Recruiting

The time to start looking for a new salesperson isn’t when you’ve just lost one. You should always be on the lookout for possible candidates. Keep a "Resume/Prospective Salespeople" file folder close by and put into it any resumes you might receive or even the names of people you might like to have work for you if the conditions are right.

Just like professional fishermen catch more fish when they use a bigger net, you can find more potential recruits if you cast a bigger, wider net.

Don’t get stuck always using the same old techniques. Broaden your reach. Don’t discount competitors as a good source of potential candidates. How about salespeople in allied or similar industries? Use the Internet. Check out Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, HotJobs.com, SalesLadder.com SalesJobs.com, etc.

If you’re in Canada, check out the services offered by the Canadian Professional Sales Association at CPSA.com.

Looking for new salespeople? Ask your top performers if they know anyone. Birds of a feather flock together and it’s quite likely that your existing people may know someone who could be a candidate for the position.

Also, don’t hesitate to ask your current salespeople if they know any competitive salespeople whom they respect. Be careful about approaching these possible candidates directly as you might start a raiding war. Use a third party such as a flexible executive recruiter to make the approach and to assess the candidate’s interest in making a career change. You've got nothing to lose and a lot to gain. When you hire a salesperson away from your competition, you're up one and they're down one. A big difference.

It’s wise to have a wary eye when reviewing resumes. Some of them are exercises in creative writing, second only to a salesperson's expense report, and accomplishments and achievements become inflated with the passage of time.

If someone looks good, take the time to call his or her former employer and confirm what was written in the resume. Be extra wary if the former employer is no longer available to confirm the information (how convenient!). The true cost of a bad hire is slow in coming so take the time to hire smart.

To eliminate obvious misfits from the pile of responses you hope to get from your recruiting efforts, you need to have a filter through which you will pass the résumés and applications. You do this by developing a set of mandatory and desirable criteria.

Some general categories of criteria are:

• Education
• Past applicable work experience
• Previous training (non-sales)
• Special skills
• Hobbies or interests
• Socio-economic level
• Personality traits
• Stability
• Sales training
• Organizational skills

Take the time to build a filter for a sales position in your company. Look at the categories above and decide which factors are “must-have” (mandatory) and which are “nice-to-have” (desirable) and build your list.

Beware of establishing requirements that are too stringent and therefore may eliminate a good candidate. For example, a university degree may be nice to have (desirable) but don't make it a mandatory requirement unless it really is mandatory.

Rank your “desirables” as to what is most desirable, next most desirable, etc. This will help you select between candidates who may have many of the required criteria for the position.