Top 10 Sales Recruiting Lessons to Hire Great Salespeople

One of the first emails I came across this morning was a LinkedIn update telling me that 16% of my network had started new jobs.  16%.  That’s one of every 6.25 people I am connected to.

That brings us to this question.  Who’s in a LinkedIn network?

I’m very selective about who I connect to on LinkedIn.  Some would suggest that you should connect with as many people as possible.  I’m of the belief that you should connect with people who you know and who know you.  I believe that you should also connect with those who fit the profile of your customers and/or clients as well as the people who can connect you with them.

I receive twenty requests to join someone else’s network for every one I send out, and I don’t accept invitations from people I don’t know unless they are connected to my target audience. I admit it, I’m a LinkedIn snob.

So with all that said, 16% of my small network, with fewer than 1,000 connections, still means that after we account for those people who I know, but aren’t in my target demographic, more than 125 CEO’s, Presidents, HR Directors, Sales Directors and Salespeople took new jobs.  2 of them left my company, a bunch of them left clients, and another bunch took jobs with clients.

This is actually very consistent with what we see and what our clients see when recruiting for positions.  There are plenty of senior sales candidates out and about, getting fed up, discouraged, mistreated, and terminated.  At the same time, very few of them have the competencies required to be effective in sales management and sales leadership roles.  You must be extremely selective and that’s where it helps to have an awesome Sales Management or Sales Leadership Candidate Assessment like Objective Management Group (OMG) offers.  It is of enormous help in filtering the good-looking candidates from the strong, competent candidates.

When it comes to sales candidates, there is a certifiable shortage.  Sure, if you post an ad, you’ll get resumes, but most of the available (I can’t call it talent) candidates are of poor quality.

We have several tricks that we use to find and attract top talent (I share an awful lot in my blog posts, but we get paid for our best stuff), but the real lessons are these 10:

1. You must be patient.  Wait for the right one and don’t compromise.
2. Don’t hire because of a resume or references.  The success may not be transferrable.
3. Don’t disqualify because of a resume.  It may not be their fault.
4. Don’t disqualify because of a failure.  It could have been cultural or industry-specific.
5. Track record is good, but not a guarantee of future performance.
6. It comes down to Motivation, Competencies, Capabilities, Sales DNA and Fit and those must be measured, not claimed or guessed at.
7. Everything you think you know about recruiting salespeople is probably only half right.
8. If you don’t use an accurate, predictive, sales-specific Candidate Assessment, you’ll have better luck spinning the wheel.
9. Most recruiters are no better at spotting and/or recommending good sales candidates than you.
10. A good, new salesperson, without formal, structured on-boarding, direction, accountability and coaching, is just as likely to fail as a lousy salesperson.