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How to Recruit the Right Sales Person in 2003
 Recruitment, retention and training and development are areas that are
coming under greater scrutiny currently. Although these disciplines require
substantial time and effort up front, a structured and measured approach
will always pay dividends over time. Recruiting the right team from the
outset really is the critical success factor for most businesses.
Unfortunately recent breakthroughs in human stem cell cloning have not
advanced to sales people yet! Until they do so, I would venture a few
suggestions on how best to approach the recruitment of very good sales
professionals.
How to Recruit the Right Sales Person in 2003
By Tim Greenwood on behalf of the Sales Institute of Ireland
Ph. 01.6619636
In these changing times most sales managers will have experienced somewhat of a bumpy ride along their track to year-end. In general targets have been re-assessed downwards from the double digit growth rates of the late 90s Tiger economy and with most economists forecasting GDP growth of less that 3% for the next 3 to 5 years many sales managers are increasingly looking at the means within their control of optimising their team’s performance.
Recruitment, retention and training and development are areas that are coming under greater scrutiny currently. Although these disciplines require substantial time and effort up front, a structured and measured approach will always pay dividends over time. Recruiting the right team from the outset really is the critical success factor for most businesses. Unfortunately recent breakthroughs in human stem cell cloning have not advanced to sales people yet! Until they do so, I would venture a few suggestions on how best to approach the recruitment of very good sales professionals.
I write from the perspective of a specialist sales recruiter. A unique area of recruitment, where demand for this professional service has actually increased over the last two years as many of our client companies require better, more focussed and effective sales people.
Where to look
It is generally agreed that Ireland’s economy has stopped short of descending into a full-blown recession over the last two years. Some industries have collapsed while others such as pharmaceuticals remain extremely strong. Indeed it is apparent that consumer spending has continued to be relatively buoyant. On the other hand we have witnessed the sinking of corporate and now more recently, public sector spending. One would expect therefore that there should be an over supply of strong sales people from verticals such as IT, Telco, Services and generally B2B.
If industry specific experience isn’t top of the pile for you it is worthwhile considering candidates from these sectors. But be careful! Some of these people may be on the market because they were the least effective members of their sales team. This leads me to the inevitable conclusion that if you require top dogs in any industry you need to be looking in the best kennels.
So many companies, through choosing the wrong method of recruitment or using the wrong agency, don’t realise it but they’re actually confining their search to the dog pound, home of strays and mongrels! It is a commonly held view that many of the best people are doing well and haven’t put themselves on the market. It’s unlikely that they’ll see your advertisement or indeed if they do, take any notice of it amongst the noise and confusion of today’s information overload. To access these people time and time again requires well drilled, briefed and above all, clever recruitment professionals.
Preparation
Over the last two years there has been a noticeable lengthening of the time it takes employers to recruit and a greater hesitation for employees to move jobs, especially the good ones. If you are embarking on a recruitment process do it swiftly and efficiently. Don’t make hasty uninformed decisions. Put time aside for proper preparation. Establish the correct methodology, whether, in house, advertising or a recruitment consultancy or perhaps a mixture of all three.
Many companies fall down on the preparation. The biggest way this manifests itself is by the company not knowing what they want. If it proves difficult for you do define what you want, de-conceptualise it and describe what type of company the ideal candidate might have worked in before or indeed what type of sell they could have experience of. How many of us have read a job description and quite frankly put it down none the wiser? Keep a job description simple and to the point. Another way of defining a job spec is to ask your customers what attributes they look for in an account manager or sales executive. They’ll quickly tell you what qualities and experience they expect from an effective sales person or indeed what rankles them. The net result of defining the brief properly is that you will be able to make a quick decision and rest in the assurance that it was the right one.
Recruitment Companies
While there are many dubious recruitment organisations in the market place, you will find that there are some good ones too.
Generalist recruitment companies exist because it makes commercial sense for them to be able to recruit across all functions of business. It may not necessarily suit you and the important thing to note is that there is a huge distinction between different types of recruitment company from high street employment agencies right up to executive selection consultancies.
Choose one that suits you and can outwardly demonstrate a level of competence and professionalism in their specialist field. Don’t use too many recruitment companies. Word will get out amongst potential candidates who could be approached more than once by different recruiters, which may lead people to conclude that you’re either desperate or un-professional. Make sure you brief the recruitment company properly. Meet the recruiter who is going to be handling your account, it is as important for you as it is for him/her. This face to face contact will ensure a more efficient process. Keep in contact with your recruiters – how many times have you been frustrated yourself when you’ve applied for a job and heard nothing back? Like any product or service, make sure you agree the fee beforehand. Agree a timeframe and stick to it. Interview people quickly and don’t leave weeks on end between first and subsequent interviews. Ensure your recruitment company isn’t going to be sending you droves of CVs because if they’re doing this they’re not doing their job. For most roles we work on there would be 2 to 4 suitable CVs sent to the client.
Some companies approach a recruitment process with the view that most people out there would bend over backwards to work for them. This is a mistake. Always sell your company fairly and honestly and remember, people aren’t perhaps as naïve as they used to be when going through an interview process especially over the last decade or so as access to information has increased dramatically. It is true that since early 2001 the market has shifted to an employer’s market but the greater backdrop is that of a more discerning, picky and ultimately more powerful candidate. Bear this in mind, because the best sales people will undoubtedly show these characteristics.
Interviewing
Review your job spec and spend time preparing questions to test the candidates’ abilities and experience. You may wish to interview with a colleague in order to get a second opinion. Don’t be tempted to use this good cop bad cop scenario – that went out years ago. Work with HR or the recruitment consultant to develop role competencies. Some suggested competencies inherent in good sales people would be negotiation skills, strategic selling, planning, organisation, cost and commercial orientation, entrepreneurial sense, openness to change and interpersonal skills. Devise questions to test and probe candidates in each of these areas. And above all, make sure you ask the same competency based questions of each candidate. Always provide objective and fair feedback to candidates and don’t just let them hang there waiting for news. They could be current or future customers. Aside from that, it’s just bad manners. Most managers tend to recruit in their own image. This is natural and part of the reason that a company culture can be such a strong phenomenon. Be mindful of this and be open to people of different mindsets. A diverse team is undoubtedly more effective than a team of clones.
Selecting
One of the key changes in the employment market brought about by Ireland’s economic boom of the 90s, has been the promiscuity and decreased loyalty of the Irish employee. The ‘job for life’ is now a thing of the past. Not only are people more likely to make a number of moves in their career but frequent moves are becoming increasingly acceptable amongst employers when assessing applications. One truth is for sure – good people will always want to move upwards. If they reach a career ‘blockage’ in one company they must look elsewhere to fuel their ambition. Be careful not to disregard someone who has made a number of moves but do make sure they have made those moves for the right reasons.
To aid selection, prioritise the importance of each competency to assess which ones are going to be most important for this job and score each candidate accordingly. Use psychometric assessment to distinguish between two excellent candidates. Additionally it will provide a useful tool for appraising, training, motivating and retaining them in the future.
Very often an employer can be undecided between one candidate who has the right experience but may not appear to have the right personality or cultural fit and another candidate with the opposing characteristics. It is often preferable to choose the person who is hungry and eager to learn rather than the person who has already done your job. In making your final decision between candidates, you can never ignore your gut. Sometimes we can over use the science of selecting the right candidate and get it wrong. Above all, spend time with people and communicate effectively.
Rewarding
With the lower business growth rates of the last two years, some managers are spending more money on sales people than on marketing or advertising as their search for faster and more direct results becomes critical.
Within many organisations, sales people tend to be rewarded extremely handsomely often at the expense of other functions. It all depends on how important the sales function is to the business. In tough, competitive markets, however, one must motivate sales people financially. You are probably aware that sales people can be mercenary and a commission structure based on sound strategic and achievable targets must exist. In a sales and customer driven company, don’t always cap commissions – structure them so that continued sales growth over and above target is always achievable. To attract the best sales people to your organisation you really must pay a little more than the competition. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can always offer a lower basic salary than a candidate is already on and promise them a higher on target (ote).
For commercial roles I have found that the normal commission or bonus level is 10% to 15% of the basic salary. That is fine across marketing, finance or operations but I would suggest upping the ante for the sales function to a minimum of 20% of base salary. Above all an open and even salary scale based on a meritocratic culture will help to ensure a trouble free rewards structure.
Other rewards exist besides simply the pecuniary ones. Do not underestimate the importance to your team of hitting target in itself. The psychological rewards of reaching target can be immense and really give a boost going into the new sales year.
Conclusion
Spend time assessing how you recruit and retain, analyse these areas and decide whether they are working for you. Keep an open mind towards people from diverse backgrounds who could very well have transferable skills. One such example of this is the major Telco organisation in the country where in recent years there has been a requirement to recruit sales people but no bank of suitably experienced candidates due to the monopolistic environment. A huge recruitment drive coincided with deregulation and most successful candidates came from other sectors. Be mindful that when you go to the market you could be exposing yourself to the public and everything you do should be to the highest standards. Many companies fall down in this area and, while they end up hiring the right person, they also leave a trail of bad feeling behind them. Above all remember, when you are recruiting yourself or delegating recruitment you are affecting the strategic direction of the organisation.
In this challenging environment, we all must have the right people and have them quickly and efficiently, so make sure the gatekeeper is the right person for the job especially if you’re using a recruitment company.
In the past good jobs that paid above average such as the bank or the civil service have in many instances been demoted down the options ladder in people’s minds. Sales, I believe, is a discipline whose public perception is gaining credence as a dynamic career path and all the time capturing share of the ‘careers market’. As the power of corporate Ireland reaches greater dominance at the expense of the public sector and competition becomes more and more prevalent we are all gradually (though perhaps we don’t know it) instilling a sales culture into ourselves. As a result we are becoming more adept sellers and more discerning buyers. I think we will continue to see further advances, not only in the standard of the sales profession in Ireland but also in the perception of sales as a career. All of which will make it easier, in the long run, to recruit quality sales people.
Tim Greenwood is a Director of Sales People, a part of The People Group, Ireland’s leading Sales & Marketing Recruitment Consultancy.
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