The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

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.

Take this five-question quiz to set the foundation for this blog post—simply answer agree or disagree.

1. I interview sales candidates every week, even if I don’t have openings on my staff.

2. I find my best sales candidates when I’m under the gun and have openings on my staff.

3. I move out underperforming sellers often because I keep a talent bank of qualified prospects.

4. I am a proactive recruiter, always looking for, and evaluating talent.

5. I often tell candidates that I’m interviewing even though I don’t have a position open.

If answered disagree to the majority of these questions; continue reading this post.

Of all the decisions and executive makes, none is as important as the decisions about people, because they determine the performance capacity of the organization." - Peter Drucker 

The new year is 1/12 complete, and January is old news. How is your organization doing so far? Are you on track to exceed your growth goals for 2020? Are you lagging behind?

Growth of a sales organization will not happen unless the people in the sales organization are growing. Here are four important elements to consider that are directly linked to growth of your people and the decisions you make in coaching and developing them.

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!