One great hire might take you to greatness. However,
One wrong hire might drag you down to the deep dark sea.
But whose responsibility is to hire great sales reps for your community?
You might think that the ultimate responsibility of hiring sales reps belongs to your talent acquisition colleagues, whose professional expertise dictates that they own candidate selection and placement. However;
If you are a founder or in any way responsible for onboarding and/or the ongoing learning and development of customer-facing roles, partnering with your recruitment team and the “always be hiring” motto would help you a lot!
I love the way Mike Kunkle explains The Building blocks of Sales Enablement:
Sales hiring optimization is one of the main pillars to increase the key metrics such as:
- Employee retention, voluntary & involuntary turnover
- Ramp-up time, time to first deal
And of course, we can add win rate & revenue.
You should also remember, that “onboarding” starts during the hiring process.
How to create the ideal candidate experience?
Good recruiters are also good salespeople. Especially if you are hiring for start-ups/scale-ups, you should have a hunter mentality.
- Utilize your network, fully.
- Utilize Linkedin, add “recruitment slot” to your calendar, recurring, daily. Consistency is important!
- Inspire your candidates about the company, culture, team, and the role by using your pitching skills 🙂
- Create WOW moments a.k.a Compelling events during the interview.
What makes an interview effective?
- Conversational, well planned, well-executed, informative for all, upbeat, honest, positive & professional, and respectful interviews are effective,
- Create a positive candidate experience,
- Prepare fun facts to engage in conversation,
- Show your appreciation for the time dedicated by your candidate, “I appreciate your time today, the next steps are…”,
- “I have asked a lot of questions today, what questions do you have for me?”.
Interview Questions
- Include the real-life problems that your sales team is facing every day. Roleplays are one of the best ways to assess a candidate’s core competencies.
- Create questions to measure different competencies & traits that the position requires.
Include a variety of questions including pitching skills, personal development, knowledge, experience, and cultural fitness.
Optimize the hiring process
Remember, you should stay on top of your candidate’s mind during the process – especially if your hiring process consists of multiple steps.
How to keep the momentum until they accept your offer:
- Show some love 🙂 build a relationship, send nutrition, and don’t let the process take too long!
- Organize 30-60-90 Day interviews with your newcomers, and don’t forget to get their feedback regarding the hiring process.
- Learn from your mistakes, iterate, iterate, iterate the process.
Good luck with your A-Player Hunt!