All managers want to decrease the time it takes to fill an open position. An open position is one that is not producing for its department, while resources are diverted in order to find the best possible candidate. The cost of vacancy for sales department openings can be high; to find out what an open position is costing you per day, the simplest formula is to divide the yearly revenue produced by the average sales person by 252, the number of business days in an average year. Sales recruiting agencies can help hiring managers reduce the time to fill by making recruitment a full time priority, attracting qualified candidates for interviews, and streamlining the communication process.

Sales Recruiting Agencies Ask the Tough Questions

While a job description is the basis for any open position, simply posting a job description on a career site or social media will not guarantee you applications from qualified candidates. Experience filling open positions on a daily basis teaches recruiting agencies how to narrow down a job description in order to be selective in the candidate pool, highlighting the portions of a description most important to the hiring manager. Sales recruiting agencies are also better able to ask follow up questions and vet a candidate prior to a face to face interview, resulting in additional reductions in time to fill. Knowledgeable sales recruiting agencies:

• Identify ideal vs crucial skills in a job description, and targets the most influential in a hiring decision
• Pinpoint and search for additional skills or attributes not covered in a description due to space constraints
• Provide additional information to truly qualified candidates to increase excitement and commitment

A job description is a useful tool, but it can only go so far. By focusing on the needs behind requested skills and attributes, sales recruiting agencies can target only the best qualified candidates for an open position. These focused efforts reduce time to fill by reducing time spent on unqualified or uncommitted applicants.

Recruiting Agencies Can Streamline the Process

There is no one right way to handle the hiring process, so for every organization, the hiring picture will look a little different. However, there are certain guidelines that can help organizations reduce time to fill. Since recruiting agencies work exclusively between applicants and hiring managers, they know the best tips for hiring top candidates quickly and reducing vacancy costs. Sales recruiters can help managers streamline the process by implementing industry best practices, such as:

• Not waiting to collect a pool of qualified applicants to pre-qualify all possible candidates in the same day; this reduces the sales recruiter’s effectiveness, and encourages candidates to self-select out of the process due to perceived lack of interest.

• Maintaining a flexible schedule to meet applicants for telephone or first interviews outside of regular business hours, when passive but promising candidates are most likely working.

• Cultivating open communication channels, even with less favored candidates, so all applicants who have navigated the hiring process are kept informed (and interested).

Communication is key to reducing time to fill, since the best candidates could always receive an offer from the competition during the time it takes to complete a drawn out hiring process. Sales recruiting agencies help relieve this pressure by selecting the most qualified candidates and keeping in personal contact with these individuals throughout the hiring process.

Remember that until your chosen candidate has accepted an offer and reported to work, your open position is still vacant. Leveraging the hiring and communication strategies of sales recruiting agencies will help you reduce time to fill and ensure that if your first offer is not accepted, you do not need to begin the sales hiring process again from day one, which could effectively double your time to fill.