Category: Sales Recruiting

How to Avoid Costly Hiring Mistakes in SaaS Sales Recruitment

Posted on by Nick Mann

Here are some sobering SaaS sales recruitment stats.

And here’s the kicker. 74% of SaaS sales recruiters say they’ve made a wrong hire at some point.

No matter how effective your SaaS sales recruitment seems, the chances are good that you’ll eventually choose the wrong person. If this happens consistently, it can have disastrous consequences for company growth and profitability.

To prevent unnecessary drama, I’m going to pinpoint practical steps you can take to avoid costly hiring mistakes to find the best of the best candidates who’ll stick with your SaaS company for the long haul.

Define Essential SaaS Salesperson Competencies

Before doing anything else, I suggest sitting down with key stakeholders and creating a concise list of core salesperson competencies that are essential to success. This should help you crystallize what’s truly important so you’ll know exactly what you’re looking for in a candidate.

Otherwise, it’s going to be difficult to articulate the type of candidate you’re looking for in a SaaS sales role.

There is a wide range of competencies that contribute to a SaaS salesperson thriving, but here are a few examples for reference.

Note that your list may change over time, and you can always make revisions as you accumulate more data. But having something concrete to start with should ensure a baseline level of candidate quality during recruiting.

Don’t Forget Cultural Fit

Besides the nuts and bolts of core competencies, you should always pay close attention to cultural fit. After all, you can hire someone who checks all the right boxes and is an absolute sales superstar. But if they’re a poor fit culturally, this will likely result in internal friction, premature turnover, and in many cases, money.

In fact, Forbes states that “the result of poor culture fit due to turnover can cost an organization between 50-60% of the person’s annual salary.”

On the other hand, SaaS companies that choose sales candidates that closely align with their culture see a revenue increase of 682%!

Whenever you’re posting a job ad, be sure to include which specific characteristics your ideal candidate should possess from a cultural standpoint. That alone, should help filter out a sizable percentage of poor fits. And during an interview, you can ask questions like these to gauge a person’s cultural fit.

Thoroughly Evaluate Hard and Soft Skills with the Right Tool

Once you have a firm grasp on the type of candidate you’re looking for, it’s time to develop a framework that allows you to objectively analyze candidates based on that criteria. As I mentioned earlier, you can get a fairly good sense of how qualified someone is during an interview.

However, this has its limitations, as you can’t always guarantee that a candidate will be 100% honest. Plus, unconscious bias is always a factor that can get in the way.

One of the best ways to properly evaluate hard and soft skills and truly see a candidate from all angles is to use SaaS sales recruiting software. A platform like HireDNA, for example, takes the guesswork out of the process and supplies you with data-driven insights on nearly every sales competency you can imagine.

Everything from sales experience to sales skills and abilities to role compatibility to cultural fit can be quantified with this tool to provide you with a holistic overview of a SaaS sales candidate.

Besides that, you can also gauge things like coachability, resilience, and emotional control, which, up until recently, have been quite difficult to measure.

At a glance, you can get an in-depth feel of how well a candidate would likely perform if hired and how they stack up against the competition. That way, you can easily narrow down the candidate pool to just a handful of A+ players before making your final decision.

Don’t Skimp on Onboarding

One final mistake I see many SaaS companies make is this. They go to the trouble of carefully identifying critical characteristics salespeople need to possess, perform comprehensive evaluations, and follow interviewing best practices to ultimately hire quality salespeople.

But their effort wanes after that.

During onboarding, they just go through the motions, where new reps only learn the basics and aren’t truly in a position to thrive. Then they’re surprised that a high percentage of reps fail to reach their potential, quit, or both.

My point here is that SaaS sales recruitment doesn’t stop once you’ve made a hire. An essential element is onboarding, where you go above and beyond to ensure each salesperson is equipped with everything they need to reach their full potential as quickly as possible.

For reference, here are a few things HubSpot suggests focusing on when training salespeople.

For a deeper dive, I highly recommend reading an article we wrote called The First 90 Days: A Blueprint for New Hire Retention Success. In it, we cover strategies like creating a welcome package, offering structured, phased onboarding, building internal relationships, and much more.

By following these techniques, you should be able to dramatically reduce ramp time and increase new hire retention.

Success Hinges on Talent: Optimizing Your SaaS Salesperson Recruitment

Given that nearly three-quarters of SaaS sales recruiters have botched a hire along the line, and hiring the wrong person can be incredibly costly, recruiting is a process that you want to get right. While perfection is hard to achieve, maximum optimization is fully within your grasp.

It’s just a matter of focusing on critical areas and refining your strategies. To recap, this includes defining essential SaaS salesperson competencies, not overlooking cultural fit, assessing hard and soft skills with a recruiting tool, and getting serious about onboarding.

If you’re ready to take the next step, try our Sales Skills Assessment to learn a candidate’s strengths and hidden weaknesses to make the best possible hiring decisions.

What SaaS Sales Leaders Look for in a Winning Sales Rep in 2025

Posted on by Nick Mann

The SaaS industry is known for innovation and being in a state of constant flux. To build a high-performance team SaaS sales leaders need to look beyond traditional skills and acclimate to an ever-changing market. For this post, we’ll look at five must-have qualities a winning sales rep should possess in 2025.

A High Tech IQ

Given that technology is inherently infused into the SaaS industry it’s only natural that a winning sales rep will have a high tech IQ. By this I don’t just mean being tech savvy but eating, sleeping, and breathing tech.

This starts with having an acute understanding of the SaaS industry itself, including your specific niche, product, and competitors. A salesperson should be proficient with sales and CRM software so they can effectively manage every stage of the sales funnel and customer relationships.

They should be able to put together a solid tech stack, which includes sales and CRM software, as well as networking platforms, social media, video conferencing, and so on. Here’s an example.

Besides that, a winning sales rep should be proficient in sales analytics. They don’t need to be a data scientist, but they should be able to extract insights on macro and micro trends and apply them to everyday operations.

AI Fluency

In the span of just a couple of years, AI has essentially gone from being a novelty to infiltrating nearly every corner of work and life. As of 2024, 75% of salespeople were using AI in the workplace. And 56% reported using it daily.

Based on the current usage trajectory, it’s likely that nearly all salespeople will be using AI in some capacity by the end of the 2020s (if not sooner). Therefore, having AI fluency is no longer merely a preferred ability but a necessity.

From identifying qualified leads to lead scoring to automated outreach to sales forecasting, AI has an abundance of use cases in SaaS sales.

That’s why one of the most critical traits SaaS sales leaders now look for in a winning sales rep is the ability to practically use AI to increase their efficiency and effectiveness, which helps improve the customer experience and close more deals.

Consultative Storytelling Abilities

Would you believe that “94% of SaaS buyers don’t trust sales teams?” It’s true.

Skepticism runs rampant with the majority of today’s customers, so taking a hard-nosed, old-school approach with aggressive sales tactics seldom ends well.

What most buyers are receptive to, however, is what I call “consultative storytelling.” This is where you work to first understand a customer by identifying specific needs, pain points, challenges, and any obstacles that are getting in the way of them buying. Then you seek to provide solutions and position your SaaS product as the ideal platform that checks all the right boxes and delivers genuine value.

A big part of this is acting more as a consultant rather than a salesperson, where you build rapport and collaborate with a customer to ensure you find them the perfect product. Storytelling also comes into the equation, where you objectively show the tangible impact your solution can have by sharing examples and case studies.

That way, you don’t have to rely merely on saying your product is a great fit, and you can show a customer firsthand.

Natural Resilience

Being a salesperson is tough.

And you could argue that it’s never been tougher than it is today, especially in SaaS sales. With so many companies battling it out, competition is incredibly fierce.

As a result, rejection is baked into the job description for SaaS salespeople, and it takes a certain type of personality to shake it off and keep moving forward. If a rep lacks natural resilience, they’re going to have a hard time succeeding in this profession, which is why this is such a vital characteristic to look for.

But with resilience being a soft skill and hard to quantify, how exactly can you pinpoint this in a potential salesperson?

You can always ask behavioral questions that gauge resilience in an interview. Here’s a list of questions for reference.

But one of the better ways to determine someone’s resilience is using a tool that delivers data-driven insights via candidate profiles. With HireDNA, for example, you can generate a comprehensive breakdown of a rep’s core competencies, with the ability to handle rejection being on the list.

This provides a measurable means of determining just how well a SaaS salesperson deals with obstacles, which can help you assemble the best team possible.

Adaptability

As I stated in the intro, the SaaS industry is in a state of constant flux. And as technology continues advancing at its current breakneck speed, the rate of change will only continue to intensify.

That’s why adaptability is the final trait a winning sales rep should possess in 2025.

I like what Mindy Murphy of The Center for Sales Strategy has to say about it.

“An adaptable salesperson has the ability to adjust and thrive in various situations and environments, making them a valuable asset to any sales team. They can quickly respond to these changes and adjust their strategies accordingly.

And they possess the agility to:

  • Respond swiftly to market changes
  • Build stronger, more personalized client relationships
  • Handle rejection with resilience and learn from setbacks”

While you never know exactly what will happen in the SaaS sales world and what changes will unfold, having reps that are equipped to adapt to current circumstances should ensure you’re prepared to handle whatever comes your way. In this respect, adaptability helps “future-proof” your business to a certain extent.

It’s just a matter of finding candidates that possess adapability skills — something that can be done through candidate profiles as I mentioned earlier, as well as using scenario-based assessments, problem-solving tasks, and role-playing exercises during interviews.

The Anatomy of a Winning Sales Rep

Although certain essential characteristics will never change, I feel the five outlined above are absolutely critical to SaaS sales rep success in 2025. Zeroing in on these should help you find superstars who aren’t only equipped to thrive in today’s environment but in the future as well.

If you’re ready to level up your SaaS sales recruiting to reduce mistakes and speed up your time to hire, try out our free Hiring Readiness Assessment.

Why Sales Turnover Is Killing Your SaaS Growth and How to Stop It

Posted on by Nick Mann

Turnover is an issue for many industries. But it’s especially problematic in SaaS sales. According to research, the average turnover rate of US salespeople is around 30%, which is more than double the 13% of all other professions. Based on these numbers, one out of every three salespeople you hire will quit each year. And if left unchecked, this can be disastrous to your SaaS growth.

For this post, I’ll examine the impact high sales turnover can have on your SaaS company and common sense ways to stop it.

Sky High Recruiting Costs

Hiring salespeople isn’t cheap. While the costs can widely vary, experts say that it can easily cost $7,000 to $8,000 per rep. If this happens at scale, it can quickly result in exorbitant recruiting costs that can eat away at your bottom line.

Because of this added expense and the constant strain on resources, profitability can take a big hit. And if you’re constantly hiring and rehiring, you’re basically running on a hamster wheel, making it hard to achieve any real progress.

Loss of Expertise

Seldom can an elite salesperson be easily replaced. Because they possess a unique knowledge and skillset and have an in-depth understanding of your existing customers, you can’t just grab somebody off the street and expect them to operate at the same level.

Even if you find another superstar sales rep, it still takes time to get them up to speed with how your company operates, learn your products, build rapport with customers, and so on. As a result, sales turnover can be detrimental to your sales process and make it difficult to close deals like you would if retain top talent.

Customer Experience Disruptions

Try to put yourself in an existing customer’s shoes for a second. Their primary point of contact has left your company, and all of a sudden, they have to deal with a new rep who’s just learning the ropes. This is almost guaranteed to disrupt the customer experience and could potentially sour the relationship.

At best, it can create frustration with an existing customer. At worst, it may compel them to seek out a competitor.

And for a potential customer who’s interacting with a new rep rather than an established one, it’s hard to provide the same level of experience simply because a new rep doesn’t know the ins and outs. So from a customer experience standpoint, high sales turnover can be toxic.

Sluggish Sales Cycle

Whenever there’s a constant stream of new reps getting their bearings and learning your product and market, it’s likely to slow down the sales cycle. And that can be a big problem given that the SaaS industry has a notoriously long sales cycle — and getting longer all the time.

“The SaaS sales process has grown more complex,” explains Channel as a Service. “Now, the average B2B buying cycle is 43 days, up from 33 days in 2020. For big businesses, this can go up to 65 days, hurting revenue and growth.”

If you continually have to replace salespeople, it can result in a sluggish sales cycle, which can slow down revenue generation and impede growth.

How to Drastically Reduce Sales Turnover and Fuel SaaS Growth

The bottom line is that turnover is more than simply an inconvenience. Not to be melodramatic, but it’s an issue that can have far-reaching consequences and erode a SaaS company from the ground up. But what can you do about it?

It should probably go without saying, but first, make sure you’re offering a competitive salary and benefits, as this is a precursor to anything else. Even if you check all of the other employee retention boxes, you’re going to struggle if you can’t pay top talent what they’re worth.

As for specific numbers, our research found that, as of 2023, the average SaaS salesperson’s salary was just under $100k at $99,826. We wrote a comprehensive article on this topic that breaks this down in detail, which you can find here.

As long as you’re close to this number, you should be in pretty good shape.

Next, I recommend optimizing your SaaS sales hiring process. In particular, take steps to ensure you find the best of the best candidates who not only meet your qualifications but who are a natural fit your for company culture.

For example, it’s smart to use sales recruiting solutions with in-depth, science-based assessments to quantify a candidate’s capabilities.

This takes the guesswork out of the process, and you can easily compare SaaS sales candidates side-by-side and identify the cream of the crop before moving on to the next round of hiring. Not only does help you find the true superstars, it saves a lot of time.

Third, create a 90-day game plan for onboarding new sales reps to get them up to speed and equip them for success. This could include offering new hires a welcome package, offering structured, phased onboarding, setting concrete goals, and measuring success along the way.

Here’s an illustration of what that might look like.

Note that we wrote an entire blog post about creating a 90-day blueprint to maximize retention, which you can read here.

Fourth, make sure that you prioritize ongoing salesperson development and promotion from within. Feeling like someone is stuck in a dead-end sales job with no room for growth is a surefire way to send reps packing.

But if they’re given a chance to continually develop their skill set and climb the ranks, the odds of them sticking around for the long haul increase considerably.

Lastly, get in the habit of not only accepting sales rep feedback but encouraging it. More often than not, being on the lookout for ways you can improve can help you address small issues before they escalate. Not to mention, reps who feel listened to and their opinion valued are far more likely to be satisfied in their jobs.

Retaining Sales Talent: The Key to SaaS Growth

We all know that high sales turnover is harmful. But not everyone understands the full implications. With SaaS sales having a higher-than-average turnover rate, this is something to tackle head-on.

If you’re ready to level up your sales recruiting, try our Hiring Readiness Assessment. It can help you find ultra-qualified candidates, reduce hiring mistakes, and fill positions faster.

The Future of SaaS Sales Recruitment: Leveraging AI for Smarter Hiring

Posted on by Nick Mann

AI is, admittedly, one of the most overused words in today’s vocabulary. While many companies are jumping on the bandwagon and using it just so they say they can, the fact is that leveraging AI for smarter hiring can have an immense impact on SaaS sales recruiting.

“Around 85% of recruiters think AI is a useful technology that will replace some parts of the hiring process.” And 70% of companies plan on using it in 2025.

But what are the practical applications of AI for smarter hiring? Here I’ll discuss some of the top use cases and their benefits.

Talent Pool Filtering

Historically, one of the biggest obstacles to SaaS sales recruiting has simply been sifting through a large candidate pool to find a handful of ultra-qualified reps. Sure, applicant tracking systems can be helpful for screening and have certainly streamlined the process.

But at the end of the day, much of a recruiter’s time is still spent combing through candidates and trying to find the perfect picks.

But AI has truly changed the game when it comes to talent pool filtering. By using advanced algorithms, AI can search through a massive volume of SaaS sales candidates and narrow it down to the individuals who possess the exact education, skills, and personality traits you’re looking for. In terms of quantifiable impact, “data suggests that up to 70% of time could be saved by strategically using generative AI.”

While there’s still the need for the human touch when you look over a candidate’s resume, cover letter, and credentials, this can dramatically speed up recruiting and provide you with a list of cherry-picked salespeople who are ready to be moved to the next round of hiring.

Applicant Success Predicting

What if before deciding to greenlight a new SaaS salesperson you could see into the future and know how they’re going to perform once the bright lights are on them? With AI you basically can.

Although you can never say with 100% accuracy that a particular salesperson will work out, you can use predictive analytics to analyze previous hiring data to decide which candidates are most likely to succeed in your unique sales environment.

Say, for example, that after looking at past data, you know that some of the most critical traits of successful salespeople are having strong motivation, controlling emotions, and being able to handle rejection. You could use candidate assessments to objectively determine how a potential candidate ranks in each of these areas.

From there, you could prioritize candidates accordingly, so you’ll know for certain which individuals are most likely to thrive on your sales team. With AI, you can evolve from relying on a hunch to relying on legitimate data to reduce your time-to-hire and find the best of the best.

Recruiter Bias Reduction

As humans, we naturally have certain biases. It’s unavoidable.

But when bias is left unchecked in SaaS sales recruiting, it can be detrimental because it can skew your judgment, lead to missed opportunities, and reduce your diversity. And in some cases, hiring bias can even harm your reputation and lead to legal issues.

According to research, “96% of recruiters think that unconscious bias is a problem in the recruitment process, and more than a third believe it’s a big problem.”

Fortunately, this is yet another area where AI can be utilized. Because AI just focuses on the data, you can essentially eliminate unconscious bias from your SaaS sales hiring.

“By leveraging objective algorithms, AI software can assess candidates based solely on their qualifications, skills, and experience without being influenced by factors such as gender, ethnicity, or age.”

Optimized Candidate Experience

Besides making things better for SaaS sales recruiters, AI can also positively impact the candidate experience. There are several applications, but here are two specific examples.

One is to use an AI chatbot to serve as a dedicated point of contact throughout the hiring process. After someone has applied, for instance, they could ask the chatbot questions or find relevant resources. The chatbot could also provide them with information about the next hiring steps, help them prepare for interviewing, send them updates, and so on.

The chatbot would be available 24/7, so any time a candidate needs assistance, they can get it. Of course, if they need to speak to a human member of your sales recruiting team they could do that (the chatbot could point them to the appropriate party). But the vast majority of the process can be handled by AI.

Another use case is having AI automate interview scheduling.

Let’s say you’ve narrowed your candidate pool down to four candidates and you have three rounds of interviews. That would be a total of 12 interviews. When you combine that with all of the subsequent communication that comes along with it, things can get chaotic in a hurry.

Rather than manually reaching out to each person for each round, as well as following up, you could greatly streamline the process with AI automation. For example, you could develop a series of interview workflows and use AI to perform outreach for you. This would ensure timely communication for candidates and recruiters so you could move through interviewing more efficiently and not waste a candidate’s time.

AI for Smarter Hiring: Better Outcomes with Less Effort

With nearly three-quarters of SaaS sales companies planning to incorporate AI into recruiting in 2025, this technology has officially become ubiquitous. However, not all recruiters are entirely sure of how to properly leverage it.

While AI has a wide range of applications, some of the most practical are filtering the talent pool to find elite candidates that match your company’s style, quantitatively predicting candidate success, reducing recruiter bias, and enhancing the candidate experience.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As AI continues to evolve, the applications will only continue to increase, making now the perfect time to get on board.

Are inefficiencies and weaknesses hurting your SaaS sales hiring process? Use our Hiring Readiness Assessment to reduce mistakes and source candidates faster.

Why Your SaaS Company Struggles to Hire Top Sales Talent (And How to Fix It)

Posted on by Nick Mann

Multiple factors impact the success of your SaaS company. Software quality, pricing, and customer retention are just a few examples. But one of the biggest is the caliber of your sales talent. Without a professional, stable sales team in place, SaaS company struggles are almost guaranteed.

In this post, I’ll examine the most common reasons why brands find difficulty hiring top sales talent and practical strategies for overcoming this problem.

Competition

As of early 2025, there were approximately 30,000 SaaS companies across the globe, with 60% in the US.

This industry is scorching hot right now, with new companies constantly popping up in every niche imaginable. As a result, the sheer volume of SaaS companies is a major reason why so many brands struggle with recruiting.

With talented reps having so many options, you’re likely to face challenges if your brand doesn’t have a strong unique value proposition (UVP) and lacks anything to distinguish you from the rest of the pack.

Inefficient Hiring Process

Slow, meticulous, or chaotic hiring is another common way SaaS recruiting teams shoot themselves in the foot. Top sales reps know their worth, and even if they have a strong interest in your company, many will “get off the line” if your hiring process is inefficient.

Pinpointing the exact problem isn’t always easy, but here’s a list of eight particular issues that harm the candidate experience.

Poor Pay and Benefits

It should come as no surprise that elite sales talent expects competitive pay and benefits — if not above average. If, for whatever reason, you’re unable to offer this, it’s going to be an uphill battle from the start.

For reference of what’s considered competitive, you can check out an article we wrote about SaaS sales salary in 2023. Note that there’s been a slight increase as of the time of this writing in early 2025 because of inflation, but it should still provide a basic reference point.

Lack of Career Development Opportunities

MIT research states that 67% of SaaS sales reps value career development. If the position you’re advertising for has little to no options for career development, it’s understandable that you likely won’t attract a large number of qualified candidates.

And even if you do manage to land some A+ talent, your turnover rate will probably a lot higher than what it should be.

Weak Branding

By “weak branding,” I mean lacking the brand presence and desirability it takes to pique the interest of top SaaS sales reps. With so many SaaS companies going after a finite number of qualified reps, it takes something special to make reps want to choose you.

Some of the best examples of companies with excellent branding include HubSpot, Slack, Zoom, and Canva.

How to Fix SaaS Company Struggles

Now that we have crystallized the most common contributing factors to SaaS company struggles, let’s create a formula for overcoming them to help your brand bring in more elite talent.

As we mentioned in the first point, competition is one of the biggest hindrances to building an A+ sales team. By following the strategies for the subsequent SaaS company struggles, which we’ll discuss below, this should give you an edge over many of your competitors and make your brand a more desirable place to work.

This starts with optimizing your hiring process. One of the best ways to go about this is to use cutting-edge technology to objectively identify the best of the best candidates.

HireDNA, for instance, uses sophisticated assessments to determine how well a person will fit in with your unique sales culture and examines core competencies.

It’s also smart to provide a clear outline of what candidates can expect at each stage in the hiring process and maintain close communication from start to finish.

The next issue, poor pay and benefits, can be fixed by 1) identifying what’s considered competitive pay in the SaaS sales industry (in 2023, it was just under $100k) and 2) adjusting your payment structure to match or exceed it.

Admittedly, this can be easier said than done, especially for newer SaaS companies with limited funds. But if you truly expect to build an elite sales force, you’ll need to at least get within the proximity of what other successful brands are offering.

When it comes to career development opportunities, the simple solution is to build your SaaS company in a way that promotes growth from within. Not only can this make your business feel more desirable to work for, it offers a host of impressive benefits, including the following.

  • “Employees stay 41% longer at companies with high rates of internal hiring.”
  • “56% of employees believed promoting from within is better for morale.”
  • “Managers promoted from within were 10% more likely than external hires to report having a highly productive team.”

And given that “33.63% of the workforce has looked for a new job in the last six months due to lack of career growth,” this can be huge for preventing unnecessary turnover and keeping sales superstars around for the long haul.

Finally, weak branding can be addressed in a few ways.

First, work on developing your UVP so that candidates know exactly what makes you different from other competitors and why they should want to work for you. Strive to create unique brand messaging that incorporates your genuine style, philosophy, and values, while being true to yourself.

Build a strong presence on social media and other online outlets to increase exposure and make your brand more recognizable. Also, incorporate positive testimonials on your website and social media from current or previous salespeople to articulate the benefits of working for you.

Making Your SaaS Company a Premier Destination

Unless you’re a well-known mega SaaS brand like HubSpot or Slack, you’ll likely encounter some challenges when attempting to hire top sales talent. By pinpointing the most common reasons for SaaS company struggles — competition, inefficient hiring, poor pay/benefits, lack of career development, and weak branding — and tackling them head-on, you should be able to solidify your brand as a desirable one to work for.

Hopefully, this will supply you with the momentum you need to take the next step forward and build a team of ultra-talented reps.

If you’re looking for the ultimate hiring readiness assessment, check out this one from HireDNA. Use it to source candidates faster, drastically reduce mistakes, increase retention, and build a better sales culture.

The A/B Testing Approach: Refining Your SaaS Sales Job Descriptions for Maximum Impact

Posted on by Nick Mann

When most people hear the term A/B testing, they think of sales and marketing. Most of today’s businesses use A/B testing to measure website performance, landing pages, SEO campaigns, emails, and so on. But that’s not the only thing it’s good for.

A/B testing can also be applied to writing SaaS sales job descriptions. When used correctly, this allows you to gain data-driven insights that can help refine every element of your job descriptions to attract better candidates, fill positions quicker, and increase salesperson retention.

Here are the nuts and bolts of the A/B testing approach to help you write the best SaaS sales job descriptions possible.

Figure Out What Needs Improving

Before doing anything else, you first need to pinpoint exactly what you’re looking to accomplish.

For example, maybe you’re not pulling in the volume of candidates you need. Here your goal would be to improve your job descriptions to make your company more appealing to increase the number of applications you receive.

Or maybe you’re currently getting a high volume of SaaS sales candidates with your job description, but the quality level is lacking. In that case, your goal would be to improve the collective quality of candidates.

Whatever the case, figure out precisely what needs improving. Also, it’s usually best to focus on one area at a time when A/B testing SaaS sales job descriptions, as trying to fix more than one area at once can be overwhelming. Once you’ve made your initial improvement, you can move on to other areas. But stick with one element at first to keep things simple.

Choose Testing Variables

After you’ve identified what needs improving, it’s time to determine the specific variables to test. This can be a little tricky, given how many different components make up a SaaS sales job description. Here are the core 10.

The key to effective A/B testing is choosing variables you believe are most instrumental in helping you achieve your goal. If, for instance, you were struggling to bring in enough qualified candidates, you may want to focus on skill sets and education qualifications.

This should help weed out more underqualified candidates so the majority of the ones who apply have the qualifications you’re seeking.

Develop Two Test Versions

Now it’s time to create two test versions — a control and a variation — to see which performs the best.

Let’s go back to our example about trying to improve candidate quality. In an attempt to drive more qualified candidates, you could try two different test versions of the skill set section of your job description.

Version A could be a shorter section, which covers the essentials but doesn’t go into much detail.

Version B could be a longer section, which is more specific with the skills a SaaS salesperson needs to thrive at your company and goes into greater detail.

A potential hypothesis would be that version B would result in more qualified candidates, as it’s more exhaustive in terms of the skills your ideal SaaS salesperson should possess.

Generate Measurable Data

Once you have your two test versions, it’s time to put them to use in a real-world setting and start generating data. For our example, you could split the two job description versions 50/50 so half of the the candidates see the shorter job description version and the other half see the longer job description version.

This would be a simple way to objectively compare the two versions to see which yields the best results.

The more data you have, the better. Therefore, you’ll want to run testing in as many places as possible. So, for example, instead of just doing testing on job descriptions on your website’s career section, you may want to branch out to job boards, email, or wherever else you recruit.

Analyze the Results

This is the fun part. After you’ve accumulated enough data, it’s time to see what the results are. If you were trying to determine whether a shorter or longer job description was best for reeling in quality candidates, you could analyze application quality, specifically looking at experience, skills, and cultural fit.

Say 75% of the candidates that applied to version A — the shorter list of necessary skills in the job description — were highly qualified and 85% of the candidates that applied to version B — the longer list of required skills in the job description — were highly qualified. Based on those findings, you could surmise that version B had the bigger impact and helped bring in more highly qualified candidates.

That would mean that being more detailed with the required skill set should reliably produce higher-quality candidates.

This example is arbitrary, but you get the idea. Other key metrics you could analyze include the number of applications you receive after A/B testing, the average time candidates spend on a job description page, and the click-through-rate.

Nearly any element you can imagine can be tested with this technique, and a side-by-side comparison should give you objective insight into what works best.

Use Your Findings to Refine Future SaaS Sales Job Descriptions

Knowing for certain what it takes to optimize your SaaS sales job descriptions can be incredibly exciting. Rather than guessing what works, you know for a fact based on concrete data.

While finding the “low-hanging fruit” and improving a critically flawed area of your job description is good, that’s only the start. The key to being successful is continually performing the process until you’re able to write job descriptions like a well-oiled machine.

I suggest making a list of what needs your attention the most with the biggest issues at the top and the lesser issues toward the bottom. That way, you’ll know what to prioritize, and you can move through the list systematically until you’re firing on all cylinders.

If you’re looking to find the cream of the crop sales reps based on critical capabilities like the will to sell and trainability, check out The Original Sales Assessment. It can be fully customized to contour to your unique sales role to quickly filter through the candidate pool and find elite talent.

89% of Sales Candidates Accept Job Offers of the First Recruiter Who Contacts Them: How to Leverage This for Winning Top Talent

Posted on by Nick Mann

Here’s the scenario. After extensive (and costly) sales recruiting, you’ve finally pinpointed your dream candidate — someone who checks all the right boxes and who you feel would be the ideal salesperson for your role. But when you give them a call or shoot them an email, you find that they’ve moved on and have accepted a role with another company.

What happened? What went wrong?

More often than not in this situation, the problem is that you weren’t proactive and didn’t offer them the job quickly enough. For this post, I’ll discuss why this can prevent you from winning top talent and how to make sure you don’t fall into this trap in the future.

One Statistic You Absolutely Need to Know

First, try to put yourself in the shoes of an elite salesperson for a second. This person likely has plenty of options and leverage.

If they applied for multiple positions — as many jobseekers do — odds are more than one company is interested in their talent. And it probably won’t be long before someone recognizes what they bring to the table and tries to bring them on board.

Even if your company was the one they were most interested in, they’ll likely accept a comparable position if someone gave them an offer before you did. It’s nothing personal. It’s just a matter of who’s quickest to the punch.

And if the candidate needs to get hired in a hurry, it stands to reason that they would accept the first solid job offer that comes their way. This brings us to the one statistic you absolutely need to know.

“89% of applicants accept job offers faster when a recruiter contacts them.”

Rather than waiting around and leaving someone hanging after you’ve made a hiring decision, it’s crucial that you reach out right away with a formal job offer. Otherwise, you run a significant risk of losing top talent to a competitor.

You don’t need to rapid-fire right into onboarding, but you should let them know that you’ve chosen them for the job and what to expect next.

Two Other Compelling Stats

This makes sense considering that having to wait to see if they get an offer can be incredibly vexing for salespeople. In fact, 57% of people say the most frustrating part of the job search is waiting to see if they got the position after going through the interview process.”

Besides that, “Nearly one-quarter lose interest if they don’t hear back within one week after the initial interview; another 46 percent lose interest if there’s no status update from one-to-two weeks post-interview.”

And how can you blame them? The last thing you want to deal with when your livelihood is on the line is sluggish recruiters who leave you in the dark.

The bottom line is that candidates — especially those with a ton of talent and leverage — don’t want to wait around after an interview to be offered a job. They want it quickly.

Understanding this and adjusting your sales recruiting strategy accordingly is key to winning top talent. With that said, here are some specific ways to ensure you don’t squander golden opportunities.

Make Faster Decisions

A precursor to everything else is hastening your hiring decision-making. By this, I’m referring to avoiding requiring multiple levels of approvals from different team members before pulling the trigger. When this happens, you may have A+ sales candidates slip through your fingers by the time you’re able to get the green light for an offer.

Now I’m not suggesting foolishly rushing and not getting anyone else’s feedback. But it’s important to evaluate how many approvals you need before giving a sales candidate an offer and seeing if you could trim it back to streamline the process.

Maintain Consistent Candidate Communication

Communication throughout the hiring process is important anyway. But it’s especially critical after an interview and a candidate is waiting to find out if they landed the job or not. So you want to be sure that either you or a dedicated team member keeps your final round of candidates posted on the job status.

This starts with developing a sales candidate communication plan (you can learn how to create one here). And if someone reaches out to you to check the status, you should respond within 24 hours max.

Strike Fast With a Job Offer

Once you’re certain that you want to hire a particular candidate, don’t waste any time giving them a formal job offer. As soon as all key stakeholders agree, go ahead and let the candidate know right away so they don’t get lured into another position.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to provide them with ALL of the information right off the bat. This will come in phases during onboarding. But you’ll want to give them the good news that you want to bring them on board and provide them with the basics of what to expect next.

Also, be sure to include the basics like contact info, job details, salary, and benefits for quick reference.

That way they can officially shut down their job search and start preparing to join your sales team.

Winning Top Talent By Proactive Recruiting

Let’s recap. Sales recruiting can be incredibly competitive, and highly talented reps often have multiple companies vying for them. One of the main keys to landing superstar reps is having an efficient recruiting process and ensuring a team member immediately contacts them once they’ve been chosen.

The longer you wait, the greater the chances of them being snatched up by another company. But if you act quickly and maintain close communication along the way, the odds are in your favor that you’ll come out on top.

Want to take your sales recruiting to the next level by eliminating weaknesses and attracting ideal candidates? Take the HireDNA Hiring Readiness Assessment. Using it can improve screening accuracy, help you source candidates faster, reduce time to fill, and more.

Building Trust and Transparency: Addressing Candidate Concerns During the SaaS Sales Hiring Process

Posted on by Nick Mann

Building a foundation of trust from the beginning is important on many levels when hiring SaaS salespeople. From attracting talent to creating positive interactions to getting superstar reps to accept a position to long-term retention, trust is paramount. Unfortunately, the SaaS sales hiring process is lacking in this department for many brands.

In this post, I’d like to share some recent data to provide perspective and offer practical ways to build trust and transparency with your SaaS sales hiring.

A Current Snapshot of Trust Levels Among Candidates

In 2023, Gartner published some intriguing data that offers perspective on where most candidates are at in regard to employer trust and just how big of an impact having trust and transparency can be. Here are some of the highlights.

“Trust is low among employees today. Only 36% of employees report high trust in their organizations. Only 54% of candidates say they trust organizations to be honest with them during the hiring process, and commitment to accepted offers hangs in the balance. 44% of candidates have accepted an offer but then decided not to start the position.”

This data shows there’s a high level of skepticism among many candidates. But as Gartner points out, “trust is key to attracting, engaging, and retaining talent in a competitive, candidate-powered labor market. Employees with high organizational trust express an 11% higher intent to stay and show 39% higher engagement than those with low trust. “They also put 6.35 times as much discretionary effort into their jobs.”

The bottom line is that trust and transparency are highly important to the SaaS sales hiring process, as well as your bottom line. However, these are things that are collectively lacking among many of today’s brands. But if you go the extra mile to build trust and transparency, this can give your brand a major edge over most of your competitors.

With that in mind, here’s how to address concerns during the SaaS sales hiring process.

Create a Clear Hiring Timeline

Last month, we wrote a post about the importance of having a clear hiring timeline and mentioned that this is something that 83% of candidates want to have. One of the best ways to get started out on the right foot with SaaS sales candidates is to let them know exactly what to expect so there’s no guessing on their end.

This shows that you respect their time and it should ensure that they’re not left hanging, creating unnecessary resentment along the way. I highly recommend reading this blog post, as it walks you through the details, but here’s a simple example of a hiring timeline you could share with SaaS sales candidates so they know what to expect.

Be Detailed About Salary and Benefits

Research has found that nearly four out of five candidates want at least some form of transparency regarding salary and benefits, and nearly one out of three want total transparency.

Only 21% aren’t concerned with pay transparency when looking for a job.

Therefore, another critical part of establishing trust is to put this information out in the open so there are no surprises later on. This means being crystal clear about:

  • Base salary
  • Commission
  • Bonuses
  • Benefits
  • The potential for pay bumps over time

It’s also wise to discuss the potential for career development opportunities that could increase a salesperson’s earnings.

Doing so should alleviate frustration and mistrust and ensure you’re on the same page right from the get-go. If you’re wondering how much to pay top talent, we wrote an entire post about this topic.

Be Upfront About Job Challenges

Obviously, SaaS sales recruiters want to let candidates know about all of the great benefits of joining their company and focus on the positives. But no matter how amazing a position is, there will inevitably be drawbacks. And it’s important to offer a holistic perspective and a realistic overview to convey the role honestly so candidates know what to expect.

Say, for example, your SaaS sales reps may need to pull some extra hours from time to time. Or maybe it’s a fast-paced environment where you need reps who know how to manage stress.

These are potential challenges you would want to be transparent about during hiring so candidates who are brought on board have the right expectations and don’t quit prematurely.

Offer Responsive Feedback (Even if it’s Negative)

One of the quickest ways to create friction during SaaS sales hiring is to leave candidates in the dark during important decision-making. Whether it’s deciding which candidates make it to the next round of hiring or when someone gets an official offer, it’s crucial that you’re as prompt as possible.

Further, it’s equally as important to offer responsive feedback even if it’s not good news. If, for example, you liked a candidate overall but you decided to move on to the next round of hiring without them, you should let them know shortly after you made that decision so they could look for a different position.

Anyone who’s been a hiring manager knows that delivering bad news isn’t pleasant. But out of respect for the candidate, it’s important to keep them in the loop with timely communication.

Quelling Candidate Uncertainty with Your SaaS Sales Hiring Process

With only 54% of SaaS sales candidates saying they trust brands to be honest with them during the hiring process, this is something worth tackling head-on. By establishing your company as one that values its candidates’ time and maintains transparency from start to finish, you should be in a position to increase engagement and retention, while also getting maximum effort out of the candidates you hire.

Not to mention, it can do wonders for boosting your overall brand equity.

Ready to elevate your sales recruiting by finding elite SaaS sales candidates quicker while drastically reducing hiring mistakes and improving accuracy? Get HireDNA’s Hiring Readiness Assessment.

The Impact of Compensation Structure on SaaS Sales Recruitment

Posted on by Nick Mann

There are several factors that SaaS sales reps consider when looking for a job, including career development opportunities, working environment, benefits, and company culture. But when you get down to the nitty-gritty, compensation is still number one for many reps. Therefore, compensation structure will greatly impact your SaaS sales recruitment.

In this article, I’ll break down the specifics regarding the impact of compensation structure and offer recent data on how much salespeople earn on average.

Attract Top SaaS Sales Talent

According to the 2022 Salesforce State of Sales report, “The top reasons sales professionals want to leave their jobs include unrealistic sales targets and uncompetitive pay and benefits.” Although money isn’t everything, there’s no denying that it’s a major factor, if not THE main factor for SaaS salespeople when considering which company to work for.

If you want to attract the true superstars of your industry, you’ll need an enticing compensation structure. Later I’ll provide a breakdown of what companies pay on average so you’ll have a benchmark for reference. But for now, know that the salary you offer top SaaS sales candidates will heavily impact your ability to bring them on board.

Motivate SaaS Salespeople

Not only does a solid compensation structure help attract top talent, it also plays an instrumental role in motivating them to perform at their best. I think this quote from the Revenue Operations Alliance says it perfectly.

“Poor compensation is a major contributor to sales rep turnover. If you don’t nail your approach to compensation, you may be at risk of losing your top talent. Rewarding your sales team with competitive pay and setting them realistic quotas, keeps them happy and motivated to perform. If quotas are too high, you risk demotivating your reps.”

Just put yourself in the shoes of an elite rep for a second. If they know they’re getting paid fairly and have incentives like bonuses and other rewards for going above and beyond, they’ll be far more motivated than if they were getting paid below average with zero incentives. And if they work for a company that pays better than most competitors and offers robust bonuses and rewards, the rep will likely push themself even further.

Conversely, if they receive less than average pay with little to no bonus opportunities, you’re likely to get only the bare minimum from them. This classic scene from the movie Office Space comes to mind here.

Drive Revenue Growth

When you’re able to 1) attract top SaaS sales talent and 2) keep them consistently motivated to perform at their best, an inevitable result in most cases is increased revenue.

As we’ve discussed, well-paid sales reps are more likely to go the extra mile. In turn, this can translate into a host of benefits, including:

  • Alignment with company goals
  • Not only reaching but exceeding sales targets
  • More closed deals
  • Improved customer relationships to set the stage for upselling and repeat purchases
  • Better collaboration with other salespeople, as well as with other company departments

When you look at it from this perspective, investing more in a salesperson’s salary can pay off in the long run. Although you may spend more upfront, the revenue spike you’ll likely will often justify it.

Retain Sales Reps

And let’s not forget one of the most critical elements for building a successful SaaS company — retention. Obviously, retaining customers is huge for gaining momentum. But it’s also extremely important to retain your salespeople, especially top performers.

This starts by offering a strong salary structure to begin with. But experts say it’s also important to offer periodic salary increases. In fact, “59% of professionals polled believe that salary increases are the most effective tool in retaining top talent.” It’s also worth noting that “26% consider bonuses to be the primary mechanism.”

Ideally, you’ll lay a strong foundation by offering new SaaS salespeople fair or better-than-average pay. And over time, with good performance, you’ll steadily increase their salary and offer bonuses along the way.

How Much Should You Pay Your SaaS Salespeople?

Now that we’ve established why having the right compensation structure is important, let’s discuss the question you’re probably wondering right now. How much should you pay your SaaS salespeople?

This is a topic we covered in-depth in this article, which contains a ton of great 2023. Here are the highlights to give you a basic idea of what most companies are paying their SaaS sales reps.

According to data from Comparably, the US average in 2023 was $109,335, which was the highest of the three sources I analyzed.

Glassdoor had a slightly lower number at $108,003.

And ZipRecruiter had the national average considerably lower at $82,141 per year.

After crunching these numbers, the overall average between the three sources was $99,826 a year. While there are numerous factors like location, company size, and employee experience that will impact how much a SaaS salesperson should get paid, I feel that around $100,000 a year is a pretty good baseline number.

Note that those in the SaaS industry tend to get paid more than other salespeople due to the level of expertise, training, and tech savviness they need to possess. So that’s something to take into consideration. If you’re looking for a practical guide on how to set up a compensation structure for your SaaS company, I suggest this one from HubSpot.

The Importance of a Strong Compensation Structure

To recap, having the right compensation structure can help you attract top talent, motivate your reps, drive revenue growth, and boost employee retention. Beyond that, it plays a vital role in the overall longevity of your SaaS company and in building brand equity. The bottom line is that you want to find the sweet spot where you pay SaaS salespeople enough without throwing money away by going overboard.

If you’re looking to level up your SaaS recruiting to find sales reps who check all the right boxes, try our Hiring Readiness Assessment. Improve screening accuracy, reduce hiring mistakes, and turn your sales hiring into a well-oiled machine.

83% of Sales Candidates Want a Clear Hiring Timeline: Here’s How to Give it to Them

Posted on by Nick Mann

Put yourself in a sales candidate’s shoes for a second. The average person is eager to find a sales position and ready to start ASAP. They’re also likely facing a lot of uncertainty that could make them anxious. The last thing they want is any vagueness with the hiring process.

In fact, this could easily result in them jumping at another sales position, where you lose out on top-tier talent to a competitor. A simple way to avoid this problem is to provide sales candidates with a clear hiring timeline so they know exactly what to expect.

Why It’s Important to Have a Clear Hiring Timeline

Almost everyone knows what it’s like to be in job search mode. I know I do.

You’re busy sending out resumes and cover letters, filling out applications, and corresponding with hiring managers. There’s a lot going on.

When you find a prospective employer that looks promising, your goal is to quickly build rapport and swiftly move through the hiring process. From initial screenings to interviews to follow-up conversations to ultimately getting an offer and beginning onboarding, you want to navigate through this sequence of steps seamlessly.

But what if you find what seems like an amazing employer but they have absolutely no transparency in terms of what to expect with the hiring process? This can be incredibly frustrating, and many would-be superstar salespeople may be lost because of it.

Having a clear hiring timeline is essential because this provides the structure that lets sales candidates know for certain what’s about to happen. And this is something that most people crave, with research finding that “83% of candidates prefer having a clear timeline of the hiring process.”

But it goes deeper than that and is beneficial for your hiring team as well. This quote from ClearCompany summarizes it perfectly.

“Without a hiring timeline, you’re essentially creating a new process every time you hire. You can’t tell candidates — or your internal teams — when a decision will be made. Everyone, including your recruiting team, is in the dark. That’s frustrating for employees and candidates alike.”

With that said, here’s a straightforward strategy for giving sales candidates the clear hiring timeline they seek.

Outline the Sequences of Your Hiring Stages

First, you’ll need to articulate the exact series of steps involved in your sales hiring process. This can look slightly different from company to company, but here are two examples that you can build your outline around.

This one is quite simple and involves five basic steps.

  1. Verify a candidate’s information
  2. Interview them
  3. Evaluate their skills
  4. Perform employment verification
  5. Make your hiring decision

The other example is a little more involved with additional steps, but it should provide a thorough hiring process that increases your chances of finding the ideal sales candidate.

I suggest spending some time looking at these two examples and considering any other steps that are unique to your hiring and fleshing out a concrete process. Also, be sure to include roughly how long each step will take so that candidates and your sales hiring team know.

For example, you may mention that candidates can expect to hear back from you within three days after conducting an assessment test to schedule an interview.

Keep in mind that you can (and probably should) make changes as time goes on. But this should serve as a solid first draft so you can be on the same page with sales candidates. This brings us to our next point.

Provide an Overview of the Hiring Timeline to Sales Candidates

Once you’ve got a finished product, you’ll want to type up a tangible outline that you can give to sales candidates, as well as your hiring team. Here’s a simple example that I came up with off the top of my head.

Application Review and Screening1 week
Initial Phone Interviews3 days
In-Person or Video Interviews3 days
Reference/Background Check3 days
Offer and Negotiation1 week
Onboarding2 weeks

Notice that this not only shows the precise sequence of steps that will occur in the hiring timeline but also the approximate length of time with each step. And in the spirit of underpromising and overdelivering — which I find to be highly important in hiring and business in general — it’s best to give yourself some wiggle room with dates.

For instance, it would be better to tell candidates to expect it to take a week to receive an offer after conducting a reference/background check and it only takes five days to get back to them rather than promising three days and it taking you five.

In terms of the tools for creating a clear hiring timeline, a basic spreadsheet should be sufficient. However, you can find free, customizable templates here that have stronger aesthetics.

Track Progress and Make Adjustments

After you’ve identified the hiring timeline, created a tangible outline, and started implementing it, be sure to track your progress and measure the results.

Here are some specific quantitative KPIs to look at:

  • Time to fill
  • Time to hire
  • Interview-to-offer ratio
  • Offer acceptance rate
  • Quality of hire
  • Cost per hire
  • Employee retention

It’s also important to dive into qualitative metrics that rely less on numerical data and more on feedback. Mainly, I suggest getting direct candidate input on what their experience is like so you can identify pain points to fix. It’s also smart to get direct input from your hiring team to see how satisfied they are with the process and what could be improved.

Optimizing Sales Recruiting with a Clear Hiring Timeline

Given that 83% of sales candidates like having a clear hiring timeline it’s definitely worth your time to provide them with one. And it’s really not that complicated and only involves three steps.

Outline your hiring stages. Provide a concrete overview of those stages to sales candidates and your hiring team. Make ongoing improvements as you gather data.

Do that, and you should be on your way to creating an amazing sales candidate experience, which should result in more quality hires, increased ROI, and greater retention.

If you’re looking to eliminate weaknesses in your sales recruiting, try out our Hiring Readiness Assessment. It can help lower your recruiting costs, expedite your time to fill, and dramatically reduce poor hires.