Recruiting Top Sales Producers

Results Driven Approach To Your Business Success

There are two reasons why you should consider recruiting top producing sales people.

1. You could be generating appointments and not closing enough sales, which can be very frustrating and costly. It could be that your existing sales team are lacking in skills or motivation, it could be a number of other factors.

Without having a look at all the variables, it is difficult to say what the reasons are if your teams performance is below your expectations.

2. You want to achieve a higher standard. Even if you’re happy with the current performance, recruiting top producers is a credible strategy to set a new standard, to create some competition amongst your team.

By combining the right marketing strategy with a top sales team, higher sales and profits follow.

A common thought amongst many people is that salespeople have certain natural talents, the myth of the ‘natural born salesperson.’ Selling is a process; it requires skills, the right mindset and motivation.

Personality is certainly another very important factor to consider. That could be what people mean, when they say ‘he’s or she’s a natural salesperson.’

With the right training, it’s possible to take someone that has the right personality and motivation and turn them into top producers quickly.

It’s worth dwelling on the subject of personality by telling you a relevant story. A few years ago an industrial psychologist addressed a group of people. He told a story about a company that had a problem with one of their salespeople that kept coming late to meetings.

They had sent her on a number of time management courses, given her counselling and they were becoming exasperated with her inability to change her behaviour. They liked her but they wanted her to change.

Finally they asked the psychologist for help. He told them how much his fees would be for a full day, he had a meeting with the lady in question. Then he returned to the company directors to present his findings to them, half and hour later.

To put this story into context I heard this at a meeting with fellow members of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, (CIPD) who were all waiting for some new pearls of wisdom on employee motivation.

‘So what have you found, how can you make her change her behaviour?’ the directors asked.

‘Well’ the psychologist said, ‘It was quite straight forward, I told her that her employers were not happy and that, if she did not arrive to meetings on time that she would be fired!’

Everyone at the CIPD meeting looked somewhat confused; I can remember thinking is that it?

Then he went on to explain to the meeting, that because he believed that everyone’s general personality is set at around nine years of age, he knew from experience that he had to motivate her differently.

The counselling, the nice way and the re-training had not worked.

Now I have not been trained in psychology, so I am sure there are some contrary opinions about the age that personality is set. The reason I related this story was to make the point about personality being extremely important in understanding sales jobs, any jobs for that matter.

Successful salespeople have certain types of personalities, you can of course teach skills, but you cannot teach personalities. Fortunately there are tests available to verify that the people who you are considering fit the profile of a top producing salesperson.

So part of the process of recruitment should include personality testing.

The good news is that if your budget is tight, you don’t have to pay an extremely high price for an existing sales superstar, who might be currently working for your competitors.

On the other hand if you have deep pockets it is certainly one way of getting the right person if you have the budget for it. This is ‘headhunting’ or the search process.

The other way of attracting candidates is the selection method. If you advertise without restricting the ad too much with regard to criteria, you will attract a larger number of applicants with the right headline, content, remuneration package and media.

Prior to producing your ad you need to establish the job description, sales targets, sales plan commission structure and training plan.

This will enable you to get the successful candidate as productive as possible in the fastest time, once employed.

When we are helping clients with this we also look at the positives about the company so that we sell the job to the candidates at the appropriate stage in the process.

Research undertaken in the USA found that bad hires or bad recruitment cost companies five times the annual salary of the position that they were trying to fill

It’s very important that you do the upfront work before you launch into placing your recruitment ad or instructing someone like ourselves to do the work on your behalf.

The next thing we would recommend is to put a hurdle into the process, which is not text book recruitment.

It’s a rejection process at an early stage to see how people react, if they come back and sell to you then that is a good indicator.

One of the qualities you are looking for is confidence; people who are able to fight back against rejection.

Having gone through this process of selecting people to interview, the typical thing for many business owners is to go through the C.V. to try to probe around background, ambition, confidence, and motivation. This is fine, but it’s not testing them, it’s not giving you any information about their ability to perform.

A decent or below average salesperson can tell you what you want to hear at interview, but that does not tell you if they are any good.

Whilst taking up references afterwards might help, it’s almost too late. Also people these days are reluctant to tell you anything that you really should know, for fear of legal action against them.

So your one real chance is the interview, this should be the proving ground.

When we do this for clients, we set up a series of scenario tests which puts the candidates into a sales simulation.

This process kills off the bluffers, they have nowhere to hide.

It allows you to choose someone that is showing you their talent

When you have gone through this process, it’s then time to sell the job and the package to the candidate which is where your preparation comes in.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, if you want to know more about recruiting top producers or have any questions relating to growing your business, you can call me on 01623 720022 during normal business hours or click this link to let me know when it’s a good time to talk.

Sincerely

Mark Wheatley