Is your sales recruiting process sluggish? It doesn’t have to be, especially if you remember that the same set of skills that makes a great sales person also makes a great recruiter. Use those sales skills to find the very best sales reps out there. When you do, your sales team will be strengthened, and you’ll never have an empty slot on your team. 

The following three tips can help you to jump start your sales recruiting process and help you find the sales reps you need.

1. Write a Killer Ad

If you haven’t been attracting the best talent out there, your job listings might be to blame. Vague, unenthusiastic job listings attract the unambitious, desperate candidates, and those aren’t the people you want to be attracting. 

You want to attract the go-getters, the sales reps who have outgrown their current positions and are looking for growth opportunities. If you start your sales recruiting process with a killer ad, you will find that you have better candidates to choose from. When you write your killer ad, don’t forget to include the following: 

• Job Title and Summary
• Key Responsibilities
• Company Overview
• Location and Travel Expectations
• Compensation and Potential for Bonuses

Remember to be specific and use direct language. Talk up your company; remember that you have to sell yourself in your job description to the best candidates.

2. Use Top Recruiting Sites

Where do most people search for jobs? Online. Find the top recruiting sites for your industry, and post your finely tuned job listing at each of those sites. If you’ve done your work creating an appealing job description, the resumes will begin to roll in. Reading through resumes and responding to each candidate can be a time-consuming process, so automate as much as you can. 

Make sure your sales recruiting process is as professional as possible. If applicants never hear anything from your company after sending in their resumes, they’ll acquire distaste for your brand, and in sales, you simply can’t afford this. To be efficient and professional at the same time, send an automated message to each candidate who emails an application. Your message can be as simple as, “Thank you for applying for this position”.

3. Step Up Your Interviews

Ultimately, your sales recruiting process should lead you to successful interviews with your candidates. Your first round of interviews should be brief; these interviews are just to narrow the field for the in-person interviews. Phone interviews are generally sufficient in a normal sales recruiting process. Your phone interviews simply confirm a candidate’s experience and give you an impression of his or her personality. These interviews can be very brief; you can learn enough to make a decision about a first-round candidate in just three minutes. 

Your in-person interviews should be longer, around 30 minutes, in most cases. To keep control of your sales recruiting process, be aggressive and make your candidates sell themselves to you instead of selling your company to them. Don’t go easy on your candidates because your prospects certainly won’t. See if they’re genial enough to break the ice with a tough, cold interviewer like you. 

Your sales recruiting process can play an integral part in the success of your company. Without a solid sales recruiting process, you may hire people who are barely able to handle the rigors of their jobs. When your recruiting is inspired, however, you can staff your sales team with the very best in the industry.