How many open positions are on your team? Open positions are an opportunity to improve the talent level. You want to make your goals more attainable and hiring top-shelf people is the best way to do that.
However, building a high-quality sales team isn’t easy. It typically requires a lot of time and money to assemble a team of top performers. What if we told you that there’s a proven system that would help you get a list of great people to interview? Would you be interested?
How to Obtain Qualified Sales Candidates
First, to get a list of qualified candidates to interview, you need to understand the qualities of the person that you need on your team.
Talent
Talent is hard-wired into people at an early age. Identify the talents that your salespeople have and the talents that you need. Talents are a valuable asset to enhance your staff because they can show you the potential that your candidate possesses. Given a development plan from you, highly talented people can become superstars for your organization.
Skills
These are the abilities that people have to learn in order to do something well. A skill is acquired or developed after a lot of time and hard work is put in. To obtain a skill, they may attend training or continuously practice.
Experience
Experience shows you where they are on their road to reaching their potential. Identify the experience that you want them to have grown from already.
- Are they already successful at developing new business?
- Are they budget achievers?
- Do they have an impressive network on business contacts that can benefit you immediately?
6 Ways to Begin Developing Your Recruitment Strategy Plan
1. Evaluate the talents of your sales team and know what talents you’re missing.
Also, know what talents are the biggest predictor of success for people on your team. Knowing the talent that you need for greater success will help you select the best candidate.
2. Be able to specifically describe the talents, skills, and experience of the people you are looking for.
What’s your elevator pitch for recruitment? Make one that describes your candidates and your environment.
3. When you see evidence of those talents, skills, and experience in your marketplace, you should introduce yourself and get their contact information.
If you are running job ads, describe the candidate that you want based upon the talents that you need. Effectively use copy that singles those talents out above others and clearly address non-talents that you don’t want.
4. Make a clear post for social media that your team and peers can share using social media.
LinkedIn is especially important here. It's the most popular social networking site for sales professionals and it's the one site where qualified candidates will be looking.
5. Ask for referrals.
The best managers have developed relationships at universities and with people in like-minded industries and markets so that they can get referrals from people who recognize talent when they see it. Who do you know who……….?
6. Place all the viable names of candidates into a talent bank.
A talent bank is an ongoing list of people who would be a good fit for your team. When that day comes that you have an opening, instead of panicking and filing a job posting on Career Builder, you will simply make some calls to the candidates who are a great fit for your needs that are already in your Talent Bank.
Tactics That Will Help You Choose the Best Candidates
Talent, skills, and experience are the criteria for obtaining a list of qualified candidates to interview. These three aspects are also the tactics that will help you choose the best candidates for the position.
Talent
You can use a validated talent assessment at the beginning of the recruitment process. This is a great tool, so you don’t waste time on applicants who don’t have the talent that you need.
Skills
Ask candidates to demonstrate their skills. Regarding the needed skills you have listed, ask the candidate to tell you stories about how they have used them for success.
- If you’re hiring a sales manager, show them your inventory management report and pricing history and ask them to review it to see what they know.
- If a salesperson says they’re great at using a CRM, open it up and ask them to show what is important to them.
Experience
Pull up their resume and LinkedIn page. Ask them about what they have learned from individual experiences that you have selected.
- How did you close the deal on the best person you ever recruited?
- Tell me about the best sale you ever made?
- Tell me about a time when things got hard?
Great salespeople are always in high demand. They’re not going to have trouble finding a job, and for that reason, they are difficult to recruit. Start improving the talent level on your team by developing a recruitment strategy plan that will attract a list of qualified candidates.
*Editor's Note: This blog was originally written in 2020 and has since been updated.
