It’s pretty obvious, but few in HR get it. Unless you’re offering a monstrous signing bonus, remove the line “previous sales experience.” It should not appear in your ad.

Yesterday I was talking with a client, Chris, we’ve worked his with Financial Services company for more than 6 years. I called him because his sales applicant volume had doubled. What had he done to cause such an explosion in applicants?

He chucked, “I was finally able to convince the powers that be to try your advice. We finally dropped ‘previous sales experience required.'”

To boot, more stars are applying as a percentage than before the change. (We can see the quality of his applicants in Member Area stats.)

You can find out more here 

Here’s why you should remove “previous sales experience” from your ad:

Ask any experienced sales manager to count his best hires. Most have no previous sales experience. Our stats show less than 10%. Most of the greatest sales hires have a burning desire to make money and are willing to do what it takes. You are 9x more likely to find a star without previous experience.

Top performers in sales are making money and getting all the good leads where they are. Unless their current company is a disaster, good salespeople are on track to make more if they stay put. Good comp plans reward longevity.

Great training exists for newbies if you’re not up for the job of training. If you need a list of the real trainers, contact me and I’ll give you my list. We’ve been working with sales trainers for 16 years. Most are a waste of time. The good ones are worth getting to know.

We’ve got a checklist you can use to improve your sales hiring results here

How to Get a Flood of the Best Sales Applicants You’ve Ever Seen   

Before the Internet, if you wanted 100 applicants to apply for a sales job, your company needed to be in New York or LA. But today your business can be anywhere and you’ll still get a flood of applicants.

The key is to write an ad that welcomes the studs and chases away the slugs.

Most sales ads are too general.

They waver when describing what the applicant gets for applying to work at your company.

Most sound like an HR job description. They list everything the applicant has to do or have done. There is nothing about what the applicants get.

Help Wanted – Sales Ads in Monster  Just Plain Suck

Scan the Ads in Monster.  The ads all look alike and none talk to top sales performers.  (NOTE: We have found Monster to be a poor choice to advertise a sales job.)

To draw large numbers of the “right” applicants you’ve got to talk to your applicants. Tell them you believe sales talent is the rarest and most important talent in the business.

Talk about how you are looking to give them what they want most.

Top sales talent wants money and power. Tell them how your company is a money and power factory for top sales talent.

Prove the money part by giving specific numbers. Tell them what the highest-paid salesperson in your company earns. Or if you’re a new company, tell them what they’ll earn based on your compensation strategy.

And don’t buy the BS that Millenials don’t want money, that they’re looking to serve humanity. Top salespeople are High Practicals. Weak salespeople want to be loved. Strong salespeople want to close business and earn more money.

Want to see all the steps to hiring salespeople who can close deals — and make you a ton of money? We’ve prepared a video that gives you step by step instructions.

Start Hiring Great Salespeople
Download our Sales Hiring Roadmap & 3-Video Series To See How You Can Start Now

In the sales hiring process, the biggest challenge is managing your time investment. Anybody who has experienced sitting in an interview with a candidate who’s a total dud knows what that feels like.

The challenge is figuring out who you want to speak with and who to ignore from your applicants.

Top performers have similar beliefs and values.

We know this from having profiled nearly 200,000 applicants. When we’ve gone through and asked clients to profile their top performers, we’ve seen a 90% positive correlation. Not a misprint.

According to Abraham Maslow, the Father of American Psychology, salespeople are high practicals.

Great salespeople don’t wake up, open their eyes and say, “How can I serve humanity?”

Top salespeople wake up, open their eyes and ask themselves, “Where’s the Money” or “Where’s the Power?”

Money and power are two things that motivate genuine salespeople. They breathe a unique air from ordinary people. Every encounter with another human being is considered an opportunity to strike a deal or make a sale.

Power – Top performers are looking for a greater sense of control of their environment. Saving the whales is very low on their list. Yet sales hirers consistently choose salespeople who are not high practicals – and then wonder why their new hires can’t sell anything.

Money – People who are great at sales are always looking for the money. If they can’t find it, they create opportunities where they can get it. Money is a great motivation because it compels salespeople to be resourceful and ingenious in their methods. They don’t listen to a NO answer. All they hear is a YES.

Stop talking to applicants who don’t have money and power as their top values — if there ever was a secret in sales that’s worth revealing, it is this. You want to hire brilliant salespeople? Pay attention to what motivates them and show them the money.