You’ve been told your company needs to hire a sales person to help grow revenue. You’ve reached out to a sales recruiter you’ve used before and they have given you 3 sales people to interview. Now what? What is the first step in your interview process and how are you going to get to the end of the process with the right outcome…hiring a great sales person. In our experience as sales recruiters, in order to get to the end goal, companies need to have a rigid sales hiring process our it could end in a mishire. We’ve identified 3 key components to a great sales hiring process.
The first step is determining the requirements and responsibilities of the sales person you are looking to hire. In many cases, companies do not have an up to date job description or the responsibilities have changed. Make sure the hiring manager has the requirements are up to date to ensure you are looking for the right selling skills. For example, if you need this person to bring in new business, make sure that’s a key requirement of the job and that you assess for it. If the emphasis is on account management, make sure the rest of the job description speaks to that.
Often when companies engage in a search or hire a sales recruiter to find them a sales person, they don’t know who will be involved in the interview process. In other cases, they have too many people involved and the process becomes too cumbersome for both the company and the sales person. Make sure people who will have direct management responsibility are involved as well as any other key members of HR or the executive team. Map out their role in the process and when they are going to be involved. Then, communicate this to the sales candidates up front so they have a good understanding of the process and timelines.
Most companies wait too long to begin searching for a sales rep. The reality is, if you need a sales rep today, you should have started searching a long time ago. What ends up happening is, you rush through the recruitment process to fill the opening and it can often lead to a mishire. If you want a sales person producing revenue by October 1st, work backwards from there to determine when you need to start searching for candidates. If it takes 2 months of on-boarding and training to get a sales rep up and running and 6 weeks to work with a sales recruiter and interview all candidates, you need to start searching in mid June.
Having a sales hiring process in place is critical to successfully hiring a top sales person. It is important to know who is involved and when in order to ensure a smooth process and increase your chances of hiring a great sales person. Whether you have your own internal recruitment team or engage with outside sales recruiters, knowing what the requirements are, who’s involved in the process and when you need to begin are critical to success.
Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.