Why Your Company Is Not Getting the Best Sales Employees?

As a sales recruiting firm, we consistently get calls from all different types of companies looking for various types of sales and marketing professionals. Some companies are very successful at obtaining Grade “A” sales representatives and they do so quite frequently. Though, for some organizations, it takes months (if not a lot longer) to find somebody whom they will even considering hiring. What are the downfalls of a hiring process such as this? When it comes to hiring sales people, why are some companies having trouble? What can be done to prevent this HR debacle?

Included in this article are some reasons explaining as to why you are not building the best sales team within your industry and a few practices which will quickly take care of this problem.

1. Compensation – when companies are taking advantage of the 9.5% unemployment rate by offering lower compensation packages, job seekers immediately sniff it out and shy away from interviewing with your firm. If your company continues to take advantage of the open market, when hiring gets better, you are going to be knee deep in turnovers and unhappy employees. Additionally, employees show more enthusiasm when their compensation is higher. Without a doubt, you will receive a better ROI from an employee who is paid $10,000 more on the base than the alternative.

Additionally, if your company hides behind commission potential as reasoning for a low base salary, your chances at obtaining that great sales representative are close to nil. We refer to this low compensation justification as the “uncapped commission lure.” The “uncapped commission lure,” is when a company justifies paying an employee less due to the fact that they can make an uncapped amount in commission which, essentially can make them rich. Moreover, if your company goes this route to justify a lower than market base salary, they are in for a long and arduous recruiting process.

2. Exact Backgrounds – if your company wants somebody with a background that is too specific, it can sincerely hurt your firm’s hiring ambitions and, more the most part, your organization will forego finding truly great sales representatives. When your company sets forth the requirements for a sales representative, you should have some variables listed that, if missing, it would not preclude somebody from being considered for the job. There are some industries in which every background variable has to be in place (biotechnology or government selling would be two examples), however in most industries, if you hire a very intelligent and competent sales person, they can quickly pick up the concepts and sell your product or service line.

3. Too Many People Involved in the Hiring Process – this is something that is sure to slow down the recruitment process. In this case, the term “the more the merrier,” does not apply. The companies which are able to procure the best sales professionals only have a few people involved in the hiring process. The best number is 4 or less. Once more than 4 people are involved in the process, hiring gets drawn out and it leaves your company open to losing sales applicants to a competing organization whose hiring practices prove to be more swift and timely.

4. Lack of a Go to Market Plan – if a company does not have a good strategy as to how to go to market with their products or services, the job is going to be a “cold-calling fiesta” and no sales professional wants to be part of this. Before hiring a salesman or saleswoman, make sure that they are going to have some marketing and / or advertising support. If your company does not have a set plan for this, many sales applicants will be turned off at the perceived lack of marketing and advertising advantage in which they will receive.

Author Bio: Ken Sundheim runs a sales recruitment agencysales placement sales recruitment agencies and marketing staffing agency marketing staffing marketing recruiting new york The firms sales headhunters sales management recruiters new york are in NYC

Category: Business Management
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