More than 28% of Americans are searching for new jobs – the highest rate in a decade

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Let’s examine this through the Sales lens. Companies don’t lay off or fire their best salespeople very often. One of the common complaints and questions we hear from prospects is, ‘There are not enough candidates out there. How do you get a good, strong pool of candidates?’

Facts are: There are about 18MM salespeople in the US, and the average tenure is 18 months. This means a constant, VERY LARGE pool of candidates seeking a better opportunity. The question is: How can you attract great salespeople in transition?

It’s easy when you’ve helped thousands of companies in 200+ industries hire great salespeople for over 30 years. First, let’s look at the traditional approach companies use.

1. Write an ad based on the job description.
2. Place the ad on job boards littered with competition.
3. They collect resumes
4. Phone screen
5. Interview
6. 2^nd interview
7. Make an offer
8. Hire

Here’s the problem:

1. Traditional ads showcase the company, and they all read the same. The ads describe the position and a few requirements. That’s mostly the same too. Then, there is the opportunity and the range of income. All the same. We write non-traditional ads that stand out and cause the right salesperson in transition to say: That’s me, I have to apply there.
2. Before we ever write an ad, we work with our clients to identify their ideal salesperson with our B.A.S.E. formula. (Sorry, we only share that IP with clients.) Once the B.A.S.E is defined, we wrap psycho-dynamics around it, and based on our work with 200+ industries, we recognize parallel markets to attract candidates in places most would never think of.
   • Placing the ad. Job Boards are not bad, but most salespeople looking at job boards are already on their way out of their current company. Either they are on probation or see the writing on the wall. We prefer non-traditional sourcing of the ad. After we’ve done our market research and identified parallel industries, we get our ad in front of the salespeople who have outgrown their current company. We’ll typically have fewer candidates, but they are of better quality and fit the role for our clients.
3. I’ve never seen a bad resume. They are all superheroes. Everyone made President’s Club. We like using the resume to build interview questions around missing information. However, there is no need to spend time doing this until we prepare for the first interview.
4. Phone Screen. Before a phone screen, we help our clients test the candidates, Grit, Skills, and Unconscious Biases that will prevent them from succeeding in the role. We measure the 21 Sales Core Competencies and 180 unique attributes that make up the competencies. This is all weighted and customized to the company, environment, competition, price points, sales cycle, and market landscape. The actual phone screen we teach is a simple 5-minute call to disqualify candidates we don’t want to spend time with. This is where we begin exposing their strengths and weaknesses for the role.
5. Interviewing – Candidates are usually better at interviewing than the person interviewing them. They are naturally good at first impressions and tell you what you want to hear. We teach you how to turn the interview into an audition. Let’s put the candidates in situations similar to the ones they would be in if they were selling to your clients. I’m not talking about pitch decks or painting scenarios that are easy for candidates to tell you what they would do. It’s asking questions that expose their strengths and weaknesses to let you accurately predict what will happen after the 90-day honeymoon period if you hire them. Some are 2- and three-part questions, causing the salesperson to show me their skills, or lack thereof, on the spot. They don’t know what I’m actually looking for. The interview format is non-traditional, conversational, and sometimes politely confrontational, just like your prospects treat salespeople. It’s an easy process to apply, and this interview causes winners to stand out! If the candidate is not disqualified, we need to assign some project for them to complete and review at the 2^nd interview. Knowing what other companies they are interviewing with is also essential to learn before the second interview.
6. The second interview is easy. It’s what most companies do too early in their traditional hiring process: identify non-sales qualities and characteristics and sell the company and the opportunity. Most companies miss a critical part of the second interview: setting expectations, defining daily activities, reviewing the 90-day onboarding plan, and discussing typical challenges the new hire must overcome quickly.
7. Making the offer seems simple enough. If you’ve had new hires no show on the first day, they get a better offer, or their current company makes a better offer when the candidate gives notice, we suggest heading this off at the pass in the 2^nd interview. Any indecision on the candidate’s part is an automatic no-go.
8. Onboarding plans need to be more robust. We have identified there are about 60 categories of new information that the new hire must know before the end of 90 days. This doesn’t mean you have to wait 90 days before getting the new hire in the field. New hires should be able to have an intelligent conversation with a prospect within 90 days.

Bonus: A players will not work with B managers. Hiring stronger sales requires stronger sales management. Upgrading your sales team means your sales manager must be great at Coaching, Motivating, Accountability, and Growing the team’s skills each day. If any of the above resonates with you and you are sick of sales hiring mistakes, let’s talk.