How To Recruit Top Sales Talent

Recruiting top sales talent is difficult…

 

But it is worth the effort. We are all familiar with the 80/20 rule, i.e. 20% of the sales team in a company generates 80% of the sales.  Although the actual percentages vary based on market, product, etc., it is generally true that a disproportionate percentage of sales are generated by a small group of top performers.   Accordingly, increasing the number of productive Sales Executives and Sales Managers (“good hires”), even incrementally, can have a significant positive effect on revenue and profit.  On the other side of the ledger, the cost of replacing a “bad hire” is up to five times annual compensation, according to the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). Here are some suggestions to make it easier to recruit top sales talent:

• Prepare written job descriptions.
• Evaluate skill set, past performance and job tenure when reviewing resumes.
• Prepare a list of candidate questions based on the job and cultural requirements.
• Multiple phone and in-person interviews.
• Discuss every job, or at least the last three. Ask probing questions to determine past relationships with other team members and supervisors.
• Ask for the reasons candidates left their jobs and discuss them in detail.
• Obtain more information about skill set and past performance and confirm information included in resumes.
• Evaluate work samples, i.e. sales communications and proposals.
• Perform reference and background checks.
• Review W-2’s or other documents to confirm past compensation.
• Score candidates using a simple numerical scale, i.e. 1-5 or 1-10 so that you can compare candidates objectively.

Hiring managers often feel that they don’t have the time for effective recruiting and that they are buried in resumes.  CNI Recruiting can solve these problems and significantly improve the percentage of good hires. We carefully evaluate candidates against job requirements and refer only candidates who meet these requirements. We know how to recruit top talent on a timely basis. Our referral fee is only 15% of candidate first year base salary including Executive Searches.

CNI Recruiting is based in New Jersey and recruits throughout the U.S. for sales, marketing, operations, and IT professionals for business and healthcare. Please contact us today. Just email us at [email protected], or call (908) 874-6148 or fill out the contact form below. We will exceed your expectations.

Fred Neufeld
President
CNI Recruiting
www.cnirecruiting.com