Sales is one of the most difficult fields to hire for. Every company wants to hire stellar sales reps who can consistently hit or surpass their sales targets. Unfortunately, even though there are millions of sales professionals in the country, only a select few will actually be assets to the companies they work for. Most will be duds who couldn’t sell water to a man in a desert.

Turnover is high in sales because of this reason. Even if you think you’ve found the right candidate to hire, you often end up disappointed when things don’t work out. What are the chances that you’ll really find a top performer who has an above average performance history, the right skills, the right experience, and the right personality that wants to join your company? It’s almost like chasing after mythical unicorns. It seems impossible because top performers are so rare in the sales field, and the ones that are great at what they do are hard to find.

Unfortunately though, bad hires could result in lost business opportunities, lost customers, reduced productivity, wasted time, and skyrocketing hiring and training costs. After all of the time, effort, and resources you put into your hiring process, you have to go back to the drawing board to find a replacement.

You have to avoid these consequences by ensuring that you hire right the first time.

So what can you do to make hiring sales people easier? Partner with a sales recruitment agency. Here’s how a sales-specific agency can help.

Better Assessment Process

One of the reasons why bad hires are common in sales is because sales people are difficult to assess. What you see typically is not what you get. Someone can have an impressive resume and rock your socks during the interview, but once he’s put on the floor, he can’t sell a single thing. Sales people in general are very good at representing what you want to see in an interview. A sales recruitment agency can help you to differentiate between the good and the bad. Its recruiters were once sales people, and they know what factors actually indicate success and they know when candidates are fooling them. Their evaluation process is second to none, and will assure that all of your candidates are properly assessed so you can avoid making more sales hiring mistakes.

Better Quality Candidates

It’s not easy to hire great sales people when the only candidates who are applying are mediocre at best. When you’re under a time crunch and are unsatisfied by your job applicants, you could end up just choosing a not-so-great candidate due to desperation.

But when you engage a sales recruitment firm, you’ll get to choose from higher quality candidates. Your agency will only present candidates who are in the top ten percentile of their field, who have the skills and experience you need, and who fit within your company culture. You won’t have to settle anymore—you’ll be able to easily hire the best of the best, because you’ll actually have the option to do so. Recruiters have the time, resources, and experience required to seek out passive candidates and top talent in various ways—they don’t just rely on job boards.

Faster Hiring

Even though you know that hiring requires a thorough, step-by-step process, you might rush through hiring decisions because you don’t want to have work left undone, you don’t want to have to pay overtime, you don’t want to stress out your current sales team with extra work, and you don’t want to face the consequences of reduced productivity. And this can lead to bad hiring.

But when you outsource to a recruitment agency, you’ll get a great new hire in no time. The firm will have pre-approved candidates for you to choose from, so you won’t waste time starting the process from scratch, making hiring sales people easier than ever.