89% of Recruiting Experts Say Bad Sales Hires Lack These Skills

Selecting salespeople based on hard skills is pretty straightforward. You see that a candidate clearly has the quantifiable abilities and experience required for a sales position, and often, you can easily verify it. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for the other type of skills I’ll discuss in this post — soft skills.

According to an in-depth study by LinkedIn, 89% of recruiting experts say there’s a common denominator between most bad sales hires. They lack the right soft skills.

LinkedIn’s Findings Behind Bad Sales Hires

In 2019, LinkedIn performed an exhaustive report where they surveyed over 5,000 talent professionals across 35 countries and analyzed comprehensive behavioral data. One of the primary areas they focused on was soft skills, as they found that it was the number one trend transforming the workplace that year. In fact, 91% of talent professionals agreed that soft skills were “very important” to the future of recruiting.

Going one step further, LinkedIn wanted to determine the impact soft skills had on the long-term success of candidates that were hired. And it turned out that the impact was quite immense, with their data finding a lack of soft skills to be a key contributor to most bad sales hires.

According to their findings, only 11% of recruiting experts said bad sales hires lack hard skills. However, 45% said they lack soft skills, and 44% said they lack both soft and hard skills. Put that all together, and 89% of recruiters said bad hires lack soft skills.

Why Soft Skills Are So Important in Sales

As you probably know, there is a wide range of factors that determine how successful someone is at selling. Obviously, having hard skills like product knowledge, knowing how to use a CRM, and performing sales demos is important. But this doesn’t always translate into success. To truly predict how good a candidate will be at their job, you need to see the big picture and also take soft skills into account.

Some examples include:

  • Collaboration
  • Communication
  • Rapport-building
  • Empathy
  • Quick problem-solving

Beyond that, it’s important for a salesperson to be nimble and think on their feet. You could even argue that having a certain level of likability is critical to building relationships and winning over customers. But there’s a problem.

Assessing Soft Skills is Notoriously Difficult

As I mentioned earlier, evaluating a candidate’s hard skills is fairly simple. A quick glance at their resume, for example, will usually give you a basic idea of what they bring to the table. You can also have them perform a test on their product knowledge, see how well they understand a particular business platform, perform a mock product demo, and so on.

“Identifying poor soft skills, however, is much harder, which is why they’re often discovered too late, after a hire has been made,” LinkedIn explains. “But as the data shows, bad hires are almost never a matter of hard skills alone.”

The main issue sales recruiters run into is that they lack a formal approach for assessing soft skills. In fact, 68% say they rely on basic behavioral questions or simply reading body language. “She seemed upbeat, so she’s probably a good collaborator; he seemed nervous, so he’s probably not a good leader. The problem is that these perceptions aren’t predictive, and worse, they’re often unconsciously biased.”

Given the inherent limitations of this commonly used approach, it’s unsurprising that so many sales recruiters struggle to accurately gauge soft skills in candidates. This brings me to my final point.

How to Effectively Evaluate Soft Skills

Given how tricky it’s been historically, how exactly should you go about assessing soft skills in sales candidates?

Here’s a four-step system that I feel is highly effective:

  1. Identify essential soft skills – Pinpoint four or five specific skills that are a must for being a successful salesperson at your company and make them a top priority when recruiting.
  2. Leverage assessment tools – Back in the day, recruiters had to primarily rely on behavioral cues and body language, but now there are several objective tools like eSkill and Pymetrics that can provide you with quantifiable data. eSkill, for instance, allows you to measure emotional intelligence to ensure candidates have a high level of communication and collaboration.
  3. Be aware of unconscious bias – LinkedIn found that unconscious bias often gets in the way of recruiters assessing candidates. You may, for example, be inclined to like a particular candidate because they have a similar personality as you. But keeping this in mind can help steer you away from this issue.
  4. Standardize your interview process – “Train interviewers to ask a standard set of questions suited to the skills you’re targeting. This allows you to easily compare evaluations, even if they’re done by different interviewers.”

Beyond that, many companies can benefit from using a sales recruiting platform like HireDNA. It uses science-based assessments that look at core selling competencies like motivation, desire, and coachability to predict success and can quantify what used to be unquantifiable.

Avoiding Bad Sales Hires

Having the right mix of hard and soft skills is critical to making good hires and building a strong team of salespeople. Unfortunately, the latter is more difficult to evaluate and has created a consistent problem for many brands over the years. Further, nearly 9 out of 10 recruiting experts say bad hires lack soft skills.

While assessing soft skills will, admittedly, always be trickier than assessing hard skills, it’s certainly possible. And the four-step process outlined above should help.

To learn more about HireDNA and how it can dramatically improve your sales recruiting, reach out to us today. 92% of candidates recommended through this platform become top performers within a year.

Sales Rep Salary in 2022: How Much Should You Be Paying?

How much should you pay your salespeople? That’s one of the most important and most commonly asked questions among recruiters. And it’s one you need a definitive answer to.

After all, understanding the average sales rep salary provides you with a tangible benchmark so you can identify how much competitors are offering. It also ensures you’re offering enough to pull in elite talent but not so much that it hurts your profitability.

In this post, I’ll provide a clear breakdown of sales rep salary in 2022 based on recent data to help you find the sweet spot along with other actionable advice on attracting top-tier talent.

What the Data Says

For my research, I looked at data from two different sources. One is the salesperson salary in the US based on over 3,700 salaries on Indeed. According to their findings, the average base sales rep salary in 2022 is $58,106.

The other data came from US News and World Report Money which looked at the median salary of salespeople. After crunching the numbers, they found the average sales rep earned $62,070 in 2022. This was nearly $4,000 more than what Indeed suggested, but it’s certainly still in the same ballpark.

So between these two reports, we can surmise that most sales reps will earn around $60,000 in 2022. Also, it’s worth noting that the top 25% highest-earning salespeople earned $89,030, while the lowest-paid 25% earned $43,580. This is something to take into account if, for example, you’re hiring an entry-level sales rep who’s fresh out of college, as they may command less than a bonafide vet who’s been at it for 10+ years.

Higher Earnings Post-Pandemic

Another interesting trend to point out is that many qualified sales candidates currently receive multiple offers and earn significantly more post-pandemic than they did pre-pandemic. In a recent article, I explained there’s a high demand for skilled salespeople, but many (especially recent grads) are reluctant to get into sales. This phenomenon is largely due to the perception among many young professionals that salespeople still sit behind a desk all day, cold calling leads and using high-pressure sales tactics.

You can get the full details here, but the bottom line is that it’s “candidate’s market” in 2022, and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.

As a result, it’s common for top-tier candidates to get multiple offers and earn $10-$20K more than they did before COVID. This means talented individuals could easily earn $70,000 or $80,000 per year rather than the baseline of $60,000. There are numerous factors at play here, but my point is that many sales recruiters are willing to shell out larger than average pay to attract and retain top talent. And that may be something you need to do as well.

Looking Beyond 2022

Besides simply knowing the average sales rep salary in 2022, it’s nice to see the bigger picture and what the overall trajectory is. And the data from the US News and World Report Money provides insights there as well with this graph.

As you can see, there’s been a steady increase in salary since 2010. It went from being around $63,000 in 2010 to $68,000 in 2016. From 2016 to 2017, it decreased slightly but quickly picked up steam from there. Based on this trajectory along with the current shortage of highly qualified sales reps like I discussed earlier, I can only imagine that this trend will continue into the foreseeable future.

It’s clear that industry rockstars are in high demand, and sales recruiters are willing to shell out good money to land them. This brings me to my next point.

Two Quick Strategies for Improving Sales Recruiting

For the final part of this post, I’d like to share two last insights for increasing your odds of landing elite sales talent based on recent data.

One is to act quickly. According to SmallBizGenius, “top talent gets hired by recruiters within 10 days.” And that’s not surprising based on the current landscape. While you don’t want to be hasty and overlook other qualified candidates, it’s clear that you should pull the trigger if find top talent and pay them what they’re worth. Otherwise, there’s a good chance a competitor will swoop in and snatch them up. Considering the average time to hire is 24 days, keeping it under 10 days can give you a significant advantage.

The other strategy is to fully optimize your interview process. A+ salespeople don’t have time for inefficiencies and redundancies during interviewing. So if your interviewing is needlessly complex, convoluted, or you’re asking candidates the same questions over and over, you’re almost guaranteed to lose out to your competitors. That’s why I suggest objectively analyzing your interviewing process and continually looking for ways to improve it.

Sales Rep Salary: Finding the Sweet Spot

Throwing out an arbitrary number based on what you feel sounds “about right” is never a good strategy for deciding how much to pay a potential sales rep, especially someone who could be a major asset to your company. Instead, you need to know what the industry average is and what the current pay trajectory looks like while taking other factors into account like sales rep demand.

To recap, most skilled salespeople will earn around $60,000 in 2022. But when you factor in that many receive multiple offers and take in $10-$20K more than they did prior to COVID, you may need to pay more like $70K+ to bring in the heavy hitters.

Looking to hire better sales talent, faster? Learn how HireDNA uses intelligent matching and science-based assessments to attract and recruit better talent. 92% of candidates recommended through it reach the top of their sales force within their first year, and it eliminates 96% of hiring mistakes.

Clutch Awards HireDNA Among The Best Recruitment Agencies For 2022

HireDNA is a recruiting platform that uses intelligent matching technology to generate qualified interview-ready sales candidates for growing SaaS companies.

We are thrilled to be recognized as one of Clutch’s 2022 leaders in the recruitment industry. For context, Clutch is the leading ratings and reviews platform for IT, marketing, and business service providers. There are many ratings and reviews websites out there, but what sets Clutch apart is that their trained business analysts perform in-depth interviews with clients about the quality of their interaction with each Clutch-registered company.

Every year, Clutch honors the highest-performing B2B companies across different industries. The top service providers exhibit profound knowledge in their field and a solid dedication to high-quality customer service. We work hard to deliver the absolute best products and working experience to our clients, and we’re thrilled that this hard work has paid off.

“We are excited to have been chosen as one of the leading SaaS sales recruiting platforms in the Washington, DC Metro Area by Clutch!” – Anwar Allen, CEO of HireDNA.com

We are truly thankful to our clients for the opportunity to partner with them to help them achieve their sales hiring goals. Their reviews on our Clutch profile confirm that we have what it takes to deliver top-tier SaaS sale candidates. Below is a quote from one of the reviews we received.

“They’re making changes and revisions to their overall platform. I don’t see anything that hasn’t worked well.” – Brad Weatherly, EVP Global Sales, and Service, Sapience Analytics

Build an all-star team. Contact us now to learn more about our services.

9 Ways to Use Data to Improve Sales Recruiting

Data is everywhere in the modern business world, and sales recruiting is no exception. A rapidly growing number of companies are now incorporating data into their recruiting operations to the point that it’s become ubiquitous. But how exactly are these companies using this data?

In this post, I’ll cover nine specific ways, citing statistics from a recent study. By seeing how others are capitalizing on the data boom and how it can improve recruiting, you’ll know how to work it into your own sales recruiting process as well. 

What the Research Says

An interesting study was performed that surveyed recruiting leaders to find out what the top uses of data were in their hiring process. The purpose was to A) identify the specific areas where data was most helpful for improving and B) rank these areas from top to bottom. 

Here’s were the findings. 

Now let’s unpack everything in detail. 

  1. Improve Retention – 56%

Salesperson turnover is an ongoing problem for many companies. On average, the salesperson turnover rate is around 34%, with involuntary turnover accounting for nearly two-thirds of it. However, 10% of companies have much higher turnover rates at over 55%. That’s why the most common reason for using data is to improve retention and keep quality salespeople around longer. 

“With data science, you can better understand trends and patterns in your workforce, making it easier to improve employee retention,” explains data science consulting firm Millan Chicago. “Improving employee retention involves hiring the right people, managing turnover, and detecting and dealing with culture problems.” By having concrete information like this, you can make intelligent decisions and continually refine this vital aspect of operations. 

  1. Identify Skills Gaps – 50%

Not all salespeople are created equally. It’s as simple as that. 

Whenever a company lacks critical skills, their productivity and inevitably profitability will suffer. But data has proven to be highly effective for identifying skills gaps to help determine which specific areas need to be addressed. Modern data tools can, for example, find competency and performance gaps to help guide salesperson hiring and training so you can eliminate major issues and better develop your talent to thrive. 

  1. Make Better Offers – 50%

Due to the recent talent shortages in the sales industry, high-level sales reps have a lot of leverage. A key part of enticing them to join your organization is making solid offers while taking things like salary, career development, schedule flexibility, and remote opportunities into account. By analyzing data, you can pinpoint what top salespeople are most receptive to so you can make better offers, and, in turn, bring on top talent. 

  1. Understand What Candidates Want – 46%

Besides better offers, nearly half of sales recruiters also use data to gain a better understanding of candidate desires and objectives. A recent poll from LinkedIn, for instance, found work-life balance, compensation and benefits, and colleagues and culture were the most important priorities overall. And flexible work arrangements, an inclusive workplace, and work-life balance were some of the fastest-growing priorities since COVID. 

Accessing comprehensive data can provide a bird’s-eye view of what’s most important for your exact candidate demographic so you can make the right adjustments with your recruiting. 

  1. Enhance Workforce Planning – 41%

Further, data can aid in several areas of workplace planning such as forecasting trends, demographic changes, talent management, and strategic direction. That way you’re more likely to have the right people with the right skills at the right time. 

  1. Predict Candidate Success – 39%

One of the biggest things that excites me personally about data is that you can use it to scientifically predict which candidates will be successful. With HireDNA, for instance, you can assess candidates based on development metrics, sales “DNA” competencies, and selling competencies to generate quantifiable data. Here’s an example. 

This makes it much easier to filter through the talent pool and find the true rockstars with the ideal candidate profile based on your unique selling environment. And it’s highly effective, with 92% of suggested candidates hitting the top of the sales force within their first year. 

  1. Evaluate Talent Supply and Demand – 38%

As I mentioned earlier, there’s been a serious talent shortage as of late — something that’s primarily due to the backlash of COVID and many new grads being hesitant to get into the sales profession. So it’s extremely important to have a grip on supply and demand and know how to evaluate talent in the current landscape. Data can help here because you can “zoom-out” on supply and demand trends and make accurate predictions for more effective staffing. 

  1. Compare Talent KPIs with Competitors’ – 31%

Given how competitive sales recruiting is these days, it’s helpful to know how your company stacks up against the competition. With data, you can analyze KPIs like turnover, retention, employee satisfaction, cost-to-hire, and time-to-hire to see where you’re winning and what needs work. With continued refinement over time, this puts you in a position to win the talent war. 

  1. Forecast Hiring Demands – 29%

Finally, data can help gauge future hiring demands so you can identify employment projections. Rather than taking a reactive approach to recruiting where you look for new salespeople after you need them, you can take a proactive approach where you initiate the search in advance. That way you have people in place precisely when you need them, which can eliminate a lot of unnecessary stress. 

Closing Thoughts

I think we can all agree that data is super important and has a wide range of practical applications. But when it comes down to what those exact applications are, many sales recruiters aren’t 100% sure. After reading this post, you should be clear about the most common ways today’s sales recruiters are using data and how you can apply it to your own operations. 

Learn more about how HireDNA can help you find better salespeople, faster. 

Elite Salespeople Get Hired in Just 10 Days: The Importance of Acting Quickly with Sales Recruiting

There is a wide range of variables that contribute to successful sales recruiting. Creating a compelling job ad, efficiently filtering through candidates, and optimizing interviewing, for example, are three areas where recruiters place a lot of focus. But one aspect that doesn’t necessarily get as much attention but needs to is acting quickly when you find a strong candidate. 

For this post, I’ll explain why speed is so important in our current sales recruiting climate and provide you with simple tips for streamlining the process without compromising your decision-making. 

The Average Time to Hire is 24 Days

Although the data varies slightly from study to study, research indicates the time to hire for most sales positions is between 20 – 30 days, with an average of around 24 days.

So, there’s a period of about 3 ½ weeks between the initial screening of candidates and them accepting a position. And that’s fine for average salespeople who aren’t in high demand. Because they typically have limited offers, odds are most will still be available if you wait 24 days. However, this won’t usually cut it for elite salespeople, which brings me to my next point. 

Top Sales Candidates Get Hired in Just 10 Days

Research has found the most talented salespeople get snatched up much quicker in just 10 days. “High-quality candidates with loads of experience, robust soft skills, and a network of contacts have an average job search time of only 10 days,” explains SmallBizGenius. And this makes perfect sense. 

Individuals at the top of their industry will naturally have more options and be in much higher demand than their run-of-the-mill counterparts. Because of this increased demand, they don’t stay in job search mode for long. “HR managers should take this into consideration when they spot a promising candidate, SmallBizGenius adds. “If they want that candidate to join the company, they need to act quickly.”

So, if you wait around, triple-check a candidate’s credentials, agonize over their experience, perform several more interviews, and so on, with an extended period of time elapsing, you can’t expect the candidate to still be available. In fact, there’s a good chance they’ll already receive an offer from a competitor. 

Time is of the Essence with Elite Salespeople

While every situation is different, 10 days is the quantifiable timeframe you usually have to work with before making your final decision and giving a highly-qualified candidate a formal job offer. If you wait too long, there’s no guarantee an A+ candidate will still be around. That’s why it’s so important to A) recognize when you’ve got top talent on your hands and B) make your offer as quickly as possible.

Here are some strategic tips for doing this to ensure you secure the right salesperson who has the potential to be a strong asset to your company. 

Don’t Overthink It

Let’s say you’ve found a home run candidate who you’re almost sure would be an amazing addition to your sales team and has the “it factor.”  But you hold off on pulling the trigger right away simply because you’re wondering if there’s someone out there who’s even better. After several more engagements with other candidates to satisfy your curiosity, you realize that the rock star candidate is in fact your best option. However, once you circle back and give them the offer, they’ve already been taken by someone else. 

Overthinking it like this is one of the most common mistakes sales recruiters make and one that often costs them. I’m not saying you should be overly hasty and not consider anyone else for the position. But if it’s clear that you’ve got a big fish on the line, nine times out of 10, they’re the candidate you should choose. So keep this in mind and be willing to commit when the time is right. 

Don’t Bypass Rockstars Because They Lack Industry or Product Experience

In a previous post, I explained why selling skills are often more important than industry/product experience. And that’s a topic that’s super applicable here. Many recruiters get caught up in only hiring sales candidates with direct industry or product experience, and they end up missing out on great talent as a result. 

While having this type of experience certainly helps, at the end of the day, what’s most important is being able to sell well. If a candidate can do this, they can always learn your industry and product. My point here is that high-level sales skills are transferable. So if you find a candidate that checks all the right boxes but doesn’t have the exact industry/product experience you’re looking for, it’s by no means a dealbreaker. 

Set a Definitive Deadline to Make a Decision

Finally, you can often prevent heavy hitters from slipping through your fingers by having a firm deadline in place when making a hiring decision. While this probably won’t apply to all candidates across the board — especially the mediocre ones — I suggest having a maximum of a 10-day deadline to make a final decision with rock star candidates. However, even less is better, and if you trim it down to 5 days or fewer, that would be ideal. 

Acting Quickly When You Spot Talent 

Let’s recap. The average time to hire is 24 days. But elite salespeople get hired in just 10 days. This two-week gap can create issues if have a top candidate on your hands but fail to act quickly enough. That’s why it’s essential to pull the trigger when you find top talent and wait no longer than 10 days to give them a formal job offer. 

Want to cut your hiring time in half and find pre-screened, qualified, interview-ready candidates? See how HireDNA can help

Developing a Sales Candidate Communication Plan: A Step-by-step Blueprint

Just as it’s important to keep customers in the loop, sales candidate communication is also integral to recruiting. But here’s the thing. 63% of sales candidates say recruiters don’t communicate adequately, and 53% report not receiving a response until three months after applying. 

That’s a huge problem because a negative candidate experience can quickly sour what could be a valuable relationship and potentially hurt your brand reputation. Creating a positive experience through proper communication, on the other hand, makes candidates 38% more likely to accept an offer. 

In this post, I’ll explain how to develop a winning sales candidate communication plan step-by-step so you can prevent elite salespeople from slipping through your fingers and strengthen your overall brand. 

Step 1: Respond to Each Application

There’s a lot that can go awry in the application process, so sending each candidate a quick response confirming you’ve received their application is a critical first step. This doesn’t have to be anything over the top, just a brief, friendly message through email, text, or social media letting them know they’re officially part of the candidate pool. 

That way they know for sure their application successfully went through, and they can instantly tell you’re a professional that values communication. If you’re wondering how to go about this, you can use candidate engagement software like Yello to automate application confirmations and send them out in large volumes. 

This brings me to the next step.  

Step 2: Explain How Your Hiring Process Works

Another reason for responding to each application is that it gives you the chance to get candidates up-to-speed with your hiring process and what to expect. This is an effective way to get candidates acclimated and should eliminate a lot of confusion. Here’s an example. 

Here the recruiter lets the candidate know they’re reviewing their application and will contact them about the next steps if they’re deemed a good fit for the sales position. The recruiter also lets them know they may consider their application for other positions and that it could happen a few times in the recruitment process. 

On top of that, they share helpful links, allowing the candidate to assess their profile, view application updates, and visit the company’s career center where they can find additional job opportunities. 

Step 3: Communicate at Key Stages

Besides the initial response, there will be other specific intervals where you’ll want to communicate with candidates. These will vary from company to company, but here are some common stages:

  • A week or two after receiving an application reassuring a candidate it’s being looked at
  • Whenever the status of their application changes (For example, when a candidate passes the pre-screening process or is short-listed to move onto the next round of hiring)
  • When they’ve been selected to be interviewed
  • When they’ve officially received a job offer
  • When you’ve decided they’re not the right fit and have chosen to move on without them

Regardless of what happens, this will ensure there’s an open line of communication and candidates aren’t left guessing what’s happened. 

Step 4: Offer Convenient Outreach

Even when following the steps I’ve outlined so far, a portion of candidates will still have questions or concerns. When this happens, they should have a straightforward, convenient way to get in touch with your company. That’s why you should provide a point of contact in a few key locations throughout the recruiting process, such as:

  • The job ad
  • The initial response email
  • Follow up emails
  • Social media profiles
  • Your website

Note that it’s also important to respond quickly, and there are two main strategies to ensure a fast response time. One is to assign dedicated team members to handle inquiries throughout the recruiting process. Ideally, they’ll have enough bandwidth to respond within a few hours so no one’s left hanging for an extended period.

Also, I suggest using a chatbot to answer basic FAQs and point candidates to helpful resources. This is nice because it provides an instant response 24/7 while also freeing up internal manpower. One particular platform I suggest checking out is Mya which features innovative conversational AI. You can learn all about it here. 

Step 5: Seek Feedback

I’m a huge believer in incremental progress. Just like in any other area of business, a big part of improving is gathering data and using it to get better and better. So the last step in developing a sales candidate communication plan is getting feedback. This is a win-win because 1) it provides candidates with a channel for voicing their opinion which improves the candidate experience and 2) it lets you identify your strengths and weaknesses so you’ll know where adjustments should be made. 

And at the moment, this is a drastically underutilized strategy given that 75% of recruiters never or rarely ask for feedback. But considering that 68% of candidates would offer feedback if asked, this is something I highly recommend putting to use. 

The easiest way to go about it is to simply send out an email after you’ve wrapped up your recruiting, asking what candidates liked about it and where you could improve. You may also want to ask them to rate their overall experience so you have a quantifiable number to draw from. As you accumulate more data, trends will begin to emerge which can be a huge asset in the long run. 

Acing Candidate Communication 

Candidate communication is an incredibly important yet surprisingly ignored aspect of recruiting. Being a leader in this department can give you a huge competitive edge and seal the deal with more talented candidates. It’s just a matter of developing a fully fleshed-out sales candidate communication plan by following the five steps outlined above.

Looking to hire SaaS sales talent? Learn how HireDNA can help generate pre-screened interview-ready sales candidates to fill your talent pipeline.

Sales Candidates Read 6 Reviews on a Prospective Company: Using Reviews to Win the Talent War

Reviews are nothing new in the consumer world. 93% of people say they look at online reviews to inform their purchasing decision, and 91% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. But in recent years, there’s been a trend where a growing number of sales candidates are now consulting reviews when evaluating prospective employers.

Recognizing this phenomenon and properly leveraging it can give you a huge competitive advantage and help win the talent war. Here’s how. 

At Least Half of Sales Candidates Now Read Company Reviews

Data from a 2018 study found that roughly 50% of sales candidates read online reviews about companies to learn about the working conditions, culture, and overall environment before applying for a job. While this data is fairly new, I would suspect that the number has increased even more over the last four years and is likely even higher in 2022.  

The bottom line is that a significant percentage of sales candidates turn to company reviews before applying. And it makes sense. With reviews so plentiful, candidates can quickly perform research to get a baseline reading of what it would be like to work as a salesperson with a potential employer. With a little investigating, they can determine whether the company is a good fit and if it’s a position they’d like to pursue. 

Sales Candidates Read an Average of 6 Reviews

In terms of the number of reviews candidates check out on average, it’s six. While most prospects won’t comb through pages and pages of reviews to get a feel for an employer, they’ll look at a handful to see what current employees, former employees, and job seekers have to say. So for reviews to be effective, you’ll need to have at least six (something we’ll discuss in more detail later). 

Most Sales Candidates Trust Employer Reviews 

As I mentioned earlier, 91% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and the same sentiment is shared with most sales candidates looking at employer reviews. While there’s some debate among recruiters as to how big the exact impact is, there’s no denying that reviews play an integral role in shaping the perspective of today’s sales candidates. Some would even go so far as to say that reviews are as important as the actual job postings themselves. 

This graphic below sheds light on how employer brand affects recruitment.

The main stats that stand out to me are:

  • 90% of candidates will apply for a position when the employer actively maintains their brand
  • 50% of candidates won’t work for a company with a poor reputation, even it means better pay
  • 62% of candidates say their first impression improves if an employer responds to a negative review

This brings me to my next point. 

How to Use Employer Reviews to Your Advantage

Let’s recap. We’ve established that company reviews are critical for recruiting in 2022 and beyond, at least half of sales candidates read them, and each candidate reads an average of six reviews. So how can you capitalize on this trend?

Here are my three main suggestions.

First, you should get serious about obtaining reviews from current employees, former employees, and job seekers. You don’t necessarily need a huge volume of reviews. So you don’t have to worry about getting hundreds or even dozens. But having at least six can go a long way for improving your recruiting and should supply sales candidates with the information they need to make an informed decision. 

I recommend starting with your current employees and asking them to leave a review on your website, Glassdoor profile, Indeed profile, or whatever platform you’re using. From there, you can reach out to former employees — ideally, those who went out on good terms. And when you follow up with candidates after an interview, this is a good opportunity to get feedback from job seekers. 

HubSpot is a great example of a company that knocks it out of the park with its reviews. They have a dedicated careers page on their site where they offer brief clips of actual employees talking about what it’s like working for them. For instance, they discuss what it’s like to work remotely at HubSpot and what makes a career in sales at the company unique. 

Next, make a concerted effort to maintain your brand by following best practices, including:

  • Establishing a presence on review sites like Glassdoor and Indeed
  • Keeping company information up-to-date
  • Updating salary and benefits information 

Third, be sure to promptly respond to negative reviews. With nearly two-thirds of candidates saying they have a better first impression if a company responds to a negative review, this shows you’re concerned with the candidate experience and it can minimize any harm to your reputation. Do that and you should be in pretty good shape. 

Using Reviews to Win Over Top Talent

Technology is deeply infused into the modern recruiting process, with online reviews being a prime example. While having reviews was more of a “nice addition” in previous years, we’re at a turning point where it has basically become essential. By properly leveraging reviews and getting sales candidates up to speed on what your company is like and what’s good about it, you can persuade more top talent to apply. This, in turn, should increase the quality of your talent pool and help you ultimately win over elite prospects to improve your bottom line. 

To further enhance your recruiting and find top talent using science-based assessments and intelligent matching, check out HireDNA. 92% of candidates recommended by it reach the top of their sales force within their first year, and it eliminates 96% of hiring mistakes. 

How to Calculate Cost Per Hire to Keep SaaS Sales Recruiting Costs Down

Hiring top-tier talent is one of the most essential parts of running a successful SaaS company. But of course, that takes money, and often a lot of it.

To keep SaaS sales recruiting costs down, one of the first things you need to do is figure out what your average cost per hire is and where your money is going. From there, you can determine how effective your efforts are, your recruiting strengths and weaknesses, and what adjustments need to be made. 

In this post, I’ll explain exactly what cost per hire is, offer a simple formula for calculating it, and provide actionable advice for reducing SaaS sales recruiting costs. 

What is Cost Per Hire?

“Cost per hire,” simply put, “is a recruiting metric that measures the costs associated with the process of hiring new employees,” writes AIHR. There are two main types of costs involved here — internal and external. 

Internal costs can include:

  • In-house recruiter salaries, benefits, and performance bonuses
  • Referral bonuses for employees who recommend candidates
  • Interviewing expenses
  • Money spent on onboarding, training, and development
  • Administrative costs, including office equipment and software 
  • Compliance costs for ensuring laws and regulations are met

External costs can include:

  • Recruiting agency fees
  • Job advertisements (posting ads on job boards or social media)
  • Marketing expenses (SEO, social media marketing, and company branding)
  • Candidate screening costs (time spent contacting references and performing background checks)
  • Technology expenses such as an applicant tracking system
  • Job fair expenses

How Do You Calculate Cost Per Hire?

The formula is quite simple. Add up your internal recruiting costs and your external recruiting costs within a particular period (e.g. a year). Then divide it by your total number of hires during that same time period. 

Here’s what the formula looks like. 

Say, for example, you spent a total of $40,000 on recruiting, including internal and external costs, during the course of a year. If you hired 10 salespeople during that time, your cost per hire would be $4,000.

And while making calculations is pretty straightforward, gathering information on all the costs isn’t always so easy. In fact, it can be quite time-consuming, especially if there are a lot of moving parts involved with your recruiting. To streamline the process, I suggest first identifying all of your internal and external costs during a specific period of time and writing them out in two separate columns. Then, go through it one by one working with your finance and accounting team to pinpoint each cost as accurately as possible. 

From there, it’s just a matter of figuring out how many new salespeople you’ve brought on board during the same time period.

What’s the Average Cost Per Hire?

Now that you know how to calculate cost per hire, you may be asking, “How does it compare with other brands?” While there’s a lot of data out there from countless studies, the average cost per hire for SaaS companies across the board is $4,425

Keep in mind that it costs significantly more to hire someone in a higher-ranking position like a sales account manager as opposed to an entry-level salesperson. But when you crunch the numbers, it comes out to just north of $4,000. So that’s a good benchmark to shoot for. 

If your cost per hire is significantly less than that, you’re doing great and probably don’t need to make any major changes. On the other hand, if it’s significantly more than that, changes are likely in order, and you’ll want to analyze your SaaS sales recruiting process to identify inefficiencies. This brings me to my final point. 

How to Lower Your Cost Per Hire with a Sales Recruiting Platform

Let’s say your cost per hire is more than it should be. How can you lower it?

While there are numerous strategies that can help, pound for pound one of the best is using a sales recruiting platform like HireDNA. This utilizes cutting-edge technology and a proven methodology to connect with leading SaaS sales candidates and successfully hire them while dramatically streamlining the process.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Create an account and work with a talent advisor to develop an ideal candidate profile based on specific hiring criteria.
  2. HireDNA then uses intelligent matching and science-based assessments to find a pool of active and passive SaaS salespeople that possess critical core selling competencies and that match your unique hiring criteria. 
  3. Candidates are screened to narrow it down to the best of the best and ensure they’re the right fit for your company. 
  4. Qualified candidates are sent to you for approval and feedback.
  5. You then interview and hire the candidates you like best. (HireDNA even offers onboarding and training).

This provides a straightforward framework that allows you to save money by shaving off many expenses like recruiting agency fees, job advertisements, marketing costs, and candidate screening costs. And because this platform looks so closely at key data points and core selling competencies, you know for certain all candidates match your role and hiring criteria. In fact, 92% of SaaS salespeople recommended by HireDNA reach the top of their sales team within a year. 

Final Thoughts

Cost per hire is one of the most fundamental yet important metrics in SaaS sales recruiting. It tells you how much you’re spending on average to hire a salesperson and provides key insights into your strengths and weaknesses. If your cost per hire is on par with the industry benchmark of $4,425, you should be in fairly good shape. If, however, it’s considerably more than that, you’ll want to look for ways to lower it, and using a sales recruiting platform is one of the most effective ways to go about that. 

Learn more about HireDNA and book a live demo here

SaaS Sales Recruiting Stats in 2022: A Complete Bird’s-Eye View

The New Year is upon us! It’s always an exciting time for SaaS sales recruiting because there are new patterns, new trends, and new opportunities. 

In this post, I’ll share with you the latest SaaS sales recruiting stats in 2022 to guide your strategy and give you a competitive edge. Let’s jump right in. 

98% of Today’s Top Companies Use Recruiting Software

While you may not surprised that a lot of companies use recruiting software to streamline the process and find quality candidates, you probably didn’t expect it was this many. But according to recent data, nearly all of today’s Fortune 500 companies now use this technology — a stat that shows how ubiquitous and effective it is. 

Platforms like HireDNA take the guesswork out of SaaS sales recruiting, helping you attract elite candidates based on a wide range of core competencies, fill open positions faster, and reduce hiring mistakes. The key is using cutting-edge technology like intelligent matching that analyzes 20 key data points and science-based assessments to predict success. 

And with 33% less turnover, you can build a stronger, more loyal team of salespeople that are in it for the long haul.

88% of Companies Now Use AI for Recruiting

Another form of technology that’s rapidly expanding in SaaS sales recruiting is AI. Studies have found that, globally, 88% of companies are currently using it, with a staggering 100% of Chinese companies doing so. 

In terms of specific applications, some of the most common include “using chatbots to engage with candidates during recruitment (41%)” and “screening and assessing candidates during recruitment (40%).” For an in-depth list of other ways to leverage AI for recruiting, check out this resource

86% of HR Experts Say Recruitment Has Become More Like Marketing

SaaS industry growth is a bit of a double-edged sword. While it means increased opportunities and a larger customer base, it also means more competition. And with widespread talent shortages, the competition will be even more fierce in 2022. 

To keep up, 86% of HR experts say you need to approach recruitment like a marketing campaign. In other words, it’s no longer sufficient to haphazardly put out job ads and expect an overflowing pool of qualified candidates. Rather, you need to strengthen your brand and work on growing your presence across multiple mediums. 

This brings me to my next point. 

68% of Millennials, 54% of Gen-Xers, and 48% of Boomers Say They Evaluate a Prospective Employers’ Brand on Social Media

One of the main mediums in which candidates evaluate SaaS brands is social media. Over two-thirds of millennials do so, as well as many Gen-Xers and Boomers. And while this particular study doesn’t include Gen Z (candidates 24 and under), it’s safe to assume they use social media to check out prospective employers as well. 

The takeaway here is that SaaS companies need to have a strong social media presence, and it’s key for winning the competitive battle. As for the most popular social networks, here’s how that breaks down.

The main networks to focus on in 2022 are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

Having a Strong Brand Image Can Reduce Your Cost-Per-Hire By as Much as 50%

Piggybacking off that, research has found having a strong brand image can dramatically lower your cost-per-hire, with some estimates being as much as 50% lower. Why?

This naturally helps you acquire higher-quality candidates and spares you a lot of recruiting expenses that SaaS brands with a poorer brand image have to deal with. If, for example, you’re an industry stand out like HubSpot, many top-tier candidates will come to you organically rather than constantly having to funnel money into recruiting. 

That’s why it pays to always look for ways to strengthen your brand image and provide a great employee and candidate experience.

Including a Video in a Job Posting Increases the Application Rate By 34%

I’m always a fan of simple recruiting techniques (hacks, if you will) that have a huge impact. If you’re looking for a straightforward way to significantly increase your application rate that doesn’t require an exorbitant amount of effort, including a video in your job posting is it. In fact, studies have found this results in a whopping 34% more applications on average. 

And that’s not surprising given the massive success of video platforms like YouTube. As of 2021, it had 1.86 billion users, and that number should only continue to increase into 2022 and beyond. 

52% of Applicants Say a Lack of Response From Employers is Their Number One Frustration 

Finally, it’s important to know the biggest sources of friction in the SaaS sales recruitment process. According to recent data, the main issue candidates have is not receiving a sufficient response from employers, with over half citing this as their main frustration

This shows the importance of being as communicative as possible throughout recruiting and not leaving candidates hanging. While you don’t necessarily need to fill them in on every last detail, it’s nice to let candidates you’re passing on know when you’ve decided to move on and keep those who’ve been shortlisted in the loop. Doing so sets the tone for a positive candidate experience and should help improve your brand equity as we discussed earlier. 

Starting 2022 Out on the Right Foot

From leveraging technology like recruiting software and AI to approaching SaaS sales recruiting like marketing to building a strong brand image to lower cost-per-hire, these stats paint a clear picture of what to expect in 2022. By making the right adjustments and focusing on core objectives, your SaaS company can start out on the right foot in the New Year. 

Want to learn more about how HireDNA can optimize your sales recruiting? Get the full details and see how 92% of recommended candidates reach the top of their sales force after working with HireDNA. 

How Pre-Screening SaaS Sales Candidates Can Cut Your Hiring Time in Half

SaaS sales has one of the slowest times to hire, according to recent data from LinkedIn. Their study found this industry has a median time to hire of 38 days, which means it takes well over a month for most SaaS companies to fill vacant positions. 

But what do you do when you’re in a rush and need to find qualified SaaS sales candidates in a hurry?

Here’s a proven strategy that can slash your hiring time in half.

Pre-Screen SaaS Sales Candidates

There’s a lot that goes into making the right hire. For example, you need to look at hard and soft skills, previous experience, education, core competencies, and so on. This, however, presents a problem because it can quickly become overwhelming to sort through all of this information manually. And many SaaS companies simply don’t have the bandwidth to devote to intensive recruiting. 

One of the best ways to filter through a high volume of applicants and narrow it down to the top contenders is through pre-screening. This is where you gather critical qualification information about candidates so you know who meets the necessary criteria and who doesn’t. That way you can quickly determine who to move to the next round of hiring and who to pass on.

When done correctly, this can expedite the hiring process dramatically.  

But There’s a Caveat

There’s just one issue. The pre-screening systems that many SaaS companies currently use often fall short.  

“The problem with most pre-screening processes is they are misaligned with your company’s needs related to missing skill sets, knowledge, or experience,” writes Murray Newlands in Forbes. Also, “antiquated pre-screening techniques could be prone to human errors and those involved in this part of the process may not be trained to make the right decisions.”

In other words, failing to have the right pre-screening system in place can actually do more harm than good. And if it’s not having any tangible results, what’s the point?

Use a SaaS Sales Recruiting Platform

That’s where a SaaS sales recruiting platform comes in. This software uses a proven, repeatable process that enables you to quickly find top talent that’s interview-ready without having to manually sift through dozens or even hundreds of candidates yourself. More importantly, it takes into account all of the essential qualification information necessary to ensure you make the right hires. 

Here’s how it works. 

First, you define the skills, competencies, and characteristics you need in a sales candidate —  their “DNA.” Next, the software uses powerful technology to pinpoint a list of active and passive candidates that perfectly match your criteria. HireDNA, for instance, taps into a verified national network sales talent to generate a pool of top-tier candidates. 

From there, candidates are screened and assessed using the OMG Sales Candidate Assessment which uses quantifiable data to predict success before being hired. HireDNA uses intelligent matching that analyzes 21 key data points to determine role, culture, and experience fit. This ensures every single person who makes it to the interviewing round fits your ideal candidate profile and has the core competencies needed to thrive in your SaaS selling environment. 

Here’s an example. 

At that point, the best of the best candidates are delivered to your inbox where you can conveniently manage them and decide who you want to interview. It’s then just a matter of going through the interview process and selecting new SaaS salespeople for your team. Platforms like HireDNA even include onboarding and training programs to get new hires up-to-speed quickly and have them hit their quotas in a shorter period of time.  

Additional Benefits

While results will vary, many SaaS companies are able to slash their hiring time in half with this pre-screening process. So, if you’re frustrated with your current time to hire, a SaaS sales recruiting platform is definitely something to consider. Besides the impact it can have on hiring duration, it offers some other key benefits as well. 

Perhaps the biggest is that it allows you to attract higher-quality candidates. Research has found, for example, that utilizing the OMG Sales Candidate Assessment can reduce hiring mistakes by 96%, and 92% of recommended candidates reach the top half of the sales force within their first year. Enabling SaaS companies to swiftly navigate through the process without running into any major glitches. 

Finally, there’s a correlation between using a SaaS sales recruiting platform and higher retention. In fact, turnover decreases by more than 33% with HireDNA — a trend that’s largely due to the industry-leading assessment science. By building a stronger team of sales reps that are naturally a great fit for your company, you can keep more of them around for the long haul and often set the stage for internal promotions. That way you’re not stuck in the endless cycle of finding and onboarding SaaS salespeople, only to wind up needing to replace them.

Drastically Reducing Your Time to Hire Without Sacrificing Quality

With 38 days being the median time to hire for SaaS companies, it’s definitely an area that needs some improvement. After all, if a key position is sitting vacant for over a month, this can take a chunk out of your productivity and profitability. Developing an efficient, pre-screening process, however, ideally with a technology sales recruiting platform, can dramatically reduce your time to hire by as much as 50%. 

Want to learn more about how this technology can accelerate your SaaS sales hiring?. Reach out to HireDNA today!