1)   Looking for experience over ability – some of our very best sales representatives were plucked right out of college with zero to very little sales experience.  When sales staffing, we look for “Sales DNA” – competitive nature, track record of success, challenge-hungry and hard working are just a few attributes of the “sales DNA”.  Don’t discard a person who could be your next #1 representative just because they haven’t been in sales before.  Everyone must start somewhere!

2)  Personal recommendations – we incentivize our employees to send us the resumes of their friends and peers.  After all, our employees know what it is like to work with us.  Be careful, however, because not all personal recommendations are good ones.  Just because a candidate is the cousin of your best sales person does not mean they have the same (sales) “DNA”, put them through the interview process just like everyone else.

3)  Poor preparation – it blows our minds how many people have no clue what they are doing when it comes to sales staffing.  Don’t just “wing” the interview.  Be prepared with scripted questions that will help identify the right person for the job.  I always start every interview first by a description (and tour) of our company and our offices (culture = important) and then I ask if the candidate has any questions for me.  If a candidate has no questions – that is a red flag.  But you wouldn’t know that unless you adhere to a sales staffing process so be PREPARED.

4)  Talking through the interview – I cannot tell you how many candidates have told me about interviews where they literally didn’t say a word because the recruiter/owner/hiring manager talked their ear off the whole time.  DO NOT FALL INTO THIS TRAP!  While it is important to give the candidate a clear picture of the company and job at hand, the most important part of the interview is to learn about the candidate!! Ask scripted questions and write down the answers!  You will NOT remember every candidate you see – trust us.  Let the candidate take control of the interview if they seem so inclined – this can be a good test on confidence and communication.

5)  Hiring someone you “like” – while they do say the best way to gauge whether or not someone will be good at sales is to ask yourself “would I want to go have a beer with him/her?” hiring someone just because they share a penchant for your college basketball team is no reason to hire that person.  Make sure their skills match up with the job at hand as well.  Likability is definitely a huge factor in sales success, but it should not be the only one.

Sales staffing is a tricky business, but knowing what to avoid can help you find the right sales talent, every time!

Happy selling!

When sales staffing make sure you look for the following:

1)   Track record of success: Look for individuals with an outstanding track record of success.  This doesn’t necessarily mean sales success, but success none the less.  Outstanding achievements, winning contests, being elected to something – all of these traits are the mark of a successful person.

2)  Confidence:  If your candidate can not look you in the eye or give you a firm handshake, show them the door.  How do you expect them to sell to your clients if they have no confidence?  The best sales representatives are confident.  And remember, there is a very fine line between confident and cocky.  Cocky is never attractive and it won’t be for your clients either.

3)  Intelligent and Creative: Sales is not a straight forward profession.  When staffing for a sales role make sure you ask probing questions that can tell you a little about these traits.  Questions like; “Tell me about a time when you had to think fast on your feet”, “tell me about a time when you thought outside the box to get a job done” will help to identify these traits. You MUST find people who can think fast on their feet while under pressure.  They must be able to find a solution where there might appear to be none…the best sales representatives are creative and will take the ball in their own hands.

4)  Excellent Communicator:  When sales staffing, the first thing you must look for are excellent verbal and NON-VERBAL communication.  Does the candidate listen intently?  Do they ask good questions?  Are they articulate and clear in their responses?  All of these are the mark of a great sales person.  Someone who hems and haws and can’t articulate a thought properly should not be in sales. In addition to verbal communication, they should excel at written communication as well – to identify this ask all our candidates for a writing sample.

5)  Loves a challenge:  Almost all of our sales representatives played competitive sports at least once in their adult life.  Athletes love a challenge, they thrive on competition – and so do great sales people.  When sales staffing, give the interviewees a small challenge; like a writing sample, and see what they do with it.

Sales staffing is not an exact science and it can be very difficult, but being able to identify the right sales talent when you see it will make the process that much easier!

Happy selling!

1)  Never stop searching – We are CONSTANTLY on the look out for great sales talent.  The worst time to hire a salesperson is when you need one.  If you do wait, you are more likely to make a rash decision and hire the wrong person.  Just as in the sales cycle, have a full pipeline – ALWAYS.

2)  Clear Job Description – trying to gussy up a job description to lure people in does NOT work.  The secret to sales staffing is to be upfront and honest from the get go.  Don’t sugar coat the fact that your sales person will need to cold call if that is an essential part of the job.  Identify the challenges your salesperson must be able to overcome. These are crucial for filling your talent pool with the right candidates.

3)  The Compelling Ad – this goes hand in hand with #2.  The ad is actually different from the job description.  When sales staffing, the ad should not be just a description of the job, company or the opportunity. Describe the candidate you wish to hire; their attitude, their accomplishments, their goals.  “If you describe it, they will come”.

4)  Source wisely – Big job sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com definitely aid greatly in sales staffing, but you’ll get more of the right candidates if you learn how to use their sites.  In addition, there are other sites such as Craigslist, Facebook, Linked In and Twitter that can greatly help you find the right passive candidates.  Get creative.  Join groups, tweet jobs and encourage others to do the same for you.

5)  Filter, filter, filter - Resumes contain very little information that will help you predict whether or not a candidate will succeed in your particular sales position. Just because someone answered your ad does NOT mean they fit the bill.  The first thing I always look for is an objective statement, then I look at past successes.  They might not have ever worked in “sales” before, but if they were president of their fraternity, started a club in college, excelled in athletics or fundraised – you better believe I’ll give them a call.

6)  Phone Interview – we have saved HOURS of interviews when sales staffing with a very simple 20 minute phone screen.  Because a lot of what we do is actually inside sales over the phone, how people come across on the line is VERY important.  If someone sounds bored or like they just woke up, I’m off the interview within 2 minutes.

7)  Face to Face Interview – this goes without saying.  I cannot imagine anyone hiring a sales representative sight unseen.  We usually sit our candidates with at least two or three of our people.  It’s important that they are consistent and that we all get to ask questions.  Also, keep it to an hour or two.  How one person can interview another for three hours or more is totally beyond me.  Overkill.

8)  Final Interview – This is where you get to line everyone up and see how they match up against each other.  For our business model, this is also where our candidates get to meet the client company.  We save only the best for them.  This is also the opportunity to sell the job to the candidates you want to hire.

Sales staffing is not easy and it takes a tremendous amount of time and resources if you want to do it right.  Hopefully these eight steps will help guide your team in the right direction!

Happy Selling!

Recruiting sales people is not easy.  Recruiting great sales people can be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.  Clients who have tried to “go it alone” on the recruiting end usually return to us with their tails between their legs;  “It is so much more time consuming and difficult than we thought!” they lament.  Trust us, we know!  After over six years in the sales staffing arena – we know exactly how difficult it can be.  But, luckily for us, we have what has become a well oiled sales staffing machine that excels at finding, and hiring exceptional sales talent.

But why?  Why is sales staffing the hardest part of sales?

Because once you find the right sales talent – the rest, as they say, is easy.  Finding true sales talent is difficult because a) the best are often not in most of the places people look (like job sites and message boards) and b) competition is fierce!  The art of sales staffing is not unlike making a sale!  You must seek out and find the best candidate AND you must sell them your job.  Simply putting a job description out there on the web isn’t going to cut it these days.  You need to hunt for the right people and you need to make them want you right back.  This is no easy feat.

Being an outsourced sales business means that “sales” IS our business so we have always treated sales staffing as the most important step.  The best sales representatives (even if they are raw talent) can sell just about anything given the right training, so in our minds, it’s IMPERATIVE that we get step ONE correct.  If not, it’s a domino effect of mediocrity down the line.

Has sales staffing got you in a pickle?  Are you sick of hiring average to okay sales people?  Kick it up a notch and give us a call today!  Learn how our outsourced sales business will not only improve your business, but get you the very BEST people for the job!

Happy Selling!

Most business owners do not factor in the importance of sales staffing when they originally opened their business. Sales staffing usually becomes and afterthought once the business owner realizes that he or she needs someone to sell their product. And most of these business owners naively assume that since their product or service is so great that they will not need to put that much effort into selling it. That is a huge mistake. Your sales staff can make or break your business and you must pay just as much attention to sales staffing as you do to product development if you want your business to be successful.

Many people are currently without jobs and looking for any type of job that they can possibly find which means that you will have to be even more careful when it comes to staffing your sales department. You want to find a sales team that has a demonstrated track record of success. The high number of people that are unemployed means that you should be able to find a number of sales professionals that are applying for a spot on your sales team, but you will have to go through each application with a fine tooth comb and make sure that your interviews are thorough enough so that you can be certain that you are hiring someone that will be an incredible asset to your business.

Also, make sure that you conduct thorough background checks and that you verify all claims made on a resume. Even though you may have not foreseen the challenges that lie in sales staffing, it does not mean that you can neglect these responsibilities. If you take your time and put in all of the effort that is required, you will find an excellent sales staff that will have as much enthusiasm for your products or services as you do and will have no problem selling them.

If you are not a trained human resources coordinator than sales staffing may be an even harder task. How will you know which applicants will have your company’s best interest in mind and be as enthusiastic about your products or services as you are? It is hard to tell from a resume how capable a sales rep will be once they are entrusted to sell for your business. And if your sales team is underperforming would you even know? You went into business for a specific reason and chances are that it wasn’t because you knew a bunch of top-notch sales executives. But you need high quality salespeople if you want your business to succeed. The question is, where can you find the right sales professionals without having to sacrifice your time and other resources?

Luckily there are some sales staffing options out there that will require a minimal effort from you. There are sales consulting companies that can provide you with a fully staffed and professional sales team that have a proven track record of success. These companies will do all of the leg work for you. They will go through the resumes from potential job candidates, perform interviews, and hire the best applicants. Then they will also be responsible for the training of the new hires and their performance reviews. You won’t have to spend another second of your time concerned about staffing your sales department.

And once your sales department has been fully trained and staffed, they will be monitored by a professional sales manager that will provide you with all of the reports and pertinent information that you need from your sales team. You will be thrilled with the results and have all the time that you need to take care of the aspects of your business that you are excited about.

The advantage of employing a sales staffing company can be divided into two aspects: they offer a cost advantage to many smaller- to mid-sized businesses and – by removing a non-core competency from their day-to-day concerns – allow them to refocus on business.

Significant cost savings can be achieved through the use of a staffing agency because only large businesses have the scale to support a full, dedicated HR department with the know-how to recruit the brightest and best-connected sales people for their specific industry. Because staffing companies service a number of clients, the cost of each function is divided such that clients only pay for the resources that are used for their firms. Smaller firms can’t afford full-time recruiters and administrators because their turnover isn’t large enough to justify it: sales staffers allow them access to a wide and diverse talent pool that has been screened by a company that specializes in recruiting and matching salespeople for companies.

From a strategic perspective, outsourced staffing allows companies that either do or do or don’t have the scale to support an internal staffing operation the opportunity to eliminate that burden from their day-to-day business and allow them to focus more on the drivers of their business – product development, business development, and operations management rather than spending valuable resources trying to find and attract talent from a pool that is undoubtedly smaller than a professional sales staffing firm’s (because a sales staffing firm will cast a much wider net).

Staffing solutions for sales departments make good business sense not only from the point of view of cost control, but also from bigger-picture business management. Recruitment is a distraction, and it is not the core competency of any business except for one that’s committed to. And because of its specialized nature, sales is particularly difficult for non-salespeople managers to recruit for. The case for employing a staffing firm that specializes in sales is therefore a very, very compelling one.

Sales staffing takes up such a large quantity of time because there is a lot of extensive training involved. Most business owners want to hire a sales professional that has many years of successful sales experience. Unfortunately though, successful sales experience in one area of sales does not always translate well into another. Not only do you need to hire an experienced sales executive you need to hire an experienced sales executive that can be successful in selling your products.

That is where the extensive training must come in. The most important aspect of sales staffing is making sure that your sales staff are knowledgeable about your products and that they can clearly articulate themselves when discussing the products that your company manufacturers or the services that you provide. Competent and skilled sales professionals will learn everything that they can about your product or service in order to sell it. They will actively seek out any competitive edges that will make your product stand out against its competitors. If you are prepared to take on the responsibility of hiring and training your sales team, make sure that you have the time required to successfully carry out the task.

You must also consistently monitor any new sales team members to make sure that they are performing well and treating all existing and potential clients with courtesy. A sales person is often the first impression that someone has of your business; you want that impression to be the absolute best impression that it could possibly be. Polite manners and a professional appearance are required at all times. Make sure that you clearly communicate your expectations of your sales team and outline what type of conduct that you anticipate. Sales staffing is an important job that must be performed carefully and extensively in order to make sure that your company will continue to be successful.