Last week in part 1 of our 3-part series on Hiring and Retaining Top Sales Talent, we discussed the importance of defining your ideal sales candidate profile and establishing firm hiring standards. Identifying critical, non-negotiable standards and expectations for new hires will help to improve the quality of the candidates you look for, interview, and eventually hire. So when evaluating resumes, pre-hire evaluations, and your interview notes, do not make exceptions for candidates who aren’t a fit. That’s the most important, and arguably the most difficult, part of improving your hiring process.
After you have established a profile, the next step is to build a sales candidate pipeline. Let’s first talk about online job boards. It’s fair to say that in today's environment, most of our communications are done online. At first glance, when it comes to recruiting, the Web seems to be a simple and relatively painless solution for finding new employees. Post a job profile on a myriad of available job search engines, and responses come flooding in:
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Monster
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Indeed
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Jobs - whatever city
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Ladder
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Snagajob
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LinkedIn
While this approach may work for some positions, I am unconvinced that it is wildly effective when attempting to hire good salespeople. In my experience, the best method for recruiting quality sales candidates is by introduction—the same method that works for the salespeople when prospecting for new business.
Finding sales talent candidates by introduction can be time-consuming and painful. However, it forces YOU to own the process, and that is the key. The mistake that many financial firms make is relying solely on the names and resumes they receive from recruiting services and online job posts. Finding new talent for your organization should not be left entirely up to the recruiters. They have a vested interest in placing people in positions and not necessarily in the success of the salesperson you hire. Remember: recruiters get paid when they place someone. That individual may not be (and often is not) the best fit for your organization.
Recently, I read that 75% of replacement hires are as bad as or worse than the employees that were replaced! If you have an open position for someone who is making $50,000 a year, you need to find the best $50,000-a-year person in your industry/marketplace to fill it. Don’t settle for a B or C player just because that’s what you had before.
So, what does taking ownership during the process of building a candidate pipeline look like? Here’s what needs to happen:
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Create your hiring profile (as discussed in Step 1)
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Create a process of getting introductions
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Build your team of candidate prospectors
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Identify candidate sourcing activities
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Identify monthly goals for the activities
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Build an inspection process – and consider using “huddles” to have prompt, productive, and painless meetings as you conduct that process (See Verne Harnish)
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Hold people accountable for reaching candidate sourcing goals
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Throughout the process – reward success, discipline failure
Once you start this process, you will begin to fill your candidate pipeline just like your salespeople fill their prospect pipelines! When you take ownership of this effort and you have a pipeline of potential hires that are better than your current underperformers, you will be more likely to:
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Replace under-performers
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Not be “held hostage” by prima donna salespeople
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Not settle for mediocrity
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See improvements in your current sales team
Finally, keep in mind that driving sales growth isn't always about more disciplined accountability, sales force automation, or sales training. Those things will help only if you have the talent on hand that will respond to these investments. Start with good talent, create an environment where people can succeed, and see what happens next.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of Hiring & Retaining Top Sales Talent!