If you’re part of a sales organization, you know how important proper sales recruitment is. Without successful recruitment strategies and tools, you won’t be able to find and hire the top sales talent in the industry.

Recruitment firms specialize in finding the right sales rep for the right job, so you know your sales recruitment will be tailored to your business needs. However, using a bad agency can cause you more headaches than it’s worth. So how do you find the best sales rep recruitment agency? Check out our tips below.

Specialty

Sales recruitment firms often dedicate their time solely to one or two types of industries or sales positions. If you know that your sales rep is going to need to understand the ins and outs of your industry in order to be successful, you should look for an agency that specializes in hiring for your type of industry.

Additionally the role you’re looking to fill—whether that’s selling services, selling products, B2B, B2C, or anything else—will affect the firm you choose. Your agency should be intimately familiar with the requirements needed for the position you’re trying to fill. Ask about agencies’ other clients and relationships within the industry to understand where they stand and what their speciality may be.

Experience

Experience not only goes a long way for the sales rep you’re going to hire, but also for the recruitment agency you’re going to engage. If the firm doesn’t have experience dealing with the type of business that you own, you might run into problems.

You want an agency with tested and true sales recruitment methods, not one that is still testing out its strategies. An experienced agency will also have more connections, so it can find you candidates in untapped markets. The more experienced the agency is, the better luck you’ll have for finding the right candidate.

Sales Recruitment Process

Each agency will have a unique way of headhunting. Some may find candidates at employment fairs, others may look at recent grads, while others might just focus on online job boards.

Additionally, the way an agency then screens its candidates can lead to drastically different results. A thorough screening process will more successfully weed out the wrong applicants so that only the top candidates are left, while a poor screening process—or none at all—can cause you to hire a sales rep that isn’t right for your company. If a sales recruitment agency is presenting ten candidates to you, it’s a sign that its screening process isn’t effective—you should only be looking at the top three or four applicants per role. Make sure you understand exactly how an agency finds, screens, and prioritizes its candidates if you want to hire only the best agency.

Customer Service

Naturally, customer service is important in every facet of the business world. However, when it comes to hiring a new sales rep for your company, any wasted time can lead to lowered profitability and productivity within your sales force.

The best sales recruitment agencies will be quick to respond to your inquires and will be totally focused on finding you the right candidate as soon as possible. Their customer service skills will be evident right from the start—if you’ve left a message and it takes days for someone to get back to you, you can assume that they won’t be able to meet your needs in a timely manner if you were to get into business with them. A great recruitment agency focuses on your needs and takes the time to build a relationship with you.

Whether you are just starting out, have an empty position to fill, or want to expand, having the top sales people on staff is vital to your company’s profitability. In order to find the best sales rep you should be engaging the best recruitment agency.