Month: February 2021

A Dead Simple Checklist for Quickly Onboarding New SaaS Sales Reps

Posted on by hiredna

In a recent post, I mentioned that it takes, on average, around 11 months for new SaaS sales reps to reach their full potential. Significantly longer than what most sales leaders would consider ideal. But as I also pointed out, having a strong onboarding process can slash this time in half. 

But what exactly does that entail? 

Here’s an actionable checklist so you’ll know step-by-step how to quickly onboard new SaaS sales reps and get them up-to-speed. 

Provide a Single Orientation Resource

First, create a 101 level resource that provides new hires with a basic overview of their position. 

Topics to cover may include:

  • What your company’s mission is
  • What your philosophy and values are
  • What your culture is like
  • What the SaaS sales rep’s role is
  • Specific job duties
  • Expectations
  • Management structure
  • Tools and software the rep will be using
  • Training materials
  • Who to reach out to for questions
  • Staff email addresses and phone numbers
  • Answers to FAQs

Most SaaS companies find that a digital hub is the best way to go here (as opposed to a traditional employee handbook) because it’s dynamic where updates can easily be made. The goal is to focus on the essentials without overwhelming new SaaS sales reps, and give them a resource to turn to as new questions inevitably arise. 

Offer Training for the Software They’ll Be Selling

In order for a salesperson to thrive, they need to: 

  • Know your SaaS product inside and out
  • Know key features and benefits
  • Fully grasp your unique value proposition (UVP)
  • Know the context of how your product fits into your leads’ lives
  • Know what differentiates your product from what other competitors offer
  • Offer engaging demos

It will obviously take time to learn the full details, and it’s not something that can be taught overnight. That said, offering formal training on your product will reduce the learning curve and create a level of cohesiveness among your SaaS sales reps. 

Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to compile a list of links to landing pages, product videos, blog posts, and so on for quick reference. Then, offer either video-based or expert led training on product essentials to help new hires get their bearings. 

Offer Training for the Software They’ll Be Using

Besides selling software, salespeople will likely be using it on a daily basis for operations. This could include a CRM, a scheduling app, a lead scoring platform, or project management software. Most SaaS sales reps will have a basic understanding of how to use these, but it’s smart to provide training on the specific features. That way they can leverage the full functionality of the platform and reduce unnecessary friction.

Software walkthroughs tend to work well, as does a knowledge base of tutorials featuring screenshots. 

Educate New Hires on Buyer Personas

Next, you’ll want to ensure SaaS sales reps have a clear understanding of:

  • Who your ideal prospects are
  • Their specific pain points
  • What they’re looking for in a SaaS solution
  • How to effectively approach them
  • Common lead objections

The best way to quickly do that is to give them buyer personas to reference. 

Here’s a simple example.

As for developing buyer personas, they “can be created through research, surveys, and interviews — all with a mix of customers, prospects, and those outside your contacts database who might align with your target audience,” explains Pamela Vaughn of HubSpot. 

Check out her in-depth guide here.

Explain Key Competitor Strengths and Weaknesses

Again, understanding your company’s UVP is an essential component of succeeding as a SaaS sales rep. This will guide their initial outreach and discussion with leads. It will also ensure they can swiftly disarm any objections leads may have. 

A big part of a rep crystallizing the UVP is knowing the specific areas where your product outshines your competitors. To quickly get them up-to-speed, you’ll want to create a list of competitor strengths and weaknesses. 

Dan Shewan of Wordstream highlights precisely what to focus on when doing this, saying for strengths, pinpoint:

  • What each competitor does well
  • What their UVP is
  • Internal resources they have (e.g. skilled, knowledgeable staff)
  • Proprietary technology they use

As for weaknesses, identify:

  • Areas where each competitor lacks
  • Resource limitations
  • Where they fall behind in proprietary technology

Critique a Rep’s Product Demo

Once a new SaaS sales rep has digested the essentials and learned the ropes of your product, have them perform a demo and critique it. This is a great way to gauge their level of comprehension and quickly determine what they’re doing right and what needs improving.  

It also allows you to assess how they perform under pressure, so you’ll know what areas they should fine-tune before having conversations with actual leads. 

Maybe, for example, their talk talk-to-listen ratio was too high. Research from Gong.io found top reps spend 46% of the time talking and 54% of the time listening, while bottom reps spend 72% of the time talking and 28% of the time listening. That would be a specific area of focus.

Setting the Stage for Success

Strong onboarding can rev up SaaS sales rep cut ramp-up time by more than 50% and increase their productivity by over 70%. The numbers speak for themselves. 

A big part of achieving that is having a streamlined, systematized formula to use with all new hires. This checklist covers all the major points and should help you get them firing on all cylinders lighting fast. 

Struggling to find elite sales reps in your industry? Learn how HireDNA can help you build a top performing sales team, while eliminating 96% of hiring mistakes. 

98% of Top SaaS Companies Use Recruiting Software: Why You Should Too

Posted on by hiredna

If you’ve ever done SaaS sales recruiting, you know how challenging it can be. Finding reps with the right knowledge, skillset, and sales DNA is difficult. And retaining them long-term can be even trickier.  

So, rather than relying on old school tactics and “a hunch,” smart companies are turning to technology to streamline the process and find elite sales talent. They’re turning to recruiting software. 

Here’s why you should too. 

Some Telling Stats

One statistic I found extremely interesting is that “over 98% of Fortune 500 companies use recruitment software.”

Not a third. Not half. Not even 75%. But nearly all Fortune 500 companies now use this technology to find elite salespeople. These brands clearly know what they’re doing, and considering that such a ridiculously high percentage use recruiting software, there’s obviously something to it. 

And when it comes to results, they’re undeniable. “94% of recruiters and hiring professionals say that using a recruitment software has positively impacted their hiring process,” and “68% say the best way to improve recruiting performance over the next five years is by investing in new recruiting technology.”

This graphic from business consulting firm, Grand View Research, adds even more perspective on where recruiting software is heading as we move deeper in the 2020s. Just look at where the market size was in 2016 and where it’s projected to be at by 2027 (light blue marks recruiting software market size). 

Why Recruiting Software is a Game Changer for SaaS Companies

Now, let’s look at some of the biggest reasons why this technology is something you want to implement and specific platforms to consider. 

Quickly Generate Top-Level Candidates

Generating SaaS sales candidates isn’t necessarily difficult. Pretty much any brand can slap a posting up on a job board and get a flood of candidates. But generating bonafide SaaS sales rockstars certainly is. 

At the end of the day, there’s only so many quality standards you can have in place when using conventional recruiting tactics. Using recruiting software, however, allows you to quickly generate top-level candidates that are often head and shoulders above others. 

How? 

A platform like HireDNA:

  • Taps into a verified national network of sales recruitment experts
  • Uses intelligent matching to analyze 20 key data points to find individuals that best fit the role and match your criteria
  • Uses science-based assessments involving 21 core selling competencies, such as the will to sell, coachability, and the ability to handle rejection

Recruitment software essentially has built-in quality assurance, which provides you with a top-tier candidate pool right off the bat. 

Evaluate Sales Candidates Objectively

In the past, the only things recruiters had to evaluate sales talent on were a resume, cover letter, references, and flat out intuition. While these things can certainly give you a base level reading of a candidate, they don’t always tell the whole story. 

And critical hiring decisions often ended up falling into the trap of subjectivity, which can be detrimental for obvious reasons. 

But recruiting software provides you with quantifiable data, allowing you to evaluate candidates with full objectivity and transparency using visuals like these. 

With just a glance, you can get a full overview of a candidate’s capabilities and compare them to others without your emotion getting in the way. This brings us to our next point. 

Make Better Hiring Decisions 

Just like in nearly every other aspect of business, the more data you have, the better your decision-making becomes. It’s really that simple. 

According to The Harvard Business School, “highly data-driven organizations are three times more likely to report significant improvements in decision-making compared to those who rely less on data.” This is why you see so many companies who use recruiting software reaching the Fortune 500. 

By leveraging concrete data, this knocks down the first domino, helping them hire next level reps, which in turn, helps their salesforce be more productive, create a better customer experience, increase loyalty, generate more revenue, and so on. It’s a virtuous cycle. 

When it comes to SaaS companies that hire based on candidate recommendations from HireDNA, 92% of the suggested candidates reach the top of the sales team within their first year. 

Fill Positions Quicker

Time to hire is another major concern for SaaS companies. On average, it takes about a month to fill a vacant position in this industry. And the time and energy you spend sifting through sales candidates distracts you from core business tasks. 

But with recruiting software, you can reduce your time to hire significantly. Companies that use HireDNA, for instance, are able to slash their hiring time in half, quickly gaining access to pre-screened, qualified candidates that are ready to be interviewed. 

Drastically Reduce Hiring Mistakes

Because recruiting software gives you objective data and access to such a high-level candidate pool, you’ll naturally make fewer hiring mistakes. To quantify, HireDNA eliminates 96% of hiring mistakes, which gives companies the best possible chance of finding the right talent without needless drama.  

Increase Salesperson Retention 

Finally, there’s a definite correlation between using recruiting software and minimizing turnover. SaaS companies that use HireDNA are able to, on average, lower turnover by more than 33%, greatly increasing the odds of keeping top talent around for the long haul. 

Leveraging This Potent Technology

Software recruiting has never been easy. But modern SaaS companies have access to amazing technology in the form of recruiting software. It’s evolved substantially over the past few years, and given that 98% of top Fortune 500 companies use recruiting software, there’s no denying the impact it can have. It’s just a matter of choosing the right platform that meets the unique needs of your business. 


To learn more about this potent technology and see HireDNA in action, request a free demo today.

4 Ways to Recruit SaaS Sales Talent with Less Effort

Posted on by hiredna

Sales recruiting is an essential practice — one that’s vital to procuring the right talent to grow your Saas business. It’s also extremely time-consuming. 

On average, it takes 23.7 days to fill a position. And most recruiters lose roughly 14 hours per week on tedious, manual tasks like placing job ads, reviewing resumes, candidate outreach, and sourcing. 

But we’re at a point where this process can be dramatically simplified and streamlined through automation. 

What Exactly is SaaS Sales Recruiting Automation?

Simply put, it’s any strategy that automates repetitive, manual tasks, which in turn, allows your team to focus on other key aspects of the recruiting process. It offers several benefits, including:

  • More productivity
  • Less stress
  • A shorter average time to hire
  • A more qualified talent pool

Besides that, it gives you access to powerful analytics which provide insights on which techniques are working and why. So, not only does it allow you to find high-level SaaS salespeople quicker and easier, it can also be instrumental in refining your recruiting process over time. 

And with technology like AI and machine learning becoming more and more sophisticated every day, sales recruiting automation is only going to improve. Here are four specific ways you can automate software sales recruiting. 

1. Create Automated Job Board Ads

Online job boards continue to be one of the main channels candidates frequent to search for new jobs, with 60% of people using them. Rather than manually writing ads for job boards like you had to do in the past, you can now use software to do this quickly and at scale. 

With a platform like Propellum, for instance, you can select delivery times where you choose exactly when a job is placed and how long it will run for. It also has built-in quality checks to ensure your job ads always meet your standards before they’re placed. So, if job boards are your bread and butter, this can be a huge time-saver. 

2. Effortlessly Find Pre-Screened, Qualified Candidates

One of the main areas where many sales recruiters struggle is simply finding legit talent. “55% of the people making their living in sales don’t have the right skills to be successful.” And even experienced sales reps fail to hit their mark 80% of the time. 

It’s a real challenge. 

But sales recruiting software like HireDNA automates much of the process and effectively filters through the candidate pool to find the best of the best. It connects with a verified network of sales recruitment experts, with each having in-depth knowledge of the local talent pool to generate top tier candidates. 

Then, it uses intelligent matches to analyze candidates based on 20 key data points to narrow it down to those that perfectly meet the criteria you’re looking for. It also assesses candidates based on 21 core selling competencies, such as desire, motivation, and coachability.

So when it’s all said and done, you’re left a small list of top notch salespeople, with 92% of recommended candidates reaching the top of their sales team within a year. 

3. Automatically Verify Candidate Information 

Having to manually comb through information to verify a candidate can be incredibly meticulous. Without an efficient framework in place, you can easily waste hours. Fortunately, there are cutting-edge solutions that can dramatically streamline this process. 

An applicant tracking system (ATS), for example, can “help recruiters reduce the time spent reading resumes and screening potential applicants by collecting, sorting, and organizing applicant resumes,” explains business software review site G2. “They store applicant information in a centralized system of record so candidate information can be retained and talent pools developed.”

Another option is to use a platform like Breezy to auto-verify references. The references a candidate lists receive a series of questions like:

  • How long they’ve known the candidate
  • How long the candidate worked for them
  • What the candidate’s responsibilities were
  • Areas in which they feel the candidate could grow in their career

That way you don’t have to sift through everything manually and can rest assured that whoever you give an offer to has the qualifications they say they do. 

4. Automatically Schedule Interviews

Here’s the scenario. You’ve narrowed your candidates down to just a few of the most promising. Now you need to schedule interviews, which requires its own set of logistics, including finding open slots in your calendar and dealing with back-and-forthing through email or phone. 

Without some type of system in place, this aspect of software sales recruiting can eat away at your workweek. 

But this too is now something you can largely automate with interview scheduling software. One particular platform worth noting is GoodTime, which allows candidates to self-schedule their interviews based on times your hiring team is available. GoodTime automatically syncs up their availability so you can get interviews set up with zero drama. 

It also integrates with your ATS so you have quick access to a live database, which means all of the data you need is right at your fingertips. That way you spend less time juggling calendars and more time focusing on finding the perfect fit for your company. Not only does this minimize your team’s stress and ensure recruiters are never overbooked, it also creates an amazing candidate experience. 

Taking the Friction Out of Recruiting SaaS Sales Talent

AI and machine learning have made great strides in recent years, and it’s now possible to automate most aspects of the software sales recruiting process. Whether it’s creating automated job boards ads, pre-screening candidates, verifying their information, or automatically interview scheduling, there’s usually a platform that can handle it. 

And research has found that using automated sales recruiting software helps companies save about 14 hours per week, which can make a huge impact. 

For more on how to hire better sales talent, faster using data-driven technology, check out HireDNA. It can help you cut your hiring time in half, while eliminating 96% of mistakes.