Category: Sales Recruiting

Offer Stage Recruitment Tips to Win Over Top Candidates

Posted on by hiredna

Sales organizations are always on the lookout for standout reps that can boost their team’s performance. These exceptional individuals bring a proven track record of success, a wealth of experience and a role model presence to your team that positively affects the entire organization.

While recruiting top sales reps is a unique challenge on its own, the offer stage represents the last hurdle before you get them on board. Some recruiters mistake the offer stage as a mere formality, assuming the deal is already closed. Instead, it is arguably the most important stage where the candidate will make their final choice. Here are some offer stage recruitment tips to help you win over top candidates.

Do away with guesswork and hire the best candidates for your organization based on a data-backed predictive hiring system. Get in touch with a HireDNA sales recruiting expert today.

4 Offer Stage Tips For Top Candidates

If a candidate makes it to the offer stage, it means that they have been vetted, interviewed and passed all relevant organizational checks. Now is the time to close the deal effectively, and you should be well prepared. Here are some tips that can help increase your odds of attracting the best sales talent available.

Highlight The Details Behind Your Offer

Many times, sales managers simply parrot the offer details without attempting to extrapolate the value behind it and lend insight as to how your offer can truly benefit the candidate.

Simply repeating what you have been told by your HR manager is less likely to impress a top candidate that may very well have several other offers on their desk. Instead, you should take the time to help them understand the nuances behind the offer. For instance, if equity is involved, it is your duty to help the candidate understand the value of the equity being offered. Beyond the routine discussion involving vesting cycles and benefits, try to highlight how your offer can work toward their benefit down the line.

Of course, it’s important to have a detailed and realistic compensation plan available to walk the candidate through. Top candidates will want to know how existing reps are performing against targets and will want a clear roadmap for achieving success. No candidate wants to sign up for a role with unrealistic expectations.

Partner With Human Resources

Highly talented salespeople know their worth and often have the freedom to choose between several organizations. When seeking a new opportunity, the culture, onboarding process, and career growth opportunities are some of the commonplace concerns top sales reps share.

Partnering with your hiring manager or human resource manager can allow you to have a knowledgeable aid by your side who can answer pertinent questions with ease. They can help to elaborate on the individual growth prospects available at your organization and other key benefits available.

Eliminate hiring mistakes and improve retention rates with our proven hiring tools. Learn More.

Don’t Go Overboard

Asking too many questions, making too many calls or scheduling too many interviews are all signs of an organization going overboard with their recruitment process. Hiring top sales talent is a priority for many companies—and once you get to the offer stage, you are more likely to anticipate the deal as good as done. However, as the candidate is nearing their decision, they may become increasingly observant of their (potential) next employer.

Excessively nagging them to conduct multiple touchpoints will not only convey your organization as desperate but may adversely affect the candidate’s decision to stick with their current employer or go with another opportunity. Furthermore, asking repetitive questions regarding their desired role or salary can also work against you. You may come across as unsure, or unwilling—and when you’re aiming to recruit top sales talent, such ambiguity can work against you.

We recommend no more than three steps to the interview process before extending an offer. Any more is overkill. If you thoroughly screen candidates before the interview and use a sales specific assessment to predict compatibility and success, there’s no reason you need more than three interviews to make a decision. In today’s low unemployment market, you risk losing top talent to an overly complex, long, and unproductive interview process. 

Don’t Start From Your Lowest

The modern business world is highly competitive, and every company can benefit from having a high performing salesperson. Once you’ve found a top candidate and have managed to hold on to them until the offer-stage, don’t risk losing them because your offer couldn’t match their ambition.

Many organizations still deploy the age-old tactic of lowballing. However, there is one major flaw in this strategy—it doesn’t work with modern salespeople. Modern salespeople know their worth. By offering them a low starting offer, you are signaling that you don’t value them as much.

The best strategy is to present what you think is the strongest possible offer and elaborate on why you think it is right. It is important to remember that top sales talent may not be actively pursuing a new opportunity, so your offer needs to have the persuasive element that eases their decision in your favor.

There are online resources like salary.com that will provide insights on competitive comp plans. A good recruiting firm will also have data they can share and will identify each candidate’s desired comp in the screening process to help you determine what a competitive offer looks like. 

Build A Highly Talented Sales Team

Recruiting and retaining top sales talent is one of the greatest challenges sales managers face. HireDNA offers you a modern approach to the hiring process with our data-backed, scientific technology that allows you to discover top candidates, eliminate hiring mistakes, decrease onboarding ramp-up times, and grow your sales potential!

Why Choose Us?

  • 80% placement success
  • 79% candidate retention
  • 50% faster new hire ramp-up

CONTACT US

Strategies To Improve Your Sales Onboarding Process

Posted on by hiredna

Modern sales organizations are always in the process of hiring, whether you need to replace team members or increase sales capacity. That’s why an effective sales onboarding process is crucial. The success of your team comes down to how quickly your new hires can pick up the necessary skills and become a productive part of your sales team.

With industry reports stating that the average new hire can take as long as nine months to ramp up, sales managers are always searching for strategies to improve their onboarding process and reduce training costs. Consider these tips!

HireDNA can help you identify training needs and ramp up your new hires more effectively. Talk to an expert.

4 Strategies To Improve Your Onboarding Process

As employee turnover rises, companies face the pressure to speed up their sales hiring and training process to maintain their revenue. According to a CSO Insight survey, 45% of sales leaders place reduction of the sales onboarding time as their topmost priority.

Here are four proven strategies to improve your sales onboarding process:

Invest In A Comprehensive Training Process

Onboarding isn’t something that can be completed within a week. Depending on your niche and business complexity, it may take several months before a new sales rep is ready to take on new clients alone.

By creating a comprehensive training program with daily, weekly and monthly checklists, organizations can remove the guesswork from the onboarding process, giving every sales manager a precise idea of how to ramp up a new hire.

As you improvise with each hire, you will gradually formulate an exhaustive training process that allows new salespeople to integrate with your organization seamlessly. This includes everything from incorporating them within your workplace culture to educating them about your products and finally helping them to understand your target audience.

This training process can be used for both new hires and existing salespeople. HireDNA can help you identify and resolve weaknesses and skill gaps limiting your sales results, then deliver comprehensive training to close those gaps. Learn more.

Modernize Your Communication Channels

Traditional onboarding tactics made frequent use of charts, books and other items that have been duly replaced by our smartphones and laptops. As managers continue to interact with an increasing number of millennials sales reps, the onboarding training channels should evolve to maintain a process that is effective and efficient.

Make use of explainer videos, online training modules and interactive case scenarios that allow sales reps to apply what they have learned in real-life settings. Additionally, organizations can provide relevant product guides and descriptions to new sales reps during their training period. This increases their interest, resulting in higher retention and an effective training process.

At HireDNA, we use Rapid Learning Institutes’ (RLI) Micro-Learning Platform , which features a library of training videos, modules, role play scenarios, quizzes and more—all of which can be customized to meet your unique training needs. Learn how we can help you reduce onboarding time by 50%! Learn more.

Enforce ‘Shadowing’ As A Focal Training Process

While newer communication channels are a must-have in any sales organization, they don’t negate the importance of some evergreen training methods, such as shadowing.

Consider encouraging new hires to shadow veteran salespeople as they go about their usual routine—prioritizing prospects, conducting customer outreach, giving demos, etc. This allows the new hire to pick up vital traits, and is a more hands-on way to introduce them to the company culture and related procedures.

The ideal mentor should be an experienced salesperson who has the capacity to teach the skills required to make it to the top level while also possessing the temperament to answer any questions the new hire may have. Organizations need to identify the right mentors as well as develop the right training regimen to optimize this technique even further.

Don’t Rush Your Training Process

Impending team quotas and organizational pressure can get to the best of sales managers, resulting in new hires being rushed to their workstations before going through the entire training process.

While you may be recruiting experienced sales professionals with a history of achieving their quotas, you must understand their prior experience is of a different workplace culture, dealing in different products or maybe a different industry altogether.

To become a valuable member of your organization, every new sales hire needs to receive adequate, personalized training that can allow them to integrate with your organization’s sales process. While rushing sales reps through the hiring process may look like a beneficial step in the short run, the long-term implications can be unsatisfied team members who might not want to continue. This is why it is important to allow sales reps to complete their training in due time.

Train Your Sales Reps More Effectively With HireDNA

As sales managers continue to ramp up new hires, they face challenges that hinder sales reps from learning effectively before being moved on to the next phase. At HireDNA, we utilize modern strategies and innovative tools to cut down on your training time by half.

Leverage a modern cloud-based micro-learning platform that provides custom mapped training content tailored to the skill gaps for each individual sales representative. With interactive learning, quizzes and real-world simulations and more, we make sure your new hires are ready to perform in no time.

Why Choose Us?

  • Employees ramped up by HireDNA provide 33% more sales opportunities
  • Our proven, data-backed methods increase top-line revenue by 25%
  • Our innovative techniques cut down the training period by up to 50%

CONTACT US

Top Reasons to Hire Millennials in Sales

Posted on by hiredna

You’re likely always on the lookout for exceptional salespeople to join your team. Inevitably, you will find yourself reading a lot of resumes from new graduates. There is a stereotype, however, that millennials are apathetic, entitled, and lacking drive. Not only is this stereotype ill-founded, but if believed, it can deprive you of the most ideal candidates that your organization needs. In this post, let’s take a look at some of the top reasons to hire millennials for sales.

At HireDNA, our sales recruiting experts can help you find, hire, and train the perfect sales candidates for your team. Contact Us.

Millennials Are The Most Dominant Demographic

According to PEW Research, millennials make up 35% of the workforce, which is more than Boomers (25%) and Gen Xers (33%).

In other words, when you begin headhunting for a valuable addition to your organization, there is a 35% chance that you will run into a millennial. Considering they meet your requirements, are you willing to let them go just because they were born in a certain era? With an Ernst & Young study predicting that millennials will constitute about 75% of the workforce by 2025, your team would be better prepared for that future if you start integrating millennials as core members of your team as soon as possible.

Technically Savvy

Millennials have grown up with computers and smartphones. They are quick to learn and adapt to new sales technologies, which can be very valuable in the workforce. Many millennials also have very high social selling skills, which could be a result of having to learn varying online communication methods.

Highly Purpose-Driven

Millennials successfully navigated through the post 9/11 economic slump, the 2008 stock market crash, and other major incidents due to their persistence and dedication. They are driven by their purpose, which in a salesperson’s case, would be providing clients with the best possible solution and closing a high number of deals every month.

As such, many millennials are focused on making an impact. This drive has seen them put off marriage and children longer than any of the previous generations.

Thanks to our data-backed recruiting process, candidates recommended by HireDNA have an 80% placement success rate. Learn more.

No Need for Micromanagement

Millennials don’t like being chased around by managers and being micromanaged every step of the way. As a sales manager, you probably don’t like to run around employees and bind them to hard and fast rules, either. And so, hiring employees from this generation might be the best option for you.

Remember, the millennial generation is keen on learning and tailoring their ways in the face of new challenges. Ready to adapt in the face of changing consumer patterns, millennials can prove to be a real asset.

They Appreciate Feedback

Ever had a sales representative who took feedback way too personally? As a sales manager, your job is to correct where they are wrong and provide constant advice on how to manage the challenges they face when dealing with customers.

Even though some salespeople do not take constructive criticism in the right way, it is a crucial part of becoming a high performing employee. When dealing with millennials, you are less likely to see such behavior.

According to a Deloitte study of the five most important factors when evaluating jobs, millennials view the potential of professional development and training programs as one of the top factors they value. Because of this drive, millennials may be more open to criticism if they believe that correcting their behavior can help them to progress within the organization.

How to Recruit Millennials

To attract millennials to your organization, you need to focus on what matters most to them:

  • Impact. How can you present the work that your organization is doing as meaningful and impactful?
  • Work-life balance and flexibility. Is there a possibility to work from home? Are salespeople tied to their desks all day?
  • Collaborative work environments. How does your team work together? How will new hires be able to contribute?
  • Continuous learning opportunities. What opportunities are available through your organization for continued improvement?
  • Clear career paths. Millennials want to be rewarded for their hard work. They want to see a clear progression, or they may lose motivation.

With a science-backed predictive hiring assessment, you can find the right candidate with far greater accuracy than relying on impressions or instinct. At HireDNA, we can help you to create a custom assessment based on your hiring criteria and unique sales environment. Go beyond personality traits to assess candidates’ true sales DNA and potential in the role.

Learn more about our Predictive Hiring Assessments.   

Create A Successful Sales Team

At HireDNA, we can help you recruit the perfect candidates for your sales team. Let us help you grow your organization with the right candidates for the right roles, backed by proven data and science.

Why Choose Us?

  • 20 years’ worth of hiring experience
  • 8m candidates assessed
  • 50% faster new hire ramp-up
  • 70% candidate retention

Are you ready to hire top quality salespeople for your organization?

CONTACT US

Improve Your Sales Hiring Strategy In 5 Easy Steps

Posted on by hiredna

Many organizations are heavily dependent on their sales team to reach their customers and grow. However, the sales industry is symbolized by a high turnover rate of 25%. Essentially, this means that organizations are often faced with a shortage of good salespeople that consistently produce. To help you attract and retain higher quality sales hires, here are some tips to improve your sales hiring strategy.

HireDNA can help you identify, hire, and train the perfect candidates for your sales team. Speak with a sales recruiting expert today.

5 Easy Steps To Enhance Your Hiring Strategy

In addition to solving the high turnover problem, improving your sales hiring strategy can also allow you to hire candidates who are a better fit for your organizational culture, product, and sales environment. Here are three ways to enhance your strategy:

Draft A Detailed Candidate Profile & Job Description

The first step to a high-quality hire is to provide a clearly defined candidate profile and job description that outlines the tasks and level of performance you expect. Specifically, your candidate profile and description should include the job-centric skills and characteristics that are required to excel in this role. You can also include the responsibilities that will be levied upon the new hire. For instance, will they be spending more time prospecting or managing key accounts?

The higher the level of detail in your job criteria, the better your chances of attracting a best-fit candidate. And here’s a tip: to create a tailored fit candidate profile and job description, conduct an evaluation of your top performers to identify the perfect skills and qualities that are most important to succeed in their position.

Use a Predictive Hiring Assessment

So, you’ve received a number of resumes and applicants. How can you screen them faster to find the perfect candidate for the job? Consider using a predictive hiring assessment like the Objective Management Group (OMG) Sales Candidate Assessment through HireDNA.

With a science-backed assessment, you can find the right candidate with far greater accuracy than relying on impressions or instinct. In fact, 92% of candidates who are recommended by the OMG Sales Candidate Assessment exceed expectations in the first year! At HireDNA, we can help you to create a custom assessment based on your hiring criteria and unique sales environment. Go beyond personality traits to assess candidates’ true sales DNA and potential in the role.

Learn more about our Predictive Hiring Assessments.   

Strengthen Your Interviews

In combination with a predictive sales hiring assessment, situational interview questions can be a powerful tool to help you assess how a candidate might perform on the job. These questions pose hypothetical situations that candidates must answer, requiring them to think on their feet and eliminating any reliance on cookie-cutter, prepared answers.

Cast A Wider Net

While conventional methods like posting on different job boards might have worked in the past, high-quality candidates no longer depend on such platforms.

In other words, posting on common forums might result in a high number of applicants, but there is no guarantee on the quality of the resumes that will flood your inbox. Here are a few of the leading job posting channels used by top sales recruiters today:

  • Industry-Specific Job Boards. Every industry has specific job boards. For instance, the job posting site ‘MedReps.com’ caters to candidates who are interested in working in the pharmaceutical industry. By posting in such targeted job boards, you are likely to come across a greater pool of best-fit candidates.
  • LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the most popular business-related sites in the world, amassing an impressive 610 million followers. With 92% of Fortune 500 companies also active on the forum, you can expect to find high-quality sales professionals here. Despite this, posting on LinkedIn is usually time-consuming and not always feasible for businesses that experience a high turnover rate.
  • Referrals. Ask your team to refer people who fit your job description—and consider setting up an incentive program for successful referrals. As this puts their reputation on the line, people are likely to only refer candidates who are qualified and hardworking. This is the reason why referrals continue to result in highly desirable hires. In fact, 50% of referrals are likely to stay at a job for three years—vs 14% of employees hired from a job board.
  • Proactive sourcing. There’s a difference between sitting back and waiting for resumes to come in versus proactively sourcing candidates. At HireDNA, more than 90% of our hires are proactively sourced. We find this to be the best method, because most top sales performers are not active candidates—they’re not actively searching job boards for opportunities. But, if approached with a great opportunity with good incentives, many great candidates will likely consider making a move.

Promote Yourself As A Preferable Employer

Similar to how consumers profile a brand before converting, candidates evaluate employers before choosing to join the organization. High-end salespeople are likely to have multiple offers, which means that they can take their time to research and select the best option and it’s not always about money.

This is why it’s incredibly important to invest in your ‘employer brand’ to ensure your company is positioned as a market leader. Showcase major clients on your website, highlight your sales reps, and make sure to emphasize your resourcefulness and culture to gain the attention of the top sales talent in your niche.

To further up the ante, engage with prospective candidates from the first point of contact (which is usually your website). Feel free to highlight positive testimonials, share success stories, and even include employee success stories to add weight to your claims. By showcasing your achievements, you are appealing to ambitious candidates who want to work with reputable organizations that can help take their careers to the next level.

Create A Highly Successful Sales Team

By optimizing your recruiting strategy, you can create a successful team of high performing sales reps. At HireDNA, our industry-leading, science-backed recruiting process can help you create a robust sales team primed for performance.

Why Choose Us?

  • We have an 80% successful placement rate
  • 92% of our hired candidates reach the top half of the sales force within 12 months
  • With innovative training tools, we help new hires onboard and ramp-up in 50% less time
  • Candidates hired via HireDNA have a 79% retention rate

Do you want to build a successful sales team? Contact Us