How to Pitch Your Company to a Sales Candidate
Chris Fawcett • May 19, 2021
Improve Pitches to Potential Sales Candidates
Anybody that has worked with sales professionals at any point in their lives knows just how hard it is to land a truly great one. Too many of them don’t possess the thick skin required for such a position, and others are just flat-out unmotivated. Knowing this, companies need to put considerable effort into interviewing the best and brightest sales candidates, but because these people are so valuable, it often ends up being the company making the first sales pitch to the potential employee.
Thankfully, there are a few things that companies can do to improve their pitches to potential sales candidates for sales executive positions, each of which is designed to help you hire the type of employees that are going to be driven, professional, and irreplaceable.
Share Your Company’s Milestones and Goals
Sales candidates are going to look at your business in a couple of different ways. They will care about where you have been as a company, what sorts of successes and milestones you have hit as an organization, and where the company is going in the future. Your job is to make sure they understand what sorts of rich traditions have been established in your place of business to date, then give them a sense of how much growth you expect over the next five to ten years. In other words, make them want to be part of this family, not only because of where you have been, but also where you are going.
Make Sure There Is Opportunity for Development and Growth
The future is incredibly important, especially for younger sales candidates that do not always care what has gone into a business in the past. Make it clear that they will have significant professional development opportunities, as well as a good chance of moving up the corporate ladder if they perform well. Raises, promotions, and even just mentorships and further professional training all matter to young business professionals looking for great jobs.
Sell The Company’s Culture
People want to work in environments that are supportive and exciting and professional, so make sure you appropriately convey to top-shelf applicants just how fantastic it is to work at your place of business. Let them know how much people love working there, and insinuate that the same could be true for them should they choose to join the family.
Provide Desirable, Competitive Benefits
Money and benefits matter, too, perhaps more than anything else. To lure the best candidates, you will need to offer competitive compensation and benefits so that they can be excited about the money they’re making, even as they’re excited about the culture in which they are working.
Of course, Sales Recruiters of Virginia can help you find the best candidates possible for your open sales positions. Sometimes, a respected sales recruitment agency is the best way to get these eager potential employees to the interview table. What they do from there depends largely on how well you and your team sell the job to them.
Accent Professional Recruiting Acquires Sales Recruiters of Virginia
According to research compiled by the Bridge Group, the average annual attrition rate in sales is 34 percent. This number is alarming because it means some employers may need to replace the equivalent of their entire sales force every 3-4 years or so. For some employers, attrition is even more of a problem. The Bridge Group reports that over 10 percent of companies have yearly sales force turnover rates that exceed 55 percent. With that rate of attrition, these employers will be forced to replace the equivalent of their entire sales teams in less than every 24 months. “The Harvard Business Review” estimates that the direct replacement costs for a telesales representative are between $75,000 and $90,000 in many instances, with the same costs being as high as $300,000 to replace other kinds of salespeople. While those figures are eye-opening, it’s important to note that they don’t account for the sales that are lost while a sales position remains vacant or a new salesperson is in training. What does all of this mean? It means that, depending on the industry you’re in, having to replace a salesperson can cost more than $1 million when you factor both direct replacement costs and lost sales opportunities into the equation. Why You Should Outsource Staffing to Sales Recruiters of Virginia With the potential costs of having to replace just one salesperson being so high, it’s vital that you hire the best talent right from the start. We have an outsourcing recruitment process that ensures we’re able to find the best candidates for your executive sales positions. When you choose our outsource staffing agency to fill your new or vacant sales position, we won’t give you a list of applicants who might be able to get the job done. We’ll present you with qualified candidates who are the most likely to thrive at your workplace and stay with your company over the long-term. While that’s certainly a meaningful benefit to outsourcing your sales team staffing, taking advantage of our proven outsourcing recruitment process provides additional benefits that are equally significant, including the following: Wider Pool of Prospects In general, an outsource staffing agency like ours will have access to a wider pool of potential candidates to fill your available sales positions. That’s because recruiting agencies typically have a list of passive candidates who aren’t actively seeking a new job, but who would be a good fit for a position they’re trying to fill. Saves Time When you try to hire a salesperson in-house, it often consumes a lot of time. You need to sort through applications, check references, create job descriptions, and interview prospects, just to name a few of the tasks involved. You can save a lot of time by using our recruiting agency because we take care of every task required to find the best candidates for your available sales positions, including screening and thoroughly vetting candidates. Greater Recruiting Knowledge Even if you’ve hired employees in the past, you still may not be an expert at the recruiting process because it’s not something you do all day, every day like we do. Because we’re solely focused on finding qualified salespeople for our clients, we have an in-depth knowledge of the job market and an intimate familiarity with the staffing and outsourcing recruitment process. With more than 50 years of combined experience, we have the demonstrated expertise to fill your open sales positions. Contact Sales Recruiters of Virginia and start enjoying the benefits of using an outsource staffing and recruiting agency today.
There’s a super competitive market of talent out there but attracting them to your business has proven to be a challenge. The fact is, some of the most talented candidates don’t reach out and apply for new positions anymore. This means you need to take the initiative to reach out and find them. When you want top talent on your team, successfully sourcing candidates is a must. The problem is that many smaller to medium sized businesses have no idea how to go about doing this. You might have some luck with networking and pulling a few strings, but this isn’t a strategy that’s going to bring great talent to your door in the long term. You know that partnering with sales recruitment specialists is an option, but how do you know when it’s time to take the plunge? Here’s a bit of advice to help you decide. You’re Busy Building a Business The process of sourcing candidates isn’t as simple as putting an available position out there and trying to find someone with a degree of talent that’s interested. To effectively source candidates, you need to build a strategy, and that takes time. You need to really analyze the job requirements and build candidate personas, and this is only the beginning. Sourcing talent is about finding the candidates that aren’t looking and controlling the quality of those that make it to the top of the list. The fact is, you don’t have the time to deal with all this. You’re too busy building the type of business that top talent wants to work for. This is the perfect time to hire a sales recruitment professional to help with your sourcing needs. You Want to Connect with Candidates That Aren’t on the Job Boards Sales recruiters have the advantage of being connected to other professionals that help them find talent that can’t be found on active job boards. Candidates that are secure in their abilities don’t waste time on boards. Instead they head straight to recruiters and then wait for the right prospect to contact them. The sales talent is out there, but how are they going to discover the opportunity with your company? You need a connection, in the form of a sourcing pro. It’s their job to network, connect and interview potential candidates every day, so they have access to the talent that you don’t. You Need New Talent Now You’re in need of new sales talent now, but how long will it take to get someone on board? From putting it out there that you’re looking to sourcing, interviewing and hiring, it can take at least a month, if not longer. That’s a lot of time where potential sales opportunities are being lost. A sales recruitment agency can streamline this process, reducing the amount of time that goes by before you say, “you’re hired”. A professional can have qualified candidates in front of your desk in a matter of days, not weeks. Ready to add amazing new talent to your sales team? Now is the time to connect with a sales recruitment professional that will help you source the best candidates. Success is waiting for you and your sales team when you work with Sales Recruiters of Virginia.
It’s the question that every sales-oriented business asks at some point: how do you find good sales people? Wait, scratch that. How to find amazing sales talent? But here’s a little secret. Attracting the best sales talent is as much about you as it is them. Before you can begin to be picky about the level of talent you hire, you must first transform yourself into the type of business that has top notch sales talent knocking down their doors. Here’s how to make that happen. Build Your Brand as an Employer You probably invest quite a bit when marketing your business to attract new customers. You’ve carefully built your brand image to appeal to target audience, and its working beautifully. In fact, it’s working so great that you’re ready to add to your sales team. The only problem is you aren’t sure how to reach out to the perfect candidate. If building your brand has allowed you to reach your target customer, don’t you think that maybe the exact strategy can be used to zero in on the best sales talent? For sales and marketing recruitment, this means three things. Have a track record for success. You don’t have to be the biggest, but you need to be one of the best when it comes to your sales team meeting quotas and crushing goals. If you’re not, new talent is going to wonder why company is making it so hard. Respect. Great talent not only wants to be recognized for their efforts, but they also want to be trusted. Companies that give their sales team a little free reign and let them use their own repertoire of talent and skills tend to attract the best talent. Trust and recognition equal respect. No dead ends. Even a small company with no idea what growth potential will be five years from now, can contribute to their sales team’s professional growth through new opportunities and career development pathways. Hire for the Position It’s thought that certain people that just have a knack for sales. Nobody here is going to argue that point. Some people really do seem to be naturally gifted. However, those people didn’t come from the only mold the sales industry has. Depending on your business, the person you’re looking for might be the polar opposite of the industry standard. Hiring top talent involves stepping away from stereotypes and seeking the unique personalities that are going to win with your customers. Invest in Long Term Growth Finally, the key to attracting top not sales talent is investing in their future. Start by offering compensation that says you respect their skill. Then, have a career track in place. Provide educational opportunities to build professional skills, provide them with support, help them build a portfolio and guide them through changes in the sales industry. Bottom line? Have a reputation of being invested in your sales team’s future. Hiring a great sales team is equal parts of what you both bring to the table. Sales is partnership, and when you build a reputation of success and respect, that partnership will grow. When you do it right, the only time you’ll need to hire new talent is when business is growing out of control.
The life of a sales recruiter is not an easy one, in large part because there are so many people that think they would be good in the world of sales but end up causing nothing but frustration for their employers. Sales Recruiters of Virginia are tasked with putting great salespeople in contact with the respectable companies that need them, but everybody has at some point had a bad experience with an unqualified salesperson. Our job is to help ensure that businesses only end up with the best sales associates possible. Four Must-Have Traits of Successful Sales Candidates But what constitutes “the best”? The following are four qualities that show up most often in successful salespeople. #1 Intrinsic Motivation To be frank, a deep-seeded sense of self-motivation is one of the most sought-after traits of employees in any line of work, but it is especially important for sales people since they often are the ones most responsible for bringing in the income that keeps businesses running. Adding conscientious sales professionals to a staff means adding someone who not only is dependable but also willing to set lofty goals and then work their tails off until those lofty goals have been met. If they can’t light a fire underneath themselves, there is a very strong chance that they will not meet your expectations as a salesperson. #2 Measured Confidence Great salespeople typically are extroverts, which means they head into their industries with the sort of confidence required for closing sales. While a certain measure of timidity can be expected for anybody starting a new position, the best salespeople do not show it when interacting with clients and advertisers. They small talk well, they speak with clients in terms of “when” rather than “if,” and they present themselves with a confidence that suggests things will get done. At the same time, overconfidence can be a burden, so finding a certain coachability is important, too. Confidence matters, but it should not bleed into arrogance. #3 Persistent Resilience Salespeople are going to hear “no” a lot. It’s just the nature of the business. Knowing this, the best salespeople have to be both resilient upon experiencing that constant rejection, as well as persistent in terms of getting back on the horse to keep trying. Great salespeople keep pushing through, even on those inevitable days when they haven’t made a ton of sales. #4 Prior Success What’s the best way to tell that a salesperson is going to be successful? Check on their prior successes. A quick look at a resume can give an employer a sense of how successful someone has been in the past, and asking them about their most prestigious prior accomplishments can be a great way to determine whether or not those experiences will translate to a new business setting. As your sales executive recruitment agency, Sales Recruiters of Virginia is eager to help businesses find the right salespeople, but starting a search based on these characteristics is an excellent first step. Moving beyond that, our expertise can help ensure that your sales team is strong and grows stronger with every new hire.