Better sales come from better sales hiring. Your competition knows this. You do, too. Which one of you is taking sales hiring seriously enough to stay on top? Instead of fearing what methods your competition is utilizing to outsell you, focus on what you can do to build the best sales team on your own turf.

Attract the top performing sales people better than the other guy does. Your job posting ads have got to be stellar. Job advertisements need to give potential sales employees the message that your company is where great salespeople thrive. Grab them with powerful headlines. Reel them in with the genuine promise of great benefits and rewards. Take it seriously that better sales depend on employing better salespeople. When your competition is offering better benefits in an enticing way, the top sales performers are less likely to move in your direction. Write great job ads. Include details of great benefits. They will come.

Know that interview questions for sales people are only part of the successful sales hiring equation. Add the sales aptitude test to your sales hiring practices. Better sales come from salespeople who have certain values. Learn what those values are through the AHS Sales Hiring Course. Analyze the sales aptitude test results to make the best sales hiring decisions possible. This extra step can make a company far more successful at hiring top sales performers than their competition.

Always treat top sales performers as some of the greatest assets to your company’s success. When you put together your interview questions for sales people, ask some questions about what the applicant values in their work life. Great salespeople tend to gravitate toward a company that offers them opportunities for money and power. They also want to work for a company that respects them, brags about them and lets them try new ways to make better sales. Treat them with as much respect and flexibility you can to keep them on your team. If you don’t, your competition is out there getting better at learning how to lure them away.

You should always be prepared to interview a great sales candidate, even when you’re not currently planning to hire. It’s possible your competition isn’t doing a great job with sales hiring or keeping their top performers satisfied in the job. Be ready to spot great talent when it presents itself and you’ll definitely have the advantage.

If that headline made you click open this article, it’s probably because you are money-motivated. Guess what? So are the top performing salespeople you hope to hook with your job listing headlines, too. So is the headline above true, as all headlines should be? Yes, indeed. If you use great headlines for your job listings and advertisements, you could increase your company’s annual sales. Significant sales increases happen when you hire money-motivated persuaders your headlines could successfully attract.

It’s all in the details.

Writing eye-catching headlines for job listings first takes into consideration the values and personalities of those you’re trying to recruit. Top sales performers want money, power and quick rewards. Give some enticing details in your job listing headlines that will appeal to those values. Prospective employees are often skimming those job listings. If the headline is too vague, it won’t catch their interest. Point out perks that will have them salivating for an interview.

“Our Top Salesperson Earned over $138,000 Last Year. We’re Looking for People Who Want More.”

“We Took Our Sales Team to Maui for Record-Breaking Increases. Your next Hawaiian Shirt Could Be On Us.”

“Did Your Last Employer Promote Their Top Salespeople Quickly? We Do.”

Use important key words.

Think about the ways in which the best salespeople would define themselves. What traits would they say they have that make them great at what they do? Those are the key words you might use in your ad headlines to attract those specific personalities.

• Persuasive
• Enthusiastic
• Independent
• Determined
• Convincing
• Strong-willed

“Are You Persuasive, Enthusiastic and Convincing?”

“If You’re Strong-willed and Determined, We Want to Hear from You.”

When in doubt, show them the money.

If writing enticing headlines feels like a daunting task, stick to the simplest detail that every excellent salesperson combing job listings is looking for. Just mention the money. Nobody works harder for great income than the money-hungry top sales performers you want to hire.

“If You Want Less Than a $140,000 a Year, We’re Not the Right Company for You” (Explain in your ad content that your top sales performer cleared $140,000 recently and you’re not interested in hiring salespeople who wouldn’t strive for that and more.)

“Our Sales Team Earned Over One Million Dollars in Total Income Last Year. How Much Of That Million Should Be Yours?”

Always be honest in headline and job listing copy. You want to attract top sales performers with the truth in order to hire and keep them for many sales-increasing years to come.

Think you know what to look for in top salespeople and how to find them? Test your knowledge with our five questions below. You might be surprised that you share some of the most common misconceptions about how to hire a great sales team.

1. A salesperson’s skills matter more than their values. True or False?

That statement is false. Skills are important, but they can be learned. Values are what motivate top sales performers to keep striving to succeed. Make sure your sales applicants have similar values that top sales performers do. What are those values? Keep reading.

1. The top two values a great salesperson should have are commitment and confidence. True or False?

No doubt, those are two important qualities in a top sales performer, but they aren’t the values at the very top of the list. You want to hire salespeople who value money and power. When they strive for great wealth, they bring great wealth to your company. When they work toward the power positions of sales performers at the top of their game, these salespeople will do what it takes to achieve success for your business.

1. Only interview new salespeople when you have a job opening. True or False?

You should always be interviewing new sales talent with potential for greatness. Hiring the best sales performers means being open to finding them even when you don’t have job listings posted.

1. You can learn a lot about an applicant’s abilities and value to your company through their resume. True or False?

Though handy as a quick reference for the applicant’s experience, the resume itself is worthless in determining a salesperson’s value to your business. You must interview and perhaps even test the applicant for the values, personality traits and skills the sales job requires. For more information about conducting a proper job interview, become a member of the AHS Sales Hiring Course.

1. Your goal isn’t to find people who sell themselves to you. Instead, you want applicants with an entrepreneurial spirit who can overcome adversity and keep their emotions in check. True or False?

This statement is true. Great salespeople are leaders who can face challenges without taking things personally. We call these salespeople “A Players” and you want them on your team. Pay more attention to those qualities than to whether or not they “sold” you on themselves in the interview process.

To hire successful salespeople you need to be willing to do it differently than your competitors. Move past the old misconceptions and you’ll have a much better sales team for it.