Update on Employment Trends in Sales

We have spent the past 3 months meeting with CEO’s, VP’s of Sales and sales managers in order to determine what their hiring and training needs are for the next 12-18 months and we wanted to share the results.

• 80% of the companies we spoke with are planning on adding sales people to their teams, not just replacing poor performing reps
• 65% are making a large investment in sales training for their sales teams to improve and retain top sales people
• Companies are receiving large volumes of resumes but most are not suitable for their sales jobs
• Only 30% are investing in training to make their sales managers better coaches
• Most have a positive outlook for revenue growth for the next 12 months but lack the internal resources to properly source, screen and hire top sales reps
• Sectors such as manufacturing and packaging which have lagged for the past year are looking to add headcount to their sales teams
• The majority of those surveyed, feel industry specific experience has become less important and the focus is now more on the selling skills. To this point, most companies agreed their internal screening process is inadequate to screen for selling skills
• 10% of companies are looking to outsource part or all of their sales function

We’ve also been meeting with a lot of great sales people looking for their next sales job. Here’s what we’ve found:

• There are a lot of great sales people on the market right now
• Candidates are frustrated with the length of the interview process with many organizations
• In many cases, they are not contacted after an initial interview to get feedback or closure on the process
• Expectations for base salaries for sales people has come down dramatically over the past year
• Most are looking for a stable, growing company to work for
• Even veteran sales people want to know potential employers have great training and development programs for their sales people
• Contrary to popular belief, younger sales people are looking for a company to spend most of their sales careers with one or two companies

The results are important for employers as they compete to win the top sales people on the market today.  If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call at 1-800-461-SELL or email us at info@salesforcesearch.ca.