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Money-Motivated Salespeople No Longer Wanted

There’s a total piece of nonsense floating around that somehow, we no longer want money-motivated salespeople. Nothing is more ridiculous than this statement, but we have heard it batted around like it is gospel.

Here’s the truth: Yes, it’s true that millennials are very cause-oriented and they need to feel as if they are a part of the bigger picture. If you’re looking to hire designers, programmers or customer service representatives from millennials, you better help them see the job from the bigger perspective of how it serves society.

Nonetheless, salespeople who are primarily focused on bettering society will be mediocre performers. Everyone who buys from them (and there won’t be many who do) will love them. But it will take two of them (and double the draw, the expenses, the taxes) to get the production of one money-motivated seller.

You see, sales is tough work. There’s a ton of drudgery in sales and you’ve got to keep on even when things aren’t closing the way you expect them to. That’s just sales. You need to toughen up to get results.

If your salespeople are money-motivated, they have set an earning goal to make them feel fulfilled. Until they hit that goal, they’re going to keep dialing or knocking on doors – or however your sales process works.

They don’t give up easily unlike someone who could no longer find meaning in what he/she is doing. Saving the world is not in a salesperson’s agenda. Salespeople belong to the highly practical group – they mean business, always.

Salespeople who are not money-motivated sell less. We’ve been proving it to our more than 2000 clients for nearly 16 years. And on the surface, it may look like things have changed especially with the culture of millenials in the picture but fortunately; we can sleep easy thinking that some things remain the same. Money-motivated salespeople are, and will always be, wanted.

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Millennials, Talent Acquisition

3 Effective College Graduate Recruiting Strategies

The demand and competition for jobs have never been higher. The same goes for expectations, especially from today’s recent college graduates.

Salary alone will no longer attract and retain talent. College graduates want fair compensation and praise like everyone else. But strong candidates also thrive for authenticity, meaningful communication, recognition opportunities, work-life balance, and room for failure and growth.

In this article, we’ll dive into why you should hire college grads as well as 3 effective graduate recruiting strategies your company can put into practice.

Why Hire College Graduates?

“The recent college graduate offers fresh ideas, new technology perspectives, and project energy at a more affordable price.” – Shawn Bohner, professor and director of software engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Millennials, and already Generation Alpha, have a strong level of comfort and comprehension of technology and social media.

The “it’s just the way we do things around here” mentality doesn’t cut it either. Instead, college graduates aren’t afraid to ask the hard questions.

They also seek innovation, synergy among teams, high-risk assignments, and roles in leadership.

3 Effective Graduate Recruiting Strategies

What makes a graduate recruiting strategy effective in the first place?

Well, it certainly requires thorough planning, training, and advertising. But it won’t begin to pay off until you are able to connect with the right candidates early, demonstrate your appeal as a company, and streamline your process through recruiting software.

Build Relationships Early Through Internships

Don’t wait until graduation day to start your recruiting efforts.

Plant your garden early by offering internships and career development programs during the school year. This will help build positive brand awareness, create strong relationships with students, and ideally keep your company at the forefront of their minds when it comes time to apply for jobs.

“I like to think of [internships] as a two-to-three month interview.” – Liz Wessel, University of Pennsylvania graduate and CEO of WayUp

Internships offer companies more than a helping hand. They allow you to test new relationships before fully committing. They also save you time and money that would have been invested in on-campus recruiting.

Also, according to research conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, new college hires are more likely to work for an employer that they have already interned. Without question, developing an internship program suitable for your company and recruiting goals is indispensable.

Successful examples of internship-to-employment programs include Oracle’s Class Of Program, which puts a twist on the traditional internship model. After recruiting candidates from the recent graduate pool, the program focuses on developing skills across departments and disciplines to help new hires grow into careers at Oracle. In turn, they shape participants into successful assets to the company.

Structuring your internship program to offer enriching opportunities can help attract top talent and encourage professional investment in your company for long-standing careers.

“[New college grads] have this infectious enthusiasm, and I thought we should have the same thing at Oracle… When you’re around all that enthusiasm, it’s infectious to the whole company.” – Mark Hurd, Baylor University graduate and CEO of Oracle

Create a Millennial-Friendly Workplace

When recruiting millennial employees, it’s important to consider their mindset and which workplace factors may appeal to them.

According to the Harvard Business Review, more than 50% of millennials find the opportunity to learn and grow, quality of manager, quality of management, and interest in the type of work to be extremely important when applying for a job.

This is largely because millennials have a strong sense of optimism and desire to make a positive impact in their communities. So, they want to get behind a company with a similar purpose and ideals.

At the same time, they recognize the importance of keeping a healthy lifestyle and balancing personal and social priorities with professional ones.

If you’re set on recruiting recent college grads, then start by creating a millennial-friendly workplace.

Career Development

New grads are eager to grow and learn as much as possible. Proper training and mentorship programs can motivate them to stick with your company long-term.

Also, schedule regular 1-on-1 meetings to check in on how they’re doing. This dedicated time will help build rapport, make them feel more appreciated, and allow you to field questions about their career in the company.

Sociability

Millennials want work to be a part of their social lives, and that’s when they’re the happiest.

According to Forbes, more than 70% of millennials want their coworkers to function like a second family. Create a fun and welcoming work environment that encourages everyone across the company to connect with one another.

Break down walls among your staff by setting up blind coffee dates, where 2 or more coworkers spend an hour getting to know each other on company time. You can also arrange potlucks or ask icebreaker questions during team huddles to help establish these relationships.

Make sure to recap social events, team building activities, or other fun company highlights on social media. This will help build positive brand awareness and serve as a strong recruitment tool for candidates looking for a fun place to work.

Flexibility

Millennials are willing to take an unconventional approach to work – working from home, in cafes, outdoors – if that allows them to achieve a better work-life balance.

The traditional 9-5 is quickly becoming a thing of the past for innovative organizations. Flexible working times can give employees a sense of control over their day and greater satisfaction in their role.

Streamline Your Process with AI Recruiting Technology

Recruiting and hiring college grads differs from traditional recruiting because their experience is limited both in job history and in the application process.

Through AI recruiting technology, you can automate the internal screening process to move qualified candidates down the funnel. You can then use the insights gathered from machine learning to better understand your audience and the effectiveness of your job postings.

Also, instead of being quick to critique and gloss over applicants, this help eliminates recruiter bias that might have unconsciously played a role in past outreach efforts.

Recruit Talented College Graduates with Advanced Hiring System

Advanced Hiring System has been using AI recruiting technology since 2001, and has helped over 2,000 companies of all sizes across all industries recruit sales superstars. The New York Times, Disney, iHeartRadio, MetLife, and more.

Don’t lose money on another bad hire. With our proven 3-step process and graduate recruiting strategies, your company will have the foundation in place to successfully attract high achievers.

Sign up for our free webinar and in 10 minutes, you can learn how to effectively achieve your business goals.

Alan Fendrich

This blog post was co-written by Maddie Davis, co-founder of Enlightened Digital and tech-obsessed female from the Big Apple. She lives by building and redesigning websites and reading anything and everything on the New York Times Best Seller list.

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Profiling Mistakes When Hiring a Sales Person

Long before there were electric lights, the ancient Greeks identified that different people have different personality styles. This personality style typing has become much more sophisticated since Greece’s golden age.

Computers make profiling a lot easier for us. Today, in less than 20 minutes, you can get a very accurate reading on what your sales applicants’ personality styles are.

Among the 2000+ clients we have, there are quite a few who started out thinking that “profiling doesn’t work.” But when we looked at how they had been taught to use them, it became clear why they hadn’t gotten laser sharp results from implementing a 100% profiling policy for sales hiring.

So for the benefit of those who have doubts about the effectiveness of profiling, we are sharing with you essential tips on how to make it a success:

  1. We recommend that you profile all applicants before you look at their backgrounds. You should find out what makes them tick first.
  2. Use a validate instrument – this should be obvious, but there’s a lot of snake oil out there in the world. It’s best to be cautious at all times.
  3. First, profile applicants for CORE Values – What do they get out of bed for in the morning? Make sure they are High Practicals where Money or Power is number 1 priority for them.
  4. Next, profile applicants for CORE Style – whether they enjoy persuasion and don’t find it tedious OR if it’s not their cup of tea. You are hiring long-term talents here; people who don’t like persuasion burn out in a sales job.

 

The use of profiles makes setting up a sales hiring system easier. You are able to review more applicants more quickly. You’re not going to miss hidden gem applicants and you’re not going to get fooled by faked-up resumes or polished LinkedIn profiles.

The bottom line: You’re going to make more money per salesperson with correct profiling and guess where that leads? More profit for your business!

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