It seems like whenever you hire a new B2B sales person, you end up rolling the dice. The sales industry is well known for its hire turn around rate and it really can seem like a game of chance when you’re trying to pick the right candidate to fill a position. There are numerous B2B sales recruitment challenges you’re going to face, but there is a way to take the element of chance away and be confident in the person you pick.

Finding the Wrong Candidate

This is by far the most problem with B2B sales recruitment. You have a candidate who looks great on paper, says all the right things during the interview process, but when it comes to the daily work process, they can’t make sales. Companies spend billions of dollars every single year on the wrong hires, so you’re not alone, but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.

Recruiters are very beneficial in helping to weed through candidates to get to the right person for the job. They have access to a pool of talent that is proven. This makes B2B sales recruitment much easier and removes the guesswork in the entire process.

Getting a Candidate Who Fails to Understand the Sales Shift

In the past few years, there has been a definite sales shift that requires an entirely new strategy from sales professionals. Gone are the days of the hard-sell and the “don’t take no for an answer” personality type. Today, sales people must be able to build relationships, nurture their leads and be willing to wait for the right opportunity to make that sale. In addition, they’ve got to be willing to find the customer’s problem and offer the right solution.

B2B sales recruitment strategies that do not account for the sales shift are often going to end up being fruitless. Sales recruiters are well aware of the shift and they work on developing talent pools that contain sales staff who understand the shift and know what it takes to make a sale in today’s environment. These candidates are the ones who are going to be successful in your organization, not yesterday’s hard-sell sales people.

Looking for the Wrong Qualities

One of the biggest mistakes made during the B2B sales recruitment process is failing to look for the correct qualities in a sales person. In many cases, HR departments simply do not have the skill-sets necessary for this type of recruitment and they don’t have the time or the training needed to pick out the candidates that are going to be the best sales people.

Sales recruiters on the other hand are highly trained and have learned how to spot the qualities they are looking for. Instead of relying on achievements and empty words on a resume, recruiters know how to ask the right questions to evoke the correct response. They know the psychology behind selling and how to use these techniques to ensure that their B2B sales recruitment strategies are successful. It’s not HR’s fault, they simply do not have the time or the expertise necessary to find these elusive qualities.

If you want to ensure that you are hiring the right candidate and that your organization won’t be among the many spending time, resources and money training the wrong candidates, working with a B2B sales recruitment agency is the best answer. Hiring a sales person doesn’t need to be a game of chance — you can turn it into a game of certainty.