Top sales performers are always looking to achieve greater success, with more wealth, perks and power. They will be paying close attention to the benefits you offer, so you need to emphasize those benefits in your job postings and applicant interviews.

If you think the benefits of being on your sales team aren’t competitive enough, consider adding some incentives top salespeople will be attracted to.

Here are some questions to consider when pulling together a list of the benefits you have to offer.

• Is your company’s commission structure very generous? Top salesmen and saleswomen value money a great deal and you want them to. If your sales commission benefits aren’t up to par with that of your competitors, it will be tough to build one of the best sales teams in the business. If you do have a great commission structure, make that a priority mention in your job listing to attract great salespeople to your door.

• Is it common for top sales performers in your company to succeed quickly? Excellent salespeople want accolades and advancement opportunities. They work harder when recognition and rewards come fast. If that’s a benefit of working on your sales team, you’ve got a definite edge over your competitors who might offer slower career advancement.

• Do you usually promote from within? Play up the benefit of employee loyalty if your company typically promotes from within. You’ll attract salespeople who will want to stick with you for the long-term.

• Is your business locally-owned and based? Sometimes a locally-owned business has advantages over corporations. Brainstorm what you think your locally-owned benefits are over your larger competitors and proudly boast about them. Something as simple as family-oriented employee events hosted by your business can attract salespeople who have spouses and children.

• Does your company sell something that’s hot in the marketplace right now? Excite potential sales hires about the popular products or services they would be selling for you. If what your company sells isn’t a hot product, could it be considered a better alternative to a fad? Think of creative ways to sell your products to your salespeople and they’ll want to sell them for you.

• Is your company considered a recognized industry leader in their field? Use quotes from reputable publications and other sources when making this claim, for validity. A great reputation for being an industry leader certainly attracts better applicants, so make this detail prominent in your job listings.

• Does your company offer additional health benefits, like vision insurance? Every extra health insurance perk is beneficial in attracting and keeping great employees. Let people you offer the job to know if services like preventative care and medications are covered on their health plans with your company.

• Do you provide regular free or discounted training opportunities for the sales team? Consistent trainings and courses for sales staff to enhance skills and education are vital to your company’s growth and success. If you provide the means for your employees to attend webinars, conferences, and other trainings make that clear to applicants, as well.

Attracting a lot of applications for job listings you post during tough economic times might be pretty easy. However, your goal isn’t to attract a lot of applications. You want to attract the right applicants; a team of top salespeople who want to work for the company who offers great benefits and rewards for excellent sales performance.

A dynamic, driven salesperson is an asset to any sales team. Certain personality traits can make a salesperson near unstoppable. When you look at your own sales team – or applicants for sales job openings in your company – how closely do you pay attention to their personality traits? We think it’s about time you made personality a priority. Along with the values of your sales staff, specific personality traits can make or break great sales.

Dr. William Moulton Marston (1893-1947) was an American psychologist who developed the DISC assessment behavioral model used today by professionals like doctors, educators, employers and sales managers for personality analysis. DISC stands for Drive (or Dominance), Influence, Steadiness and Compliance (or Conscientiousness).

The DISC assessment questionnaire is often given to sales job applicants before hiring decisions are made. This assessment helps the sales manager determine if the potential employee has the kind of personality traits a high percentage of top sales performers display.

• Drive – The ego drive. The salesperson’s desire to overcome obstacles in order to achieve what they want.
• Influence – Your sales employee’s ability to communicate with others in a way that makes people comfortable and convinces them to act.
• Steadiness – The ability to adapt to the current conditions or environment, like having to sit at a desk in one location all day.
• Compliance – The salesperson’s relationship with the rules in place. Do they feel rules are set in stone or can they be manipulated to better suit a circumstance or get the sale?

Using DISC assessment tests can help sales managers determine the personality mix of their sales team. Knowing this information could help:

• Build better sales teams
• Resolve conflicts
• Create awareness that allows a salesperson or sales manager to adapt better to the needs of the job or the team
• Support healthier interactions

So what are some of the personality traits you’re looking for? You’re looking for a blend of a salespersons drive, influence, steadiness and compliance traits which allow them to communicate well with your company’s clients for better sales. The AHS Sales Hiring Course further discusses how to measure a sales applicant’s personality style. By analyzing DISC assessment graphs, you can successfully determine which applicants have the personality style like those of top sales performers.

Taking the extra steps to assess the personality traits of your salespeople can be the difference between hiring top sales performers and average sales performers. Your business could depend on it.

It’s possible to hire sales people who will outperform your average employees without using any complicated hiring procedure that’s costly to implement. Advanced Hiring System shows you how. All you have to do is change your sales hire system.

Why Do Your Hire Sales People?

You probably want more sales. Who doesn’t? But you have to ask yourself a few other critical questions before starting to accept job applications.

• What salesperson do I want to hire? What qualities am I looking for in him or her?
• What makes a good salesperson? Do I have any success stories in my company that I could take as model?
• How much can I pay my best salespersons? Can I afford to hire the top performers? Will they be content with what I can offer them? Why would they prefer to work with me and not my competitors?

It’s important to have answers to all these questions before you hire sales people, if you expect to make your hiring process more effective, and so reach to the top performers out there.

The DISC Assessment

DISC is a behavioral model based on the work of psychologist William Marston. It’s the most used business personality assessment model, and many will say that it’s the best.

You have probably used the DISC assessment already when hiring sales people – almost all sales managers do. Advanced Hiring System relies on the DISC model, but expands on it, making it an even more effective personality assessment that will help you hire sales people who outperform your existing sales department employees.

What Makes a Good Salesperson?

The right values and the right personality. While every salesperson is ultimately unique, there’s one thing that all salespersons have in common: a drive for money and power. That’s why, using the DISC model, you want to find and then interview those applicants who have a strong tendency for money and power.

But that’s not all. To hire sales people who will outperform the rest you have to compare your applicants’ personality with that of proven top salespersons. In this way you can spot those few applicants who have the most potential, and who you really want to interview. When comparing personality styles, you really want to look at the graphs, which provide the most conclusive evidence.

Advanced Hiring System

Advanced Hiring System proposes a simple method to compare personality styles quickly and effectively, so that the application screening process, with its search for the top performers, will go smoothly, even when you have to deal with many candidates.

The system includes styles analysis graphs, as well as the success insight wheel. To learn why candidates who score in the conductor and promoter areas of the wheel are good, and why those who score in the persuader area are great, check the Advanced Hiring System sales hiring course.

To hire sales people who will surpass your expectations you need to use the right hiring system. Great candidates are always there, the tricky part is to identify them. And Advanced Hiring System does just that – with it the sales hire process becomes a lot easier, and much more effective.