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Sales Recruiting 2.0: How to Hire Top Performing Salespeople, Fast

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A few years ago, it was still possible to draw decent responses to open positions by using company websites, online job ads and career sites. Few companies were actively using the web for hiring.

Today, top sales performers don’t bother checking these places. They will never see your ads. If you use traditional avenues to reach strong candidates, you will instead get a steady stream of resumes from non-qualified applicants to keep you busy.

If you want to find and hire sales people who will consistently exceed your quota, you need to approach the challenge a different way.

Sales Recruiting 1.0Sales Recruiting 2.0
Goal is to make a hireGoal Is to hire performer who will consistently achieve quota and contribute to the business
Hiring based on job descriptionHiring based on role / selling environment with scoring criteria to evaluate candidates
Advertise on Web and Job BoardsActively target specific companies and networks
Interview candidates that apply to job postingsOnly interview a select few of highly qualified candidates
No interview processInterviews / Behavioral and Competency Tests / Role Plays / Assignments
Candidates shortlisted based on arbitrary rulesCandidates rank based on score against criteria
Validate employment recordThorough behavioral background checks to test capabilities and assumptions
Do not track successKeep a hiring scorecard
Low success rate for making good hiresAchieve 100% at target
Expect 15 – 30% turnoverExpect 0% turnover

Successful sales recruiting is all about matching hard-to-find talent with open roles and opportunities. Naturally, some of the skills any recruiter needs are the same across industries, but sales recruiters must be equipped with a unique set of skills to succeed.
That’s because the playing field is littered with obstacles like these:

  • Fact 1: 55% of people earning their living in sales should be doing something else.
  • Fact 2: Another 20-25% have what it takes to sell, but should be selling something else.
  • Conclusion: 75-80% of salespeople are selling something that they are not suited to sell. (No wonder more than 50% of sales reps are not at target.)

If a salesperson is not suited for your team, or what’s being sold, you are in trouble. No amount of hands on management, extra training, incentivizing or reprimanding is going to make things better.

That’s why hiring the right sales team in the first place is the single most critical action you can take to achieve superior results in your company.

If you hire the right sales people, you can expect:

  • 100% of your reps at target
  • happier customers
  • more sales wins
  • lower hiring costs
  • better brand reputation
  • less wasted management time
  • 0% turnover

So all you have to do is go out and hire the right people. Sounds easy. But consider this: all of your competitors are trying to do the same.

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