reflects your entire sales ecosystem and how the organization will support the candidate to be successful in the role.
The ICP should also cover
- The key tasks and responsibilities.
- Your company’s products/services
- Total earning potential on achieving 100% of the target
- The culture/vision of your company
- How the candidate will be expected to fit in with your team
2. Attracting Top Talent With a Strong Employer Brand
Compensation alone is not enough to entice top talent to accept your offer.
As we know, all sales professionals has an inherent quality of researching the company and will not take the offer if they do not find enough information about the Employer’s brand.
An “employer brand” is like a company’s corporate brand reputation. Rather than focusing on how customers perceive the brand, an employer brand focuses on how candidates, potential candidates, and current employees regard the company as a place to work.
Your employer brand should encompass all the reasons for a top talent chose to work with you when compared to the competition.
You should focus on below in creating a compelling employer brand:
- Identify what your target candidates is looking for and build the brand around this.
- Make it stand out from the crowd & demonstrate your company’s character, its vision and its mission
- Make sure it is embedded in reality – this will help to attract and retain top talents.
3. Prepare for the Interview Process.
You should follow a consistent selection process and whoever takes part in this selection process should reflect the company culture and all should be at the same level of understanding on the role requirement.
Developing an interviewing strategy that measures your candidate’s unique traits is always the best practice in sales recruitment. This makes sure your hires are a good fit for your company.
You should prepare a scorecard to assess the candidates on the characteristics & traits you’re looking for so that you can compare each one of them.
4. Focus on the Recruitment Process to Be Attractive From Candidate’s Point of View
When hiring sales talents, you need to make the recruitment process appealing to candidates and encourage them to take an interest in the position.
Whether your internal talent acquisition team is sourcing the candidate or you’re using an external Sales Recruitment Agency, in both cases it is important everyone is aligned with ICP and how we make the candidate successful in the role.
5. Put the Candidate Through a Case Study Test
Always in sales recruitment you need to look at the candidate’s past credentials and track record of achievement, but it is always important to put them through real-life case study presentations.
If you want to judge on their market understanding, approach, and objection handling nothing like putting them through a simulated case study presentation that will help you to judge their ability.
6. Extend an Offer Which is Compelling the Candidate to Join
Sales leaders should always remember, hiring is a two-way process where you assess the right talent and expect them to join the team and you still need to convince candidates that your company is the best place for them to be.
You must use the job offer to highlight why the job is a good fit for them, and clearly outline their compensation package and perks of the position.
Candidates who feel valued are more likely to join, perform well and stay long, which saves your recruitment efforts, business time and money on employee turnover.
Hiring a top sales talent can make an immense impact on your company’s overall success in terms of revenue growth. The Sales talent becomes a competitive advantage and helps you win more business.
If you need any support in hiring a top sales talent for your team, we are happy to help you.
