Your organization’s sales recruitment process is integral to the success of your sales team and ultimately, your business. If your sales recruitment process is not regularly delivering outstanding candidates to your door, it is a sign that you have an opportunity to make adjustments so that you can routinely attract and recruit the best sales people in your industry. The following three keys to a great sales recruitment process will help you determine where to begin.

Key #1 to a Great Sales Recruitment Process: A Focus on Finding the Right Sales Person for Your Organization

There are many highly talented and qualified sales people currently seeking opportunities in the job market. The unrecognized problem for organizations working to attract these candidates is that not all of them are the right sales person for a given opening. Your business is unique and has unique requirements, so finding the right sales person means that your sales recruitment process needs to develop candidates who have qualifications and characteristics other than the ability to sell. These factors could include:

• A motivation to sell that comes from a passion for the work, rather than external stimulus like incentives
• A combination of experience and personality that have prepared a candidate to excel in your company’s distinctive culture
• An ability to move forward with your company, assuming greater levels of responsibility while making lasting contributions to revenue

To succeed in finding candidates that meet these requirements, your sales recruitment process should incorporate interview techniques that examine candidates’ motivators and work environment preferences. Implementing personality screening can also assist your company in finding the right sales person for an opportunity.

Key #2 to a Great Sales Recruitment Process: Creating an Efficient System to Retain Candidate Interest throughout the Hiring Process

Depending on the position to be filled and the candidate response to a position posting, the hiring process can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. This creates an issue for organizations seeking top quality talent since the best sales people regularly receive multiple competitive offers; organizations that are tied up in an inefficient sales recruitment process will lose out to competitors able to make a timelier offer. Avoid this problem by developing an efficient sales recruitment process, eliminating unnecessary steps and looking for more time and cost effective methods for interviewing, screening, and other routine tasks. Your company may also see better results if an effort is made keep in contact with top choice candidates throughout the process.

Key #3 to a Great Sales Recruitment Process: A Willingness to Make Adjustments to the Sales Recruitment Process As Needed

One of the major drivers behind sales recruitment process breakdown is a failure to recognize that the job market is constantly changing. The organizations hiring, the candidates searching, and the typical structure of compensation evolve quarter to quarter and year to year. Organizations that do not recognize that a successful sales recruitment process needs regular maintenance to fall in line with the expectations of top candidates and compete with other recruiting organizations will not see consistent hiring results. Your company should work to ensure that:

• Job descriptions and other written materials distributed through recruiting channels are regularly updated for accuracy as well as to generate candidate interest
• Compensation packages are competitive with offerings from competitors and with top hiring organizations outside of your company’s core industry
• Your sales recruitment process is generating measurable results by regularly assessing the quality and longevity of candidates at each stage in the process

Sales recruitment firms are able to consistently deliver qualified and motivated candidates to the organizations for which they work because sales recruitment firms understand that the evolving job market requires a sales recruitment process that can evolve as necessary. If your sales recruitment process is not where you want it to be, contact a sales recruitment firm experienced in your industry today to improve your recruiting results tomorrow.