From reduced revenue to poor employee morale, there’s one situation that creates heightened anxiety among sales managers and CEOs, and that’s an open position that goes unfilled for too long.

“Somebody is better than nobody”—we’ve all said it when it comes to our sales team. There’s pressure to fill open jobs quickly, and with good reason, but what brings us to this point of desperation? Hiring quickly and rushing through the recruiting process often leads to a bad hire, and a bad hire leads to costly damages.

So that you’re not hiring out of desperation, you need to learn how to build a strong talent bank. Here’s how you can start today.

What is a Talent Bank?

A talent bank is your list. The list of salespeople that you've been speaking with, meeting with, and recruiting to join your sales team. A healthy talent bank should be filled with lots of names of people that you are interested in hiring.

Some of the names are just names, people you would like to speak with, but haven't found the time. Others are highly skilled and qualified future candidates. They have been interviewed and vetted with a qualified talent assessment.

Grow Your Revenue with Talented Salespeople

Your success as a sales manager is dependent on the talent level of your salespeople. If you want to hit your budget, achieve your goals, and grow your revenue, you must have talented reps on your staff. In many situations where a sales organization is struggling—it's been because they do not have talented salespeople.  

The root of the problem stems from not having a strong talent bank of superstar salespeople who they can hire to replace the mediocre or even poor account executives. This leads them to keep inadequate sales reps on staff because "anybody is better than nobody." The only way to avoid this problem is to build a strong, up-to-date talent bank.

3 Ways to Build a Strong Talent Bank

1. Candidates are Everywhere 

You’re interacting with tons of people every single day. When you’re eating at your favorite restaurant, have you ever considered the waiters or bartenders who are outgoing or super positive? When you’re buying a new car, furniture, or home, are you looking for talented salespeople? You should be! These are opportunities to find pure sales talent that you can train the way that you want without all of those bad habits.

2. It's a Numbers Game 

Recruiting is just like sales—it's a numbers game. To find superstar salespeople, you’re going to need to be constantly looking for the proverbial "needle in a haystack." For every 50 people that you speak with, you might find five superstars. Your talent bank should be filled to the brim with potential candidates. So, if you’re going to hire five salespeople this year, you will need to add one person per week, every week, to find five superstars.

3. Hire Slowly and Fire Fast

When you’re always filling your talent bank, it gives time to look at a lot of talented candidates. You'll have more time to evaluate them and you can make better hiring decisions, which will keep you from hiring out of desperation.

When you do miss out on a candidate, that's okay; it happens. But, since you have a strong talent bank, you can make a move quickly to oust that mediocre salesperson and replace them with a better, more talented account executive.