Nearly every organization performs sales recruiting, but even after a position is filled questions may remain about how sales recruitment works for an ideal hire. All too often, a sales hire does not work out because the principles followed by sales recruiting experts remain unknown. Following are a few insights to how sales recruitment works at experienced sales recruiting agencies – agencies that your organization can use to truly understand how sales recruitment works the next time sales hiring is on the agenda.

Attracting Candidates with Tailored Job Descriptions

The job description is the pivot to how sales recruitment works. An ill-suited sales job description will derail even the most committed sales recruitment effort; knowing this, sales recruiters are prepared to help your organization excel in this difficult but critical task.

• A good sales job description attracts the interest of qualified candidates while discouraging candidates who do not meet the qualifications.
• It thoroughly covers the position needs and highlights so that candidates know what to expect.
• Finally, a well-written sales job description gives an overview of the organization to encourage qualified candidates to take the final step and apply.

Approaching Candidates with Targeted Recruitment Drives

It is important to use recruiting methods aside from sales job postings on recruiting boards. Experienced and mid-level sales people rarely look to these postings to find a new position; in fact, until they know of an outstanding opportunity, these candidates might not even be actively seeking a career change. These qualified applicants require different approaches to how sales recruitment works.

Organizations can reach these sales people with targeted recruitment drives that utilize company or industry specific job fairs, peer networking, and sales recruiter databases to reach an even wider audience of potential new sales people. Sales recruitment agencies have the most experience in leveraging these methods cost effectively as part of how sales recruitment works, and can put this experience at your organization’s disposal.

Screening Candidates Supports Sales Recruitment Success

When addressing how sales recruitment works, too few organizations cover the necessary activities of screening sales candidates. To focus on the highest quality candidates, organizations should screen each application prior to scheduling interviews not just on basic qualifications, but the likelihood of each applicant to have the more difficult to measure but nonetheless important character traits sought. Furthermore:

• Scheduling telephone interviews prior to in-person interviews can save time and resources; sales recruiting agencies can even handle telephone interviews for you.
• In-person interviews should be thorough, including at least two decision-makers whenever possible.
• Testing hard skills such as software knowledge and soft skills as in personality testing can be scheduled prior to an in-person interview for further time and cost savings.

Combating Turnover with Sales Recruitment

One of the major goals of sales recruitment is to reduce turnover. Turnover is disruptive as resources diverted to re-training new sales people detract from the business of selling. Whether a position is temporary, contract, or permanent, sales recruiters work to ensure that candidates are committed for the expected duration of the placement, with flexibility should the timeline or goals of the position change. This is done by:

• Providing minimum training and orientation prior to the position start date, so that expectations are clear.
• Ensuring candidates have the means and commitment to transportation during the expected working hours.
• Confirming that candidates have the necessary skills and knowledge to perform through skills testing and other measures.

The best sales recruiting agencies offer training opportunities to their talent, and sales recruiters who can also specialize in difficult to fill and highly sought after positions provide even further advantages. The sales recruiting agency your organization chooses should be able to explain how sales recruitment works according to their process, which should be a match to your organization’s needs. Understanding the process will help your organization adjust its approach to how sales recruitment works to earn the strongest possible results.