As a sales leader, sales recruiting is the key to your success. The people you select for your sales team make the difference. If the wrong people are selected, your leadership skills and ability to train and motivate the team won’t mean much.

(Updated February 2, 2018).

The show notes for this podcast have been updated from the original but not the podcast itself. I’ve included more information than originally posted.

Hiring the wrong people for your sales team can lead you to disaster. A top level sales manager needs top level sales people to achieve top results. It’s the sales manager’s responsibility to select the right people to build the sales team. The sales manager needs to build a team that meets and exceeds the objectives of your organization. Hiring the right salesperson is the critical factor of successful sales management. Developing a salesperson is a daunting and time consuming journey. Consider the time it takes to recruit, hire, and train a sales person to achieve profitability. There’s a lot to consider when you hire a salesperson and add salespeople to your team. In this podcast series, we cover the basics. There is still a lot to discuss. We’ve divided Sales Recruiting into three podcasts.

All-star Sales Managers Always Have All-star Salespeople

In this post and accompanying podcast, entitled ‘Sales Recruiting – Hiring The Right Sales Person – Part One’, we will examine four critical elements of the hiring process:

The legalities of employees vs. independent contractors
What makes a winning salesperson
Knowing the type of salesperson that you’re recruiting
Developing the Job Description.

In a previous podcast post and podcast: ‘Developing Your Strategic Sales Plan Part One’ and ‘Developing Your Strategic Sales Plan Part Two’, we discussed Sales Team Structure, Defining Your Market, and Quota Attainment. You should re-visit these podcasts and compare them to your own strategic sales plan. You’ll likely discover that most of what you need in hiring the right salesperson, you’ve already determined. This includes the development of your Job Description.

The Legalities: Employees vs. independent contractors

Are your salespeople ‘Employees’ or ‘Contractors’? If your organization has an HR department or has already made a decision about this, fine. If not, you’ll have a major decision to make. There are Legal issues to consider.. I’m not giving legal advice, but I want to point out a couple of things to review with the company ownership and their attorneys. First, understand the liabilities. Your first decision is whether your salespeople will be ‘employees’ or ‘independent contractors’. Your legal liabilities as an Employer and Manager include three considerations:

Understand who is defined as an ‘employee’ or ‘contractor’.
Know your obligations under the Federal Employment Act.
Know your obligations under State law.

The IRS is the ultimate judge.They have the final word. I have seen a lot of companies get into trouble with this one. They like to call people ‘independent contractors’ in order to minimize corporate expenses. They treat people as ‘employees’ when they have to go to court. The costs can be considerable. Make sure that you know the differences before you make a costly mistake. To understand the IRS differences between an ‘employee’ and ‘independent contractor’, here’s the link to the IRS website.

What Makes A ‘Winning’ Salesperson

In the profession of sales, you will hear about the ’80/20’ rule. Basically it says that 80% of the sales will be made by 20% of your salespeople. Your job is to make up your sales team with as many of that ’20%’ as possible.
So who are they? What do they look like? Well, they don’t all look alike. They don’t all have the ‘gift of gab’. Some are smart dressers and others look like they just got out of bed. They come from every conceivable background that you can imagine. What your salesperson must have, is the desire to succeed. They are salespeople because they crave the challenge. They are salespeople because they take on the challenge, ignore the rejection, and are driven to succeed.

Should you look for people with a lot of experience? Sure you could, but remember that all experience isn’t necessarily good. Many of the top salespeople I have hired in the past had no sales experience. What they had was a strong personality, an ability to learn and a desire to win. What they have is a desire to succeed. There are positions in an organization where people can ‘fake it’. Sales is not one of those positions. The individuals that you select to represent your organization must be driven to win. The drive to win must be stronger then the fear of failure. They need a thick skin and are ready to brush off any rejection. Good salespeople are ego-driven. They feel they must succeed because they have to sell just like a hungry man needs to eat. This is the person you want to recruit. Give them direction, coaching, and organizational structure and you’ll have a winner. To hire winning salespeople, you must begin with a plan.

Know The Type Of Salesperson That You Are Looking For

All good salespeople don’t possess the same skill set. I have met with many owners and managers.They’ve told me that they’re just looking for a salesperson to come in and write business. That’s like saying that you just need a doctor without considering what type of doctor you actually need. If you break your leg, you don’t need a heart surgeon. You need an orthopedist. Both problems need a doctor, but the service and expertise that they provide is much different. You want to recruit the right salesperson for the job you need.. You need to determine the role of your new salesperson:. Do you need someone to bring in new business? Will they need to make a lot of cold calls? Will they be in your office working the phone all day? Will they work only with your existing customers? You need to decide this at the beginning of the sales recruiting process. Hopefully, you did this when you initially worked out your strategic sales plan i.e:

Hunters
Farmers

Then,

Inside sales
Outside sales
One-call-closers
Technical or Nontechnical

Sales Recruiting – Hunters or Farmers?

There are a lot of different sales jobs out there. Each requires a different skill- set. As I’ve said many There are a lot of different sales jobs out there. Each requires a different skill- set. As I’ve said many times in this podcast: When you are doing your sales recruiting, you must have a confident conviction of what you want. Some salespeople are good on the phone and bad ‘face-to-face’. Some are good at taking orders from customers but couldn’t create a sale on their own if their life depended on it. Your decision now is to know if you are looking for ‘Hunters’ or ‘Farmers’.

The ‘Hunter’ Salesperson:

The Hunter is perfect for a shorter sales cycle.Short sales can be completed in one or two sales calls. The ‘Hunter’ salesperson doesn’t mind prospecting all day. If you need someone to go door to door, business to business and someone who does not get too frustrated when they hear “NO”, you need a ‘Hunter’. Typically though a ‘Hunter’ isn’t great at going back to customers after the sale. They wouldn’t be a good choice if you needed them to form an ongoing relationship with the customer. There are exceptions who exist. I have actually seen salespeople successfully make the transition from ‘Hunter’ to ‘Farmer’. Theses people have the ability to compress or extend the sales cycle. They can close in either a short or extended sales cycle.

The ‘Farmer’ Salesperson:

Farmers are great with clients. But don’t expect them to do the day-to-day prospecting that the ‘Hunter’ would do. This skill is critical in a more complex sales process that requires multiple visits with multiple decision makers. They love to visit and chat with the prospect. ‘Farmers’ work the prospect much like a traditional farmer ‘works the land’. They would work well with the decision makers as well as those who use the product. Good ‘Farmers’ are essential to building customer relationships and minimizing attrition.

What Will Your Salesperson Do?

In sales recruiting ,the first step is to understand exactly what you are looking for. Start off by making a list of what you expect your new salesperson to do. Go into the sales recruiting process knowing what you are looking for. This eliminates a lot of bad hires.

Will they be working with consumers, small businesses, large corporations, government, or contractors?
Will they be working in an area that requires technical expertise?
If you recruit the right salesperson without technical knowledge, could they be trained?
Is your ideal salesperson someone who has to make 50 to 100 cold calls a day?
Would they be working, initially, with inside sales, outside sales, or a combination of both?/li>
Will they sell only to new businesses, your existing client base or a combination of both?
Do you give them ‘targeted’ accounts that they’re responsible for?
What presentation skills are required?
To whom will they be making the presentation?
Will they be responsible for customer training?
Is your sales process based on a ‘one-call’ close? i.e. the salesperson meets the prospect, builds rapport, makes a presentation, and closes them all in the same meeting?
Do you need someone who can meet the demands of a ‘multi-call’ sales process. Would they have to plan multiple meetings with the decision maker and stake holders?
Do you need someone who can manage a complex sale with a longer sales cycle?
Will they need to work with multiple decision makers and influencers?
Do they need excellent presentation skills?
Can they effectively show that they have the best solutions to a customer’s problems?

When tackling sales recruiting, sit down and write out a list of the sales tasks that you want a salesperson to be able to handle. This will help lead to the right salesperson. It also helps to avoid the possibility of recruiting someone who isn’t the ‘right’ fit.

Creating A Good Job Description Is Key To Sales Recruiting

The Job Description should describe the responsibilities and duties that are expected . If you decide to hire an external recruiter to help in your search, they also need to be aware of the requirements. When advertising the position inside your organization or outside, create the most attractive and detailed job description possible. Make sure it’s easily understood by anyone who reads it. You want to make sure it shows why they should want to work for you and not your competition. Four key points to keep in mind while creating your job description:

Check out the competition. Do your research and see what the competition is also offering in their recruiting.
Does your company, in particular, appeal to candidates? Why should they want to work for you?
If you were reading this job description and you were a salesperson, would you apply for this job?
Does this job description clearly describe what you’re looking for?

Conclusion

The bottom line to hiring the right salespeople is understanding what type of person that you’re looking for. Don’t make the mistake of hiring the first person who walks through the door. Look at the job that you want your new salesperson to do. Understand the skill-set they will need to succeed and make sure that your candidate has that skill-set.

In part two of “Sales Recruiting – Hiring The Right Salesperson,” we will examine how to prospect for your next salesperson along with tips on interviewing.

In the third and final section, “Sales Recruiting – Hire The Right Sales Person Part Three Sales On Boarding” we will explore the on-boarding process as well as the best ways to integrate the new salesperson into your organization.

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SMW 004 Sales Recruiting – Hire The Right Sales Person Part One17 min read