How to Hire Sales Talent

Hiring top sales representatives requires positioning your company as a great employer and targeting job seekers who align with your brand. Here’s how.

Finding experienced and talented salespeople requires strategy, patience, and skill. You need to hire talent that aligns with your brand and understands the ever-changing sales industry. Services and products are more sophisticated than ever – and so are customers. So it takes a smart, savvy sales professional to stay ahead of the game.

The most successful and effective sales talent can work in any industry, so you just need to develop strategies to attract, recruit, and retain them. Here’s what you need to know to recruit and hire top sales talent.

Build a compelling brand identity

To attract top sales talent, you need a strong, authentic brand that’s different from others in your industry. Position your company in a way that makes people want to work there – and keep working there. After all, your employees have to believe in your brand in order to effectively communicate it to prospective customers.

Create guiding principles for your business that communicate your values and the environment you want to foster. And remember that small gestures, such as inviting prospective sales agents for happy hour with the rest of your team, can create a big impression.

Hire in line with your company culture

People are more productive working in a firm with a culture that suits them. Hiring salespeople that align with your company culture helps boost collaboration, reduce conflict, and retain talent. So how do you make sure you’re getting the right fit?

During interviews, ask potential employees about their lifestyles and ideal workplaces. What kind of hours do they expect to put in? Do they prefer working in the office, from home, or on a hybrid schedule? What about social activities with their colleagues? The more you know, the better you’ll be able to determine how their vision matches up with your organization’s reality.

Also, make sure to screen for basic qualities such as willingness to partake in professional development opportunities. This ensures that anyone you hire will support your company’s continued growth and development mission.

Use a candidate-centered interview process

Creating a candidate-centered interview process puts your hires at ease and allows an accurate assessment of all applicants. It’s easy to forget that interviews go both ways – the prospective employee is evaluating you, too. So you need to sell your company as much as job candidates need to sell their skills. 

A candidate-centered interview process shows prospective hires that you’re an employer who values the people who work for you. If they receive multiple job offers, they’re more likely to choose your company if they had a positive experience during the interview. Some strategies to consider:

• Involve your entire team in the recruiting process: This will show that your employees care about the future of the company.
• Provide advice to the hires during the interview: The most ambitious and talented sales reps are always looking for an edge. An educational interview demonstrates that your organization promotes learning and growth.
• Build a rapport with the sales candidates: Get to know them as people, not just job candidates.
• Be respectful and provide substantive feedback when rejecting a candidate: Salespeople talk to each other, so taking the time to write encouraging and personal rejection letters will improve your company’s reputation among top talent.

Show candidates a clear career roadmap

The most promising talents want to work in companies that have room for future advancement and provide guidance on how to get there, so you need to provide that information up-front during the interview process. Discuss training programs that you offer that will help them develop their skills, as well as any incentives for continuing their education outside company time. Talk to them about where they see themselves in five or ten years, and ways that you can help them reach those goals. And let them know that your door is always open if they need career advice or want to talk about their progress. 

Offer competitive compensation

As the saying goes, money talks. And if you offer attractive compensation, top sales talent will listen. Offering a competitive wage shows that you’re serious about hiring the best. You require quality work and are willing to pay for it, and that will attract high-performing sales representatives to your company. Also, when discussing on-target earnings (OTE) with potential hires, make sure your targets are realistic. Candidates have to see that they have a real chance of achieving those earnings, or they’ll quickly cross you off their list. 

Hire top sales talent today!

Sales turnover is one of the primary indicators of a firm's success. After all, without a solid sales team, you’ll never reach your goals or increase your revenue. So attracting and retaining the right sales talent is crucial to your business’s success. It also requires carefully crafted strategies. 

To attract the best talent, you need to create a compelling brand and offer a corporate culture that appreciates good work. When conducting interviews, make sure to sell yourself as a premium employer. Convince the candidate that you will always value their work and help them advance in their career. 

And if you need some help finding and hiring the best talent, it never hurts to work with an experienced sales consultant. At MetaGrowth Ventures, we provide all the tools and strategies you need to build a world-class sales team. Our expert staff will leverage their decades of experience to take your sales to the next level. Contact us to learn more.