Hiring a sales representative or a salesperson is one of the first things a growing company does. However, a growing company usually doesn’t have a lot of experience when it comes to hiring personnel, especially salespeople.
Hiring a sales representative or a salesperson is one of the first things a growing company does. However, a growing company usually doesn’t have a lot of experience when it comes to hiring personnel, especially salespeople.
This is why the best way to start is with some kind of system, a strategy that will make the process easier and more organized. Having a system is crucial – diving straight into hiring will mean that you are doing something but you might end up not finding the best candidate with your disorganized process.
Here are the seven tips that will help put you on the right path.
Define the requirements
Before you start posting about this new job opening at your company, focus on defining the specifics of the job. Not all sales positions are the same and there is probably something product- or service-related that makes it unique.
Define the main requirements at first – figure out what it is you need from this person, what your company needs them to do. Ask your team members to contribute as well. Then, define the specifics which could range from something simple like having five years’ experience in selling similar product to being skilled in selling to an audience of teenagers.
“Lastly, define what kind of person you want on this job. And it shouldn’t be just something generic like ‘responsible, hardworking, good team player’ and so on, but something truly meaningful. For instance, you could say that you are looking for an assertive, passionate person or something similar”, explains Larry Webb, a Recruiting Consultant at Top Canadian Writers.
Find a funnel
Next, you have to decide where you’ll place your job advertisement. The rule of thumb is to place it where your preferred audience is at. However, nowadays everyone is using LinkedIn as their main source of talent and that’s where you should be as well.
You could also share the job advertisement on your social media pages or advertisement sites.
Just make sure that you do some research first, find out where is best to post and which places to avoid.
Think outside-the-box
The best salespeople already have a job. This is a simple fact that you could use. For this, you will need to look at your competitors and companies from other niches which you believe have a good sales representative.
Do the research on their sales representatives, try to book an interview with them and offer them something that they lack with their current position.
Write a clear job advertisement
Top talent doesn’t respond to low quality advertisements. They are looking only for the best positions and if your ad has a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes, that says something about your business.
If you don’t want to deal with that by yourself, here are some tools that can help:
- Simple Grad – Writing a good job ad is just like writing a good copy. You need to persuade the reader that you are the best choice for them. This site offers copywriting guides that could help you attract top talent.
- Revieweal and Grade on Fire – A good job ad is easy to scan, among other things. There should be enough bullet points, subheadings and short paragraphs that create plenty of white space. Use these formatting tools.
- Academ Advisor – Grammar is something we often struggle with, especially under the pressure that we face when writing a job description. Use this site as your grammar guide.
- Top essay writing services – We often have so much to say that our writing ends up being full of redundancies. To eliminate this, use these tools.
- Studentwritingservices – Any good job description has action words and powerful phrases. In order to achieve that, most people use a power word generator like this one.
Check your candidates
Once you have gathered a number of candidates, it’s time to check what they have to offer. Go through some of the resumes and classify them by their relevance and competence. Check some of the references from the best resumes and try to narrow it down as much as possible.
Conduct interviews
The next phase is to talk to these people face-to-face. There are a few things to remember in this case.
For one, resist the urge to talk all the time. This isn’t your interview and you should let your candidate speak. Only ask questions and tell them about certain details when necessary.
Background check
Once you have narrowed the number down even further, do the final background check of your candidates. Check their references, information that they have given you and so on.
Once you do that, you’ll have a clearer picture of who to hire.
Takeaway
Top sales talent isn’t easy to find. Most likely, because they already have jobs. However, with a good hiring technique and some leverage, you’ll be able to hire and work with some of the best salespeople available.
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