Talent Acquisition

Recruit Now!

While the recovery of the economy after shutdowns is far from done, we are seeing more activity in hiring for many positions across most industries. Hotels, a segment that has been particularly hard hit, are starting to see some improvement in occupancy and revenue per available room, an important metric in the industry. As this continues, the pool of talent we’ve been discussing for several months is shrinking. If at all possible, recruit now!

Photographer: Jake Stark | Source: Unsplash

We’ve been talking about the huge talent pool available for several weeks, if not more. That pool is starting to shrink as companies that are able to begin hiring are doing so. And the talent most important to recovery, as we have been stressing for weeks as well, is sales talent. Great sellers are going to be the key to pulling your business out of the unprecedented downturn we’ve been through. The number of available sellers is shrinking a bit every day. Every hour. Right now.

Therefore, it is time for us to talk about the first step in filling your pipeline with solid candidates to grow your sales team. We’ll focus first on making sure your recruitment ad will attract the right type of candidates. We focus our client’s efforts on seeking money motivated persuaders. And there are certain words and business characteristics that are more appealing to these people than others. It is important that you know them and use them.

The type of person you’re looking for will not be attracted to your ad touting the family atmosphere in your business. This is not to say that they aren’t nice people. Most are as the personality type generally seeks to get along with and influence people. We have many resources to help you write a job ad that will attract the right candidates. This is indeed the important first step in rebuilding a killer sales team. To learn more about how we can help you recruit top performing sellers, click HERE.

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Talent Acquisition

Sales Recruitment: First Things First

One of the first things I ask a new prospect for our service is that they explain to me how they are planning to compensate their new sales representative. Remarkably, it’s not infrequent that they provide some ideas of what they think they’re going to do. I immediately wonder if they are also unsure of exactly what they want their new hire to do.

Anticipatiom
Photographer: Ariel | Source: Unsplash

Failing to develop a compensation plan that really rewards productivity is likely to doom the organization to high turnover of top performers. If your number one seller doesn’t make a LOT more money than the average, count on her to be open to better offers. Sales should be a true meritocracy where the best producers are clearly rewarded and appreciated.

And don’t think that little perks, like an extra day off, will be the same as being compensated monetarily according to performance. A real seller, making six figures, is going to see an extra day off as a cut to his income. Weekend work is routine for top performers. So how is an “extra day off” going to be of any value?

When thinking of compensation plans, first know what you really want the seller to do. Are they responsible for managing existing clients and growing revenue from them? Or are they responsible for developing new accounts? Focus the upside of the plan on achieving the predetermined goal. And don’t be stingy for exceeding the goal. Look for ways you can include profitability bonuses in the compensation plan. A seller who brings in deals more profitable than expected should be able to share in the extra dough. Talk about a motivator! It will make your top performers feel as though they have equity in the business as they’re sharing profits.

Shower rewards on the top performers. To learn more about compensation strategies and its impact on sales recruitment, click HERE.

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Talent Acquisition

Essential Sales Recruitment Elements

Managing a sales organization can be tough. Especially these days. But one thing has and will remain the foundation upon which sales team success is built. Good Sellers!

Photographer: FILMon | Source: Unsplash

The everyday management of a sales team is typically fairly well structured. You have are procedures for doing most things. There is training on how to do things. Performance metrics are tracked through time. Accountability expectations and ways to measure adherence exist. Basically, a sales manager can find some type of system to help manage most elements of running a sales organization.

Recruiting great sellers happens to be one thing that most organizations do not have a systematic approach to reaching defined goals. Why not? All the sales procedures and systems in the world will not help an organization succeed if it lacks strong performing salespeople. The converse is not true. Great sellers will figure out how to sell things and make money, even in an organization that lacks great structure. It’s what great sellers do.

So if you’re hiring salespeople like your father’s generation did, you are likely to have little success. And resumes are worthless for the most part. Prior industry experience is not an indicator of the ability to sell anything. We’ve all probably known, or have even hired, someone from within our industry who bounces from job to job, failing at them all. You can stop this by implementing a sales recruitment strategy that takes emotion out of the equation.

First, you must always be pushing candidates into your pipeline. Next, use profiling to make sure they have characteristics found in top performers. Then interview only those candidates who match your desired profile in a structured way that allows you to compare one candidate against another. And always have a compensation strategy that will attract real closers and keep them working for you for a long time.

If you’d like to learn how to double your success in sales recruitment, click HERE.

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