Top 5 Sales Recruiting Observations of 2010

  • June 29, 2010
  • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
  • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

recruitingIf you follow this blog you know that recruiting salespeople is an often repeated topic, albeit from many different angles.

Today, I’ll make some observations about the sales recruiting activity taking place this summer that either reinforces some of the things I’ve said in the past, or modifies my original stance.

In no particular order, but of equal importance:

  1. Candidates that respond more than 1 week after a job has been posted are always either not recommended by the assessment or they live beyond the acceptable commuting range.
  2. There are approximately 4 times more sales management candidates than sales candidates.
  3. The 3-5 minute phone call to screen recommended candidates is still the second most powerful filtering tool available after the sales candidate assessment.  If you don’t like the way they sound and they can’t prove they have the experiences you specified in your ad, don’t interview them.
  4. If you think you can simply assess your 3 favorite candidates and end up selecting a winner you a badly mistaken.  Recruiting statistics haven’t changed much in the past year.  It still shows that for every Great New Salesperson hired it requires:
    1. Face to Face Interviews with the 5 Best Candidates
    2. 15 Recommended Candidates Screened by Phone
    3. 30 Assessments Taken
    4. 50 Resumes Received
    5. Ads posted on two successive weeks on targeted multiple sites
    6. There are still two kinds of sales managers – those who get the process required to hire great salespeople and those who fight it.  Guess which group consistently ends up with the best salespeople?
    7. There are just as many awful salespeople as there ever were – the conversion statistics above show that 30% of the 50 resumes received are recommended by the assessment and only 10% get interviewed for one reason or another.  Our statistics on salespeople assessed indicate the number is 26% strong/74% weak.
  5. This is the best time to recruit great salespeople.  They are out there, but you have to find them and recognize them when you assess them, talk with them and interview them.  Many companies and industries are still struggling and salespeople in those markets will leave for an opportunity to earn lucrative commissions.

Hire some great salespeople today – but do it the right way!