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Watch this 1 minute video revealing a common but terribly detrimental mistake often made by sales managers.
CLICK HERE to set up a time to talk to me about how we can help you have more success in the important business function of sales team recruiting.
I can be absolutely 100% certain about one thing with respect to all top salespeople across every industry. They all had a first job in sales. They were all hired without ANY previous sales experience whatsoever. I cannot count the number of times I’ve been told by a sales recruiting manager that they are only interested in candidates who have previous sales or industry experience. Why they would want to limit their potential candidate pool by eliminating a bunch of people destined to be top sales performers at some point in their career? Most industries, with some good product knowledge training and some basic sales skills training, can bring on a new person who has the mind and guts of a seller. And that’s where the world of sales recruiting and college recruiting become a great match.
It is remarkable how different the job outlook is today for college graduates as opposed to how it looked just a couple months ago. Exiting school, graduates now face the highest unemployment rate in generations.
Let’s talk for a minute about a philosophy that might be foreign or even a little scary to you. It is entirely possible that your next top seller served you lunch yesterday at that business lunch yesterday. You should look EVERYWHERE for candidates. Disregard your previous belief that only an experienced seller can sell your product. A great seller can sell any product. And presented with a solid compensation strategy, you can make it so they’ll stay with you forever.
Let’s finish up going back to college. There is a tremendous number of bright young candidates coming out of school and looking to begin their career. They’ll be hungry to learn and to earn. And, using a good online recruitment strategy, they can be reached in huge numbers very quickly. To conclude, some well planned sales training from you or one of the many online sales training options, you should be able to find some really solid candidates coming out of college who can develop from a great waiter into your top seller before you know it.
Video Rant #6 How To Create a Terrific Salesperson Recruiting Tool
Before they ever start actual recruiting, good sales hirers sit down and really plan out a new hire’s career, every step of the way. They project what the new successful rep can and should earn in each of their first 5 years in the business.
Most of us who have been sales managers have put together sales projections. Year after year, we write stuff down on our spreadsheets. But then when we get to the end of the year, turns out it’s not all that accurate. The trick is, you have to start at the most granular level in order to wind up with a reasonably accurate projection. And a good, accurate five-year compensation plan and projection is a terrific recruiting tool for you.
You go through year by year and realistically project what kind of activity they’ll be required to do, reasonable activity for a serious salesperson. Then lay that up against a solid closing ratio. Figure year by year, what this new salesperson is going to earn for you. And then based on your comp plan, how much will they earn for themselves?
Look at sales help wanted ads. Lots of claims about earning big money. Consider the power YOU get by saying, “Listen, if you make 4 presentations a day, 5 days a week, and you have a reasonable closing ratio, then your first year, you can expect to earn $65,000.”
And then, depending on your product or service, from the 2nd year on, you show what they earn each year, plus the residual income from prior years. When you can show an applicant what they’ll be earning five years out, your sales position is suddenly seen very differently from the others. Seven year, ten year, long-term clients tell me that a codified sales hiring system makes a big impression on applicants. They get better quality applicants accepting their sales position than ever before. When an applicant sees that you really projected out, it gives them confidence in your promises.
Everybody wants 6 figures. But unless it’s a super lucrative sale and you’re hiring senior sales reps, it’s tough to project $100,000 first year. Depends on the market. We’ve got clients in Minnesota. More elk than people there. Cost of living is way lower than it is for our clients in New Jersey. So it depends on market. If they’ve got a shot at 6 figures in the 2nd or 3rd year, I think that’s reasonable.
Most of these ads that claim $100,000 income have nothing behind that number. No research. No science. The applicant knows it’s BS. But when you show a projection and reasonable benchmarks they can really hit to get to $150,000 in year 5, you overcome their resistance to a performance-based compensation agreement. Suddenly, it all looks very doable.
And you have an approach that wows your applicants and eliminates your competition.
This is Alan Fendrich with Advanced Hiring System. Give me a call.
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