All CEOs know that hiring sales people can be a burdensome task. How can you possibly know from interviews whether these candidates will really be able to take your business to the next level? After all, you are hiring complete strangers, so it is hard to gauge what type of employee they will really be once they start working for you. When you want your company to grow, it’s vital that you hire the right sales person for your brand.

What’s more, you might not be targeting the right candidates if you are recruiting in the same way you did a few years ago-simply taking an ad out in a paper and posting the position on your website. You need to get creative with your sales recruiting techniques in order to get the best candidates, and ultimately, the best sales force.

From utilizing offbeat tactics to hiring sales recruiters, here are some of the ways top CEOs recruit sales people.

They hire sales recruiters.

Often, CEOs don’t have the time it takes to efficiently go through the hiring process, so they hire sales recruiters to do it instead. What’s more, sales recruiters are unbiased, outside parties who can often see your business needs in a new light and know which types of candidates to look for. Sales recruiters have the experience and contacts needed to find you the right candidates depending on the industry you are in, the sales level you are hiring for, the salary you have budgeted for, and the objectives and goals you want to achieve. They will not only look for experience, but test for mental aptitudes and personality dimensions as well.

They attend recruiting events.

Recruiting events put you in touch with some of the top candidates in your field who are already pre-screened by sales recruiters. And you save yourself time by not having to call and screen applicants yourself.

They hire customers.

It might be an offbeat recruiting tactic, but think about it. Who knows, likes, and cares about your products as much as your customers do? If you hire a customer as your new sales person, you will have a sales representative who actually understands your products and uses it himself. When your sales person is passionate about your products, you know that they will try their hardest to sell others on it as well.

They don’t read-they listen.

Some CEOs don’t want to leave an important decision like hiring in the hands of sales recruiters, so they take on the task themselves. However, CEOs at top companies are inundated with resumes, and after a while, they all seem exactly the same. They’re tired of reading the same descriptions over and over again. So instead, they listen. They listen to their sales people and others in their industry, and take referrals seriously. These people already know the vision for the business, and know that the person they are referring has goals that are in line with your company’s objectives. Candidates who hand out resumes are still strangers, while candidates who have been referred are at least known in some context by someone that the CEO knows and trusts.

Emulate the best hiring strategies.

CEOs have stressful, time-consuming jobs. They are responsible for the company’s overall success, so it’s no wonder that the task of hiring sales people is important to them. It’s also not surprising then, that the top CEOs across North America have come up with the best possible ways of hiring the right sales representatives for the businesses they are responsible for. This includes offbeat tactics like hiring customers, taking themselves out of the equation by hiring sales recruiters, and taking referrals instead of resumes. Take these tips and make them your own, so you can be just as successful as the top CEOs when it comes to being a sales hiring expert.