Month: April 2017

4 Actionable Sales Recruiting Tips That Gets Results

Posted on by hiredna

“Hi, Aaron! I hope you’re well. I’ve left you a few messages – I just want to see if you’re still interestedin our Account Executive role. Please give me a call when you have a moment. Hope to hear back from you.”

Does this email sound familiar to you? Have you ever identified the perfect candidate, who seemed very interested in your open sales position, and all of a sudden something changes and they accept another offer?

In today’s highly competitive market, the demand for top producing sales professionals is much greater than the supply. How can your company attract and land the sales talent your organization needs?

Let’s break down four things your company should be doing.

Present A Clear And Concise Comp Plan In The Beginning

No need to sugar coat anything here – it is going to be hard to attract top performing sales people without a competitive and incentivizing compensation plan.

At the end of the day, strong sales people are programmed to drive results that directly impacts their income.  Clearly communicating the sales quota, the OTE (On Target Earnings) and the structure of it all offers the is key. 

In turn, understanding what the candidate is currently earning and how their incentive compensation is structured should be discussed early in the process so time is not wasted on either one’s end.

To lure top talent, you should share past sales’ quota achievements by current sales reps. Demonstrating the potential for high earnings is a great step towards separating your opportunity from the rest of the pack.

Don’t shy away from having the money conversation during the interview process. It shouldn’t be taboo, in fact, we encourage it!

Have a Recruiting Strategy & Organized Interview Process

Having a concise and structured recruiting process is the foundation to hiring qualified candidates faster. Having a game plan in place at the beginning of this process gives you clarity on the type of sales person you need, the experience you need them to have, and where you are going to find them.

A defined recruiting process will help make your candidate search a much smoother process. It enables you to be more efficient by asking the right questions, so you get the insights that you need to make the right hiring decision.

It also makes you appear more professional to your candidate and reassure them that your company could be the right opportunity for them.

Act Fast

Timing is everything when it comes to landing high caliber talent.

Countless companies miss out on salespeople that would’ve been perfect but they simply took too long to make an offer.

We’re not saying that you shouldn’t do your due diligence. You should take the time to determine if the candidate is a good fit for your needs, but we highly recommend consolidating multiple interviews into one day. Candidates actually prefer this so they don’t have to take too much time off work.

How efficient you are when it comes to identifying, assessing, and selecting the best salespeople will have a tremendous impact on your ability to hit your sales targets.

Recruiting Is Sales

Companies with the best sales teams understand the recruiting process is just as much about them selling themselves to the candidates, as it is the candidates selling themselves to company.

Top performing sales people are looking to join an organization that is going to get them where they would like to be in their career professionally and financially. How you communicate why anyone should want to join your sales team is critical to your success in attracting top talent.

Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal sales candidate and ask, “What is it about this opportunity that will benefit me and my career the most?” and be sure to clearly articulate that during the interview process.

Recruiting A-player sales talent is difficult, but not impossible

Talented salespeople are used to receiving numerous job offers. To attract the best talent, you must have a structured recruiting process, which demonstrates why the role would be an excellent opportunity to advance their career.

Join us on Tuesday, May 9th for our exclusive webinar with our CEO @Anwar Allen to revamp your Sales Recruiting strategy!

3 Tips To Improve Your Sales And Marketing Alignment

Posted on by hiredna

Winning a national championship is one of the hardest feats to achieve in sports. Countless things have to go right, and the margins for error are small.

The North Carolina Tar Heels won the 2017 title, but it wasn’t because of their talent alone. Sure, you need talent to win, but teamwork is a critical piece to the puzzle.

Sales and marketing traditionally operate in silos, but data shows this is counterproductive to increasing the bottom line. According to Hubspot, companies that aligned their sales and marketing efforts generated 208% higher revenue.

Here are 3 tips to improve the relationship between your sales and marketing teams to accelerate revenue growth.

Clear Communication

Everyone has a role on the team, but it’s imperative that everyone knows how they work together.

In basketball, the point guard’s role is to facilitate the offense, the shooting guard actively looks for opportunities to score, and the forwards do everything in between.

When it comes to establishing a relationship between sales and marketing, it’s critical that everyone understands where they fit in the overall process. 

When there is uncertainty about what everyone is responsible for, it opens the door for finger pointing. Marketing will blame sales for not working the leads they provide, and sales counters by blaming marketing for not giving them better quality leads. By having a shared goal, it allows you to work backward and define the metrics that each side is accountable for.

Marketing should provide the intelligence to sales so they can be effective at engaging leads and closing deals. Each side should make the other more effective. 

Leverage Analysis And Apply It To Your Game Plan

The difference between mediocre coaches and those that consistently win championships lies in their ability to adjust.

Tools and technology such as CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) have empowered sales and marketing professionals to be more efficient. When used correctly, your CRM is a central repository where all your marketing and sales data lives. 

Marketing needs data to know what their target audience cares about so that they can create content that is valuable and relatable. Sales need data like customer behavior, content your prospects download, level of engagement, market research, etc. to contextualize your leads. Those insights enable sales reps to be more strategic in their approach.

Continuous feedback between both departments needs to happen regularly to ensure the data collected is being applied to your overall strategy. If the criteria Marketing is using to qualify leads (MQL) is weak, Sales needs to relay this information so both teams can make the proper adjustments.

Implementing your sales process into your CRM will enable you to monitor how and when leads are contacted. If you notice there is a trend where your sales team is having difficulty converting leads, you can use real insights from your analysis instead of hearsay to refine your strategy.

Timing is everything

The way a coach approaches a game at the start of the season will be dramatically different than in March once the NCAA Tournament begins.

The same is true in sales. If someone in sales calls a lead that requested information with a closing pitch, the risk of losing that lead is high because both parties are at different places in the sales/buying process. 

Sales and marketing must have a consensus on the specifics of the buyer’s journey. Many organizations struggle with leads slipping through the cracks during the marketing to sales hand-off process. Close the loop by defining lead assignments, lead routing, qualification criteria, and response times. 

Your approach for how you guide your prospects through your buyer journey is vital to shortening the sales cycle and closing more deals. 

In today’s buyer-driven environment, successful companies figure out how to best align and integrate sales and marketing, creating a cohesive team to drive profits.