CAN YOU AFFORD TOP SALES TALENT?
The answer is yes! Here is why:
You are probably familiar with the 80/20 rule, i.e. 20% of the sales professionals in a company generate 80% of the sales. Although the actual percentages vary based on market, product line, etc., the concept is consistently valid. A small percentage of the sales team usually makes a large percentage of the company’s sales. Accordingly, increasing the percentage of productive sales talent, even incrementally, can have a significant positive effect on your revenue and profit. On the other hand, the cost of replacing a non-productive employee is very high. According to the Society for Human Resource Management the cost of employee replacement is up to five times annual compensation. These are strong arguments in favor of hiring only productive talent even if you have to stretch your budget. Here are some tips on how to do so.
Successful recruiting requires the right recruiting tools. Initially, you will need application forms that are customized for each job and written job descriptions that accurately describe the job requirements. Remember to include a paragraph about your company and its advantages in the job descriptions. Evaluate candidate applications, resumes and work samples such as sales communications and proposals to help determine who you will invite for interviews. Prepare interview candidate score cards to assure objective candidate evaluations. After interviewing is completed and you have selected the finalist(s), perform background and reference checks and review W-2s or other documents to confirm compensation.
Use the following criteria to evaluate candidates: Past performance, experience, job tenure, personality and cultural fit. Past performance is the most important criteria because it is the best indicator of future performance. In addition, past performance can be measured objectively by reviewing historical sales vs. quotas. Wherever possible, recruiting tools and processes should attempt to determine past performance. For example, applications should ask for all prior jobs or at least the last three jobs and sales vs. quotas for all years. Interviewers should ask probing questions regarding previous jobs in order to obtain an accurate understanding of past performance.
Job tenure and related issues should be carefully reviewed. Applications should ask for job start and end dates in months and years (not just years) and reasons for leaving. Interviewers should discuss job tenure, challenges, successes and relationships with peers and supervisors. Here again, interviewers should ask probing questions.
Effective recruiting takes a significant amount of time. Unfortunately, hiring managers frequently do not have enough time to devote to recruiting because of the pressure of operational issues.
CNI Recruiting can help. Here is how:
CNI Recruiting can significantly reduce the time required for recruiting and increase the percentage of productive hires. We know how to find and evaluate talent and achieve the right match between our clients and candidates on a timely basis. Our recruiting team leverages a national recruiting database of over 120,000 candidates that allows us to quickly refer the right candidate for you.
We are so confident in our recruiting process that we provide a NINE MONTH, NO QUIBBLE GUARANTEE IN THE EVENT OF RESIGNATION OR TERMINATION FOR ANY REASON. CNI Recruiting offers world-class recruiting for a referral fee of 20% of candidate first year base salary including Executive Searches and we receive our fee only if you hire our candidate. We are based in New Jersey and recruit throughout the U.S. If you require assistance in achieving your recruiting goals, or have questions or comments about this article, or recruiting in general, please call (908) 874-6148 or email [email protected] today…we will exceed your expectations.
Fred Neufeld
President
CNI Recruiting
(908) 874-6148
www.cnirecruiting.com
