You’ve found the perfect candidate for your open position, and it’s time to extend an offer. If you stumble in the process and make offer stage mistakes, you may end up losing top talent in your candidate pool. We’ve identified seven major offer stage mistakes companies make and how you can fix each one.
Mistake 1. Not Previewing an Offer
The Fix: Give candidates a verbal overview of your offer so they know how serious you are about hiring them.
Mistake 2. Lowballing the Salary
The Fix: Offer a salary above market.
Mistake 3. Dragging Out the Process
The Fix: Present an offer within 48 hours of the final interview.
Mistake 4. Over Complicating Your Compensation Plan
The Fix: Build your compensation plan over time and tailor it to your new hire’s motivations and needs.
Mistake 5. Assigning Small Territories
The Fix: Evaluate your local market potential and communicate profitability to your candidate.
Mistake 6. Failing to Provide Details
The Fix: Share the tangible and intangible benefits included in your offer, such as health insurance, company car access, covered expenses, and schedule flexibility.
Mistake 7. Not Selling the Opportunity
The Fix:
Express why the candidate is a great fit.
Acknowledge the risk of change.
Emphasize the autonomy and fun your new hire will have
Show them how they’ll be both successful and satisfied at your company.
What does it take to be successful in sales? A recent study asked 500 salespeople to answer this question by rating success characteristics. Here are the winning seven traits identified by top performers.
Amongst success characteristics, drive is voted most important by 81% of top salespeople. It is also innate in an individual’s personality and can’t be easily taught.
2. Problem-Solving
When a salesperson knows how to problem solve, there aren’t many career obstacles they won’t find a way to overcome.
3. Resilient
Taking rejection in stride and bouncing back from failure is crucial to ongoing and sustained success in sales.
4. Ambitious
Peak Sales Recruiting CEO Eliot Burdett lists ambition as one of the top success characteristics he looks for in sales professionals.
5. Critical Thinker
A salesperson who can take a step back, gain a new perspective, and change the way they see their circumstances always has a better chance at success.
6. Competitive
Healthy competition keeps successful sales reps hungry for achievement. Top salespeople keep score and always want to ‘win’ against their past efforts.
7. Collaborative
75% of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as very important success characteristics.
Did you know that 80 percent of corporate jobs are never advertised? Employers and employees often prefer recruiters for job searches and hiring. Do your research and find a quality recruiter who can offer you a meaningful advantage.
Here are ten skills we offer candidates in their job search with us:
1. Industry Knowledge
Much like sales professionals know their territory, sales recruiters understand their industry. They know who’s hiring and what positions are or will be available.
2. Access to Jobs That Are Never Advertised
Often, recruiters are called to replace positions that aren’t publicly advertised.
3. Company Insights
Recruiters build relationships with companies to gain valuable inside information, giving you an advantage.
4. Credibility and Reputation
A recruiter’s advocacy can be more meaningful than a resumé.
5. Expert Interview Skills
Recruiters can provide you with advice on how to prepare for interviews and how to showcase your skills and accomplishments.
6. Time Saving Hacks
Recruiters find jobs that match your skills and experience, so you can focus on your life and work while they search for you.
7. A Keen Eye for Talent
A sales recruiter can help you hone in on what’s most important in the role you are seeking.
8. Hunting Aptitude
A recruiter’s full-time job is to stay in contact with companies in the hiring process. They are skilled job hunters.
9. Powerful Negotiation Tactics
Your recruiter will assist you in discussing a fair payment plan with your potential employer. They will act as a liaison and use market insights.
10. Onboarding Support
Experienced sales recruiters will help you adjust to your new job and check on your progress.
Before Peak, Brent worked in sales and sales-leadership positions for 18 years. He has considerable experience building and running high-performance teams, which consistently won awards and exceeded sales targets. He was Vice President of Sales for a financial management consulting company, and served with Borland Software as a Regional Sales Manager.
Great employees are hard to find and even harder to lose, so counter-offers are inevitable obstacles in the hiring process. Be proactive about your strategy for buffering the effects of counter offers, and you’ll consistently win top employees.
1. Be Known as a Great Place to Work
Proactively developing your company reputation will set you apart from the start. Candidates who are eager to work for you will be easier to entice away from their current employer.
2. Give Them Something Their Current Employer Can’t
Get close to your candidates. Seek to understand their career objectives and motivations for making a change. Then, design your original offer to suit their needs. If you can offer career opportunities that their current employer can’t, counter offers will be less likely to tempt your top candidate.
3. Get Your Compensation Package Right
Candidates who receive low-ball offers that don’t even match their current pay are more likely to be insulted than inspired to negotiate. Make a first offer that meets or exceeds expectations.
4. De-escalate Risk for Your New Hire
No matter how great your offer is, a gainfully employed individual will perceive risk in changing jobs. They already have proven success with their current company. To support their transition, lay out your expectations and their path to success clearly.
5. Out-Counter the Counter Offer
Before your candidate returns to their employer, make it clear that you would like an opportunity to speak to them if they receive a counter offer. While a bidding war isn’t ideal, in some cases it is unavoidable.
Today’s sales leaders need more than selling skills to succeed in sales management. Sales leadership qualities that foster a thriving sales culture are crucial.
The sales leadership qualities that set strong sales leaders apart are rooted in a commitment to ensuring their sales team is well-equipped and engaged. These leaders offer their team members resources and a suitable work environment. They help navigate the changing sales landscape with expertise.
Successful sales leaders in today’s fast-paced business environment have distinct qualities. This article explores and unravels the intricacies of sales leadership. These insights will guide you on your journey. Whether you’re an experienced sales team leader, aiming to become one, or preparing to hire your next sales leader.
8 Sales Leadership Qualities
1. Embrace Data-Driven Decision Making
Successful leaders make strategic sales decisions based on data. They create predictable progress by trackingspecific metrics. They examine analytics regularly. They predict trends and forecast future performance. Calculating and comparing data over time equips leaders to refine their action plans by making effective changes in their strategy. Many other sales leadership skills are built on a sales manager’s ability to take an objective approach to problem-solving.
2. Master Active Listening Techniques
Relationship and communication skills are needed for sales success in any sales role. Sales reps use these skills to connect with potential customers. They also use them to understand customer needs and provide customer service. Through listening and skillfully responding, sales reps can provide customized pitches and convert more customers. In sales leadership, relationship and communication skills are further applied to the needs of a team.
Successful sales leaders practice active listening. They aim to understand where their team members could improve sales performance. They can then devise personalized strategies to help each team member close deals consistently. A sales team needs to cooperate with other departments. A great sales leader will use listening skills to connect with executives. Sales leaders understand the power of incorporating company needs into sales strategies. They know the value of this holistic approach.
3. Stay Focused
It is part of a sales leader’s job to guide their team’s focus through maintaining their focus. A leader who is distracted, uncertain, or slow to make moves will sabotage their team goals and slow down sales success. High-performing sales leaders are devoted to their own individual goals and their company’s long-term goals. They fearlessly determine their priorities and stick to them. Even when tension is high on their team.
Great sales leadership requires commitment and care. Strong sales leaders maintain their narrow focus on the most important goals. They also understand the value of ‘zooming out’ to consider the broader needs of their sales team and company. Sales leaders must balance details with sales goals to achieve maximum results that benefit everyone. This requires innovation.
4. Optimize Sales Processes
Every sales team needs to work seamlessly both within its own sales organization and with teams in other departments. Successful sales management can be distinguished from a lack of sales leadership qualities. This distinction is based on how well the sales process integrates with the whole company. Great sales leadership will consider their team’s workflow and sales processes to determine an effective structure for their team. The outcome of their optimization will be increased productivity and reduced errors.
Sales leaders working within smaller budgets must be resourceful. Maximizing success while having limited funds takes a mastery of efficient sales leadership skills.
5. Commit To Your Plan
Discernment and decisiveness are sales leadership qualities that are inherent in someone’s sales DNA. Quick decision-makers see a way forward and aren’t afraid to initiate momentum. They can choose what is best for their team without wasting time wavering between options, possibilities, and opportunities.
Your sales leaders must take on an authoritative role that commands respect from their team. This does not mean that their sales management style has to be dominating or dictatorial. Leaders achieve powerful sales leadership when they maintain self-control, calmness, and confidence. They also ensure their team possesses these qualities. Leaders build trust by consistently making and following through on important decisions. These decisions involve quotas, incentives, hiring, and firing.
6. Inspire and Motivate
A team’s performance and overall success hinge on their motivation. Sales can be brutal on team morale. In the face ofrejection and objections, sales managers need to have the sales leadership skills to pull their team out of a funk and get them moving again.
Great sales leadership goes beyond textbook motivational tactics and gets to know their team. A bit of trial and error should be expected in the motivational process. What inspires one employee may not inspire another. In collaborative environments, a compelling vision simply may not look the same to everyone on the team. Understanding team dynamics and what motivates an entire sales team is complex work. Done well, this work will pay dividends as your team’s success soars to new heights.
7. Leverage Technology
A modern sales leader does not shy away from new technology. They understand that it is a sales manager’s responsibility to ensure their team has the resources they need. Great managers take this seriously and explore opportunities for their team to improve their sales methodology through technology. They’re endlessly curious about new sales tools, sales software, and AI applications.
While you can teach a manager tech and tools, the hunger to learn and better their team is not something a manager can learn. If you’re a sales manager, spend some time learning about tech you’re unfamiliar with. Bring your findings back to your team with enthusiasm. If you’re looking to hire a sales manager, keep your eye out for leaders who understand the competitive landscape related to technology. Hire individuals eager to use technology to assess and predict buyer behavior, perform sales forecasting, and develop their sales strategy.
8. Elevate Your Coaching Skills
A great sales leader is also a great coach. When their coaching skills are put to work, they can align their team with the company vision and motivate them to reach higher levels of success.
Maintaining a positive attitude and objective perspective is a crucial part of successful sales coaching. Leaders stay grounded. They give emotionally intelligent, constructive feedback to sales team members. They invest consistently inlearning, leadership development, and training. This equips their team to create better performance strategies.
Is it time to hire your next sales leader? Peak Sales Recruiting is here to help you skip the hiring trial-and-error.Contact our team today and get access to our global network of high-performing sales leaders.
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Have you noticed top employees are likelier to quit than your average sales rep? Then, it might be time to consider how you are driving them to leave. Read on to understand why your top employees quit and how to stop your company from bleeding talent.
1. You cap commissions.
When you cap commissions, reps lose motivation and seek more challenging and expansive employment elsewhere. 79% of sales managers with no compensation cap meet and exceed quota. To stay ahead of your competition and boost your profits, offering an attractive compensation package to top talent is vital.
2. You keep under-performers on board.
Poor performers drain company resources and damage brand reputation internally and externally. Top employees want to work with other driven, successful individuals. When mediocre team members surround them, they’re more likely to quit. Learn from successful sales organizations: swiftly replace average reps and have a bench of sales talent to choose from.
3. You penalize the sales team for poor product/service delivery.
Not all sales reps want to be heavily involved with customers after a sale, and varying styles should be honored. Reps only need to maintain a post-sale connection to a certain extent. Ensure a healthy relationship and hand it to the next team member.
4. You take credit for your rep’s success.
Top employees are motivated by recognition. If you ignore, erase, or take credit for their victories, you might as well be asking them to quit. Celebrate their work and highlight their accomplishments as often as possible.
5. You undervalue corporate culture.
Top-performing sales organizations know that they are built on corporate culture. Your top employees will be looking at how you handle challenges and if you treat them as opportunities to grow. Make intentional investments in your company culture to keep top talent.
When a company grows, expands, replaces, or retires team members, it may hire new sales managers. These people greatly impact company culture and can significantly affect team morale. Choosing the right sales managers means ensuring sustainable goal achievement. To thoroughly screen candidates in an interview, ask all-encompassing questions that cover four areas:
1. Personal
What were your best and worst management decisions in the past year?
Describe your decision-making approach when you’re faced with difficult situations.
What is an example of a strong sales manager’s attribute you possess that makes you a great leader?
2. People Management
What elements do you focus on when building a high-performance sales culture?
How do you alter your management style when working with very seasoned sales team members compared to less experienced reps?
How do you communicate your expectations to team members?
3. Customer Management
Briefly describe your sales management process and why it works.
Tell us about a deal you lost to a competitor in a previous role.
What is your sales team’s track record for acquiring and retaining clients?
4. Business Management
In the past year, what have you done to continue your sales education?
Which sales tools do you use, and why?
If you joined our organization, what specific actions would you take as a sales manager in the first month?
Ready to hire your next sales manager? Our team can help you define hiring criteria, screen candidates, and more. Contact us today to get started.
Hiring the wrong person for your sales team can be a costly mistake. Not only will onboarding cost thousands of dollars, but your overall revenue will take a hit if the candidate is not performing. In this article, we’re bringing you our proven interview process to make your recruitment efforts more effective and accurate.
We have perfected the interview process after many years conducting thousands of job searches for our clients. Steal these steps of the interview process for your company to ensure you keep candidates engaged and hire only top performers.
4 Steps of the Interview Process as Recommended by Peak Sales Recruiting
Step 1: The Culture Fit Interview
We always take a two-way approach to all first connections with a candidate. Allow time for your company to get to know the candidate and the candidate to get to know your company. During this initial screening, you’ll be able to determine if the candidate’s background and work history match the job requirements, hiring non-negotiables, and values of their team and company.
It is vital to highlight why the candidate wants to join your organization without over-selling the opportunity. Since most of our candidates are passive — meaning they are not searching for a new opportunity — this is especially important. In this first interview, you must also give the candidate space to ask questions about your company’s current strategy, future market plans, growth goals, and the open role. They will be listening for indicators of whether you, your company, and the available role align with their career vision.
You can hold these preliminary interviews as telephone interviews or video interviews.
Step 2: The Sales Acumen Interview
Before the second interview, we recommend creating an interview baseline. This involves selecting strategic interview questions — while incorporating follow-up questions from the initial interview — that will dive deep and reveal both the ‘red flags’ of underperformers and the ‘green flags’ of top candidates. Your interview structure should be as repeatable and standardized as possible. This standardization helps to eliminate bias and simplify the review process.
During the sales acumen interview, aim to better understand the following:
The nature of the candidate’s specific experience
How the candidate’s experience and expertise align with the role
What the candidate will add to your team
Any risks you would be taking in hiring the candidate
Your interviewers can hold the sales acumen interviews as a video or in-person interview. If your company and industry require a lot of face-to-face interaction during the sales process, you may favor in-person interviews to assess the full range of your candidate’s skills.
Step 3: The Conclusive Capability Interview
Review what you have learned about your candidates from the first two steps of the interview process before proceeding with step 3. If you feel aligned after two interviews, steps 3 and 4 are unnecessary. Before your conclusive capability interview, prepare two to three probing interview questions that fill in any gaps left. Your final interview questions should be questions you have yet to ask in the interview process. Your candidate’s answers should lead you to understand their culture fit and sales performance fully.
In this interview phase, we also recommend requiring some form of presentation from the candidate. This presentation is needed only if the candidate will be giving presentations to clients. In-person interviews are particularly impactful in industries where face-to-face sales meetings are a regular part of selling.
If your interview process has gone well, this may be the final interview for you to extend an offer. If you find a select few top candidates and need one more touchpoint to come to a hiring decision, you’ll need to move on to step four.
Step 4: (Optional) The Final Decision Interview
The final decision interview is only necessary if you have a few very hireable candidates you need to choose from. In fact, we strongly recommend it be reserved only for candidates you are highly likely to hire. This interview typically happens in person. Consider including an out-of-office informal activity like dinner or attending a local event.
In the final interview, your hiring decision-maker can address concerns and choose the best candidate.
How the Interview Process Impacts Your Access to Top-Performers
It’s safe to assume that your top candidates are someone else’s top candidates, too. This means your candidates are comparing you to your competitors in the job market throughout your hiring process. Your first impression matters; every step in the interview process either builds or destroys the rapport, trust, and connection you initially establish with your candidates.
Don’t make the mistake of overcomplicating your hiring process. Doing this can result in a more lengthy interview process. The longer the process, the more likely your top-performing candidates will move forward with another opportunity before you reach a hiring decision.
Candidates will be actively vetting you, your company, and the opportunity you have to offer just as much as you vet them in the interview process. If your interview process is disorganized, candidates could lose interest regardless of your competition — and you’re unlikely to get a second chance.
We recommend following the above steps of the interview process, holding structured, strategic interviews, and finding your next A-player as quickly as possible — without sacrificing quality or connection. Improving your interview process can be done by training your leaders on interview skills and strategy. We also recommend working with a recruitment partner to reach a hiring decision.
We’ve shortened the hiring process through proprietary and proven strategies that we’re ready to share with you. Contact us today to get access to our global network of top performers and tap into our unparalleled hiring support.
Hiring the wrong person for your sales team can be a costly mistake. Not only will onboarding cost thousands of dollars, but your overall revenue will take a hit if the candidate is not performing. In this article, we’re bringing you our proven interview process to make your recruitment efforts more effective and accurate.
We have perfected the interview process after many years conducting thousands of job searches for our clients. Steal these steps of the interview process for your company to ensure you keep candidates engaged and hire only top performers.
4 Steps of the Interview Process as Recommended by Peak Sales Recruiting
Step 1: The Culture Fit Interview
We always take a two-way approach to all first connections with a candidate. Allow time for your company to get to know the candidate and the candidate to get to know your company. During this initial screening, you’ll be able to determine if the candidate’s background and work history match the job requirements, hiring non-negotiables, and values of their team and company.
It is vital to highlight why the candidate wants to join your organization without over-selling the opportunity. Since most of our candidates are passive — meaning they are not searching for a new opportunity — this is especially important. In this first interview, you must also give the candidate space to ask questions about your company’s current strategy, future market plans, growth goals, and the open role. They will be listening for indicators of whether you, your company, and the available role align with their career vision.
You can hold these preliminary interviews as telephone interviews or video interviews.
Step 2: The Sales Acumen Interview
Before the second interview, we recommend creating an interview baseline. This involves selecting strategic interview questions — while incorporating follow-up questions from the initial interview — that will dive deep and reveal both the ‘red flags’ of underperformers and the ‘green flags’ of top candidates. Your interview structure should be as repeatable and standardized as possible. This standardization helps to eliminate bias and simplify the review process.
During the sales acumen interview, aim to better understand the following:
The nature of the candidate’s specific experience
How the candidate’s experience and expertise align with the role
What the candidate will add to your team
Any risks you would be taking in hiring the candidate
Your interviewers can hold the sales acumen interviews as a video or in-person interview. If your company and industry require a lot of face-to-face interaction during the sales process, you may favor in-person interviews to assess the full range of your candidate’s skills.
Step 3: The Conclusive Capability Interview
Review what you have learned about your candidates from the first two steps of the interview process before proceeding with step 3. If you feel aligned after two interviews, steps 3 and 4 are unnecessary. Before your conclusive capability interview, prepare two to three probing interview questions that fill in any gaps left. Your final interview questions should be questions you have yet to ask in the interview process. Your candidate’s answers should lead you to understand their culture fit and sales performance fully.
In this interview phase, we also recommend requiring some form of presentation from the candidate. This presentation is needed only if the candidate will be giving presentations to clients. In-person interviews are particularly impactful in industries where face-to-face sales meetings are a regular part of selling.
If your interview process has gone well, this may be the final interview for you to extend an offer. If you find a select few top candidates and need one more touchpoint to come to a hiring decision, you’ll need to move on to step four.
Step 4: (Optional) The Final Decision Interview
The final decision interview is only necessary if you have a few very hireable candidates you need to choose from. In fact, we strongly recommend it be reserved only for candidates you are highly likely to hire. This interview typically happens in person. Consider including an out-of-office informal activity like dinner or attending a local event.
In the final interview, your hiring decision-maker can address concerns and choose the best candidate.
How the Interview Process Impacts Your Access to Top-Performers
It’s safe to assume that your top candidates are someone else’s top candidates, too. This means your candidates are comparing you to your competitors in the job market throughout your hiring process. Your first impression matters; every step in the interview process either builds or destroys the rapport, trust, and connection you initially establish with your candidates.
Don’t make the mistake of overcomplicating your hiring process. Doing this can result in a more lengthy interview process. The longer the process, the more likely your top-performing candidates will move forward with another opportunity before you reach a hiring decision.
Candidates will be actively vetting you, your company, and the opportunity you have to offer just as much as you vet them in the interview process. If your interview process is disorganized, candidates could lose interest regardless of your competition — and you’re unlikely to get a second chance.
We recommend following the above steps of the interview process, holding structured, strategic interviews, and finding your next A-player as quickly as possible — without sacrificing quality or connection. Improving your interview process can be done by training your leaders on interview skills and strategy. We also recommend working with a recruitment partner to reach a hiring decision.
We’ve shortened the hiring process through proprietary and proven strategies that we’re ready to share with you. Contact us today to get access to our global network of top performers and tap into our unparalleled hiring support.
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Hybrid work is a great solution for companies that want to take advantage of the benefits of remote work without losing the benefits of in-office engagement. These are the four most popular reasons our sales recruiting clients choose to hire hybrid sales reps:
#1 Increased Productivity
A report by Aon Consulting showed that some organizations have seen productivity gains of up to 43% after adopting virtual teams.
#2 Ease of Scaling Through Hybrid Sales Reps
Companies who take a remote or remote-hybrid approach to their sales teams expand their hiring pool, can more easily build a talent bench, and have a much easier time scaling their sales teams.
While some cost is associated with hybrid sales reps’ offices, they tend to be much lower than the overhead from occupying large office buildings. A distributed workforce allows employers to use their office spaces more creatively and efficiently.
