Sales managers in every market say the same thing —finding great salespeople is hard. We empathize, but of course, it is! Salespeople are often really good at selling themselves, and when you do hire, it takes six months to a year to know whether you made the right decision.
This is one reason you must develop a plan and execute that plan at all times. Managers often reach out to us looking for creative ways to recruit people to their companies. Unfortunately, most wait until they're in need. If you're waiting for an opening on your staff to begin recruiting salespeople for your talent bank, it's too late!
Recruit Sales Talent All the Time
Being prepared allows you to have choices in making hiring decisions and not feel obligated or rushed to hire the first person that walk’s through the door. Making recruiting part of your daily or weekly routine will help you prepare and allow you to build a powerhouse sales team.
You have to be recruiting ALL the time, and creativity is a must! You have to recruit from outside of your sandbox when building a strong talent bank. If you keep recruiting from your competition, then you’re going to get the same kind of results over and over again.
To improve your chances of identifying candidates who possess the skills necessary for the long-term success in your company, it’s essential that you look in different places for different skills and talents.
Wouldn't it be great if you could find untapped talent superstars that you could train "your way"? You can!
4 Tips to Identify the Sales Talent You Need
It’s easy to grow frustrated while looking for talent. Finding the right kind of talent is about looking for that little something extra potential in candidates. Someone who has the experience, but also still have motivation and the drive for success.
In the last few months, we've spoken with clients who've found superstar talent in some unusual places. From observation, these are the four tips we recommend to help discover talent in the right places.
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Look around
You are interacting with dozens, hundreds, even thousands of people during your daily life. When you’re having lunch at your favorite restaurant, have you ever considered the waiters or bartenders who are outgoing or super positive? When you are buying a new car, furniture, or home, are you looking for talented salespeople? In order to fill your talent bank, these are observations you should take, and question you should ask yourself in your everyday life. These are opportunities to find pure sales talent that you can train the way that you want without all of those bad habits. -
Pass out your card
Not your business card, but rather a card with a link to your talent assessment. If you’re a current client of The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), then you have a bulk link to your OSTI assessment. You have unlimited use of it—use it! There are several clients that have created shortened URL's using bit.ly for their bulk link so that it's easy to print on a card. Anytime you run into someone that interests you; you can ask them if they have ever considered a career in B2B sales. Hand them your card, and who knows? Maybe you just found your next superstar seller. -
It's a numbers game
Whether you've thought about it or not, recruiting is just like sales. It's a numbers game. To find superstar salespeople, you have to constantly look for the proverbial "needle in a haystack." For every 100 people that you might speak with, you might find 5 superstars. Your talent bank should be filled to the brim with potential candidates. So, if you’re going to hire 5 salespeople this year, you will need to add 2 people a week, every week to find 5 superstars. -
Recruit all the time
We repeatedly tell this to every client, prospect, sales manager, and salesperson — recruit all the time! You should be adding people to your talent bank every single week. You should be interviewing people every week even when you don't have any openings. Because when you do have an opening, and you will, you'll be ready to make move.
Many leaders find the talent pool limited, so it’s imperative to consider alternate sources and recruiting methods. These tips are designed to help sales managers test the viability of hiring candidates from other industries.
Even great sports teams are constantly on the lookout for superstar talent to keep their benches strong and successful. It’s time for you to go out and find strong talent. One day you're going to need it!
