Finding the Most Qualified Sales Applicants With or Without Industry Experience
Can’t get really good sales applicants to apply? Maybe you’re stuck in the great myth that plagues sales managers all over the world:
Applicants need previous industry sales experience.
People Used to Believe the Earth Was Flat
Let’s examine this belief: Is your top earning rep currently looking to leave?
Ridiculous, right? If you’re doing a good job as a sales manager, the answer better be a resounding “NO!” Your top reps should be making way too much to consider leaving.
Top reps have an established base of business and referrals, so they’re happy. And since life is good for them, they’re not going anywhere.
Any competitor stupid enough to try to recruit them away is going to have to pay a ton.
The myth of successfully hiring a seasoned rep is, well — a myth.
Revolving Door Mediocrity
So what really happens when you recruit for previous industry sales experience?
You’ve seen it firsthand, over and over and over. You get weak salespeople. You get the slugs from your competitor’s team, the people who are not making it.
They’re not bad people. They’re just not cut out for sales. They always think the problem is not them. They figure THE COMPANY is the problem. At THEIR company, all the good accounts have been taken by the top salespeople. They want to work for YOUR company so some of that juiciest fruit will fall to them.
What they don’t realize is, top salespeople go get business. They don’t wait for it to appear on their account list. Mediocre salespeople wait to be told what to do and where to go get it.
And if you hire one of these previous industry sales experience second stringers, you’ll get to be their Daddy or their Mommy.
Full of Piss and Vinegar
Think back to when you were a young first-time salesperson. If you were like me, you were a 23 year old who was looking to make their mark — and you came in early and left late.
My rule was “be in before the boss and leave after he does.”
Being a young, inexperienced rep means you’re coachable. Young people are often two or three years out of school. They’re used to being a student and paying attention to what the instructor says. They want to make their mark.
Not all young applicants should be considered. We’ve developed a strategy for figuring out which ones to interview and which ones never to call back. Click here and watch the video we’ve prepared that shows you the best way to hire salespeople.
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