Category: Sales Recruiting

Sales Salary Transparency: Why Listing How Much Salespeople Earn Can Generate 75% More Clicks for Your Job Posts

Posted on by hiredna

There are several factors that impact how many candidates apply to your job posting for a salesperson. Your industry, scheduling, benefits, advancement opportunities, and company culture are a few prime examples. But hands down, sales salary is one of the biggest factors across the board. 

At the end of the day, top sales recruits want to know they’ll receive competitive pay, and they don’t want to jump through a bunch of hoops to figure out exactly how much they’ll earn if hired. Being upfront about this is a surefire way to generate more clicks for your job posts and send a steady stream of qualified candidates your way. 

With that in mind, let’s take an in-depth look at exactly how big an impact sales salary transparency can have on your recruiting. 

What the Data Says

Business software and services review company, G2, compiled an exhaustive list of recruiting statistics that are very insightful. In terms of sales salary transparency, they found “67% of job seekers try to find information about salaries when researching a company or looking at job ads.” 

This shows firsthand how important salary info is for job seekers. With over two-thirds specifically looking for it, it stands to reason that sales recruiters that offer this info and place it in a conspicuous place would have an edge over competitors who make no mention of it. And that is in fact the case. “Job listings which include a salary range got 75% more clicks than job listings that don’t,” writes G2.

Take this job posting by LingoAce, an online Chinese learning platform for kids, for example. They place sales salary information front and center of this job ad for an inside sales rep to easily see. Here it is at the top, giving job seekers a clear salary range they can expect. 

LingoAce then places more details a bit further down here, discussing base salary, as well as on-target earnings. 

And toward the bottom, they restate the salary information sales candidates saw at the top, leaving no room for guesswork. This makes it dead easy for job seekers to find the information they’re looking for at just a glance. 

So, if you’re looking for a basic template to follow, this is a great one to borrow from. Ideally, you’ll put salary info at the very top of a job ad and restate it somewhere further down the page. That way sales candidates don’t have to scroll back up, creating a deeper level of convenience.  

Not Including Salary Info Creates Stress for Candidates

Another interesting stat I found was that a lack of information about pay is a main reason why 50% of sales candidates consider their job search to be stressful. Just put yourself in an average candidate’s shoes for a second. They’re looking for employment and may be under a significant amount of pressure to find a job quickly. 

They see multiple job postings they’re interested in, but can’t figure out exactly what the pay is. So, they have to sift through long winded job descriptions, check company websites, and do Google searches just to get a ballpark idea of how much these jobs pay. 

This can be incredibly tedious and frustrating, where many will simply give up and opt for applying with a different company that’s more transparent about their salary information. So you can see the negative impact that not providing salary info can have, and you can bet that failing to do so will result in many high-quality, top tier candidates slipping through your fingers. 

Outshining the Competition

There’s one last stat I’d like to share with you that’s really interesting. “Only 27% of businesses share salary ranges publicly,” G2 adds. While I’ve definitely noticed an increase in the number of companies providing salary information in job ads recently, it’s only slightly over a quarter that are currently doing so. And I don’t foresee a massive surge in this anytime soon. 

This is something you can use to your advantage, because being one of the few brands to offer sales salary transparency naturally brings more eyeballs to your job postings. More qualified candidates will see you when they’re browsing through ads and check out the positions that are available. If it comes down to a sales candidate considering your company or one of your key competitors without salary information, they’re far more likely to apply with you. 

I personally predict that as more and more businesses catch wind of this trend that providing sales salary transparency will gradually become commonplace. But we’re definitely not at that point yet. So, this is a sales recruitment strategy that’s ripe for the picking in 2021. 

Winning the Sales Recruiting War

We’re living in an era which many experts have called a “sales talent crisis.” Although there are plenty of sales candidates out there, the true A+ talent is hard to come by. And a tangible trend we see among the elite is wanting sales salary transparency when looking for jobs. 

In other words, they don’t want to jump through a bunch of hoops to see how much a company pays. By being upfront about it and placing salary information directly in your job posting, you can generate 75% more clicks and connect with top tier talent. 

See how HireDNA uses cutting-edge techniques like top talent sourcing, intelligent matching, and science-based assessments to find the best of the best salespeople. Brands that use HireDNA cut their hiring time in half, and 92% of suggested reps reach the top of their sales team within their first year.

How to Launch an Employee Referral Program Step-By-Step

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There’s a ton of data out there that shows, when implemented correctly, employee referral programs can have a massive impact. 

45% of salespeople that are referred from internal employees, for example, stay for over four years. By comparison, only 25% sourced from job boards hang around for 2+ years. Employee referrals also save companies over $7,500 per hire. And a whopping 82% of employers rate “employee referrals above all other sources for generating the best ROI.”

The numbers speak for themselves. 

If you’re wondering how exactly you go about launching an employee referral program, I’m going to break it down step-by-step in this post. Here’s a full overview of the nuts and bolts of the process. 

Step 1: Identify Which Positions You Want to Hire For

First, determine which specific positions you want to accept referrals for. You may, for example, strictly be looking to bring on sales reps but aren’t interested in sales managers because you need someone with a highly specific skill set for the latter and want to handle the recruiting yourself.

I suggest going through every single one of your company’s positions and making note of the ones you’re open to filling through an employee referral program. 

Step 2: Pinpoint the Types of Candidates You’re Looking For

Just like with any other method of hiring, it’s essential to know precisely what makes for a great candidate. After all, it doesn’t do you any good if your existing employees are leveraging their networks only to bring in ill-suited candidates. 

Here’s what I suggest doing to ensure employees send rockstar talent your way:

  • Create candidate personas, including hard skills, soft skills, experience, education, and so on
  • Identify what you’re looking for in terms of a cultural fit
  • Determine what core values a candidate should possess

Once you have that fleshed out, create a resource to serve as a point of reference when internal employees are considering who to reach out to. 

Step 3: Decide if You Want to Offer Rewards for Referrals

A study by LinkedIn found that most employees don’t have monetary gain in mind when providing referrals. 

Only a tiny 6% do it for money. That said, having some type of reward or perk in place is definitely something to consider, as it can give your employees further incentive to find the right candidates. 

Research from TalentLyft found the vast majority of companies offer cash incentives, typically between $1,000 – $5,000, and 15% offer days off or vacation days. 

A few other ideas they suggest include:

  • Tickets for local events
  • Tickets for a trip
  • Food and drink

Step 4: Choose an Employee Referral Software

You certainly don’t need a lot of bells and whistles to launch a successful employee referral program. In fact, I suggest keeping it as simple as possible. 

But there are some amazing software platforms available that can streamline the process dramatically, while simplifying things for HR, your employees that provide referrals, and for the referrals themselves. 

Here are some specific features that can be a huge help:

  • Automatic job alerts
  • Links employees can conveniently share with potential candidates through email, text, and social media with information on the sales position
  • Fully customized applications for candidates to fill out, complete with unique branding elements
  • Built-in referral tracking to ensure the right employee gets credit

In terms of specific platforms, Workable is easy to use and one I personally recommend. 

Or, if you want an exhaustive list of the top employee referral software, this guide from G2 is super helpful. 

Step 5: Create an Employee Referral Policy

Once you’ve figured out what positions you’re willing to accept referrals for, what you’re looking for in candidates, determined whether or not you want to offer rewards, and chosen a software platform, it’s time to create a formal employee referral policy. 

The purpose of this is to let your employees know the following:

  • Which positions are available
  • What skills, traits, etc., you’re looking for in an ideal candidate
  • What the incentives are
  • How to submit referrals
  • Specific instructions to follow 

Here’s a sample template from Fit Small Business to point you in the right direction. 

Step 6: Write Job Descriptions

It’s also important that you have job descriptions ready to roll whenever candidates are generated through referrals. This should be approached just as it would with any other form of recruiting. The purpose here is to concisely articulate:

  • The core tasks an employee will be responsible for
  • Necessary skills and experience
  • Expectations

I suggest reading this guide from Zendesk for detailed instructions on how to write A+ job descriptions. 

Step 7: Get the Word Out

Finally, you need to promote your employee referral program and get everyone up to speed. I find the best way to go about this involves a two-step approach:

  1. Formally announce the launch during a meeting
  2. Send out a company-wide email that includes key information, such as program outlines and the employee referral policy

It’s also smart to provide your employees with quick links that enable them to share through email, social media, and text like I mentioned earlier. That way they can conveniently network and generate a steady stream of referrals without having to do any heavy lifting. 

Making Referrals an Integral Part of Your Recruiting

If you’re looking to save money on recruiting, increase your retention rate, and create a tighter, more connected sales team, launching an employee referral program is definitely something to consider. The vast majority of companies that implement one see a fantastic ROI, and it can really help you strengthen your culture over time. 

Following the seven steps outlined here should provide you with the basic framework for turning an employee referral program from an idea in your head into a reality.

Tired of hiring the wrong sales reps? See how HireDNA can help you eliminate 96% of hiring mistakes using industry-leading assessment science. 

Top Skills Sales Managers Assess Based on In-Depth Data

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In my last post, I discussed that having the ability to close was the number one skill top sales managers assessed in salespeople. This was the most important metric for 70% of sales managers. And it’s easy to see why given how critical closing deals is to profitability and the overall success of a company. 

I got my data from a survey conducted by digital learning and enablement platform Allego. Their data is incredibly robust, and while the ability to close was one of their main points of emphasis, there’s still a lot left to unpack. 

So for this post, I’d like to dive even deeper and go over all of the top skills sales managers assess, which is eight in total. Let’s jump right in. 

The 8 Top Sales Skills

In Allego’s survey, they determined which specific sales skills were most essential to sales managers, both when considering potential candidates for new hires, as well as assessing current team members. “We looked at the eight key aspects of sales competency including sales planning, prospecting, qualifying pipeline, pitching to prospects, negotiating contracts, closing deals, managing customers, and retaining customers,” they explain. 

As I mentioned in the intro, having the ability to close was the number one skill assessed by 70% of respondents. 

But just after that was the ability to prospect new opportunities at 69%. 

This indicates that the beginning and end of the sales process are the most critical areas of sales competency to measure. The best salespeople are able to effectively prospect new leads, move them efficiently through the sales cycle, and ultimately close. 

After that is the ability to retain existing clients at 59%. 

Churn is an inevitable part of running any type of business, especially a SaaS company. But it’s obviously something that needs to be kept in check, and sales managers will invariably want to seek out salespeople that help them retain the maximum number of customers. 

If you’re wondering, a retention rate of 35% over an eight-week period is considered elite for SaaS and e-commerce companies, so that’s a good number to shoot for. Here’s a graph that perfectly illustrates minimal churn (SaaS is the blue line and e-commerce is the orange line). 

Next is the ability to pitch a solution at 53%.  

Let’s be honest. Pitching isn’t easy, and there’s a serious art to it. Although having detailed product knowledge and providing salespeople with a formula and script to go off is a huge help and something I personally recommend, some reps are naturally better at it than others. 

When it comes to cold, hard selling, I honestly believe there’s only so much you can teach a rep. That’s why I consider having innate selling skills to be more important than extensive industry/product experience. Anyone can learn a product, but few people are A+ rockstars. So, it’s not surprising that having the ability to pitch is such a coveted sales skill. 

After that is the ability to qualify new deals at 52%. 

A qualified prospect is someone “who has a high probability of becoming a customer,” Zorian Rotenberg of HubSpot writes. “An opportunity should have a pain point your product or service can solve and an interest in the offering. Salespeople should ensure the opportunity is a good-fit for what they’re selling.”

Otherwise, your rep is basically wasting their time, which is why this is another key skill sales managers assess. 

This is followed by the ability to negotiate and the ability to plan strategically, which are both at 50%. 

When it comes to negotiation, reps will often be placed in tricky situations where they may need to adjust pricing, features, etc., on the fly to successfully close deals while at the same time remaining within the accepted parameters of your company. Because this has such a strong impact on closing deals, it’s easy to see why it’s such a major metric for sales managers. 

As for the ability to plan strategically, it’s a competency that affects virtually every aspect of a rep’s sales approach. From determining how to effectively qualify leads to building a script for pitching products to communicating with customers post-sale, reps need to have a clear strategy in place at all times. 

Finally, there’s effective time management at 46%. 

You may have heard the stat that nearly 65% of an average rep’s time is spent on non-revenue generating activities, such as administrative tasks and downtime activities like checking social media. While I personally think that number may be a little inflated, it definitely illustrates the importance of effective time management, which is why this skill made the list. 

Let’s Recap

The top eight skills sales managers assess in reps breaks down like this:

  1. Ability to close – 70%
  2. Ability to prospect new opportunities – 69%
  3. Ability to retain existing clients – 59%
  4. Ability to pitch a solution – 53%
  5. Ability to qualify new deals – 52%
  6. Ability to negotiate – 50%
  7. Ability to plan strategically – 50%
  8. Effective time management – 46%

While there are a ton of factors that determine how likely a salesperson is to succeed, these eight skills are the ones top sales managers focus on the most. So, if you’re looking to identify the best of the best metrics for gauging candidates during the hiring process, or if you’re assessing the performance of current team members, these are excellent metrics to examine.

Looking for a surefire way to find elite level sales talent to close more deals and take your business to the next level? Check out HireDNA today. Brands that use HireDNA are able to eliminate 96% of hiring mistakes, and 92% of candidates recommended through it are top performers within their first year. 

70% of Top Sales Managers Assess This Skill in Sales Candidates

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Effectively gauging the skill set of salespeople is an absolute must when recruiting, as well as when analyzing the performance of existing reps. This is what allows you to assemble an A+ team, get the most from your leads, and inevitably maximize revenue. 

But with so many different factors, what exactly do you focus on?

While there are several skills recruiters analyze, there’s one that outshines all others at the top of the list.

The Ability to Close

Allego, a digital learning and enablement platform that focuses largely on sales training, performed in-depth research in a resource called The Ultimate Guide to Assessing Sales Rep Competency. In it, they examined the current state, as well as the future of sales competency. 

This resource contains a ton of great information, including ramp times by industry, sales training approaches commonly used, and which specific skills determine sales competency. But one piece of data I found particularly interesting was where Allego identified the top eight sales skills managers assess in their reps. 

“We looked at the eight key aspects of sales competency, including sales planning, prospecting, qualifying pipeline, pitching to prospects, negotiating contracts, closing deals, managing customers, and retaining customers,” they write. Of those eight skills, the number one that sales managers assess the most across the board is the ability to close at 70%.

And that’s not surprising. While other sales skills like prospecting new opportunities, making pitches, and negotiating are tremendously important, they pale in comparison to actually closing deals. In fact, you could ask, “What good does it do if a salesperson crushes every other aspect of the sales process but can’t seal the deal?”

The fact that 7 out of 10 managers assess the ability to close makes it the ultimate “bottom line metric” and the primary factor to consider when recruiting new reps, as well as analyzing the performance of current team members. 

This begs the question. 

How Should You Handle Underperforming Reps?

We now know that the ability to close is what you should look at most closely when recruiting new reps. Therefore, you’ll want to ask relevant questions during the interview stage, such as, “What was your close rate at your previous company?”

But what should you do with current reps that struggle closing deals and fail to hit their quota?

That’s another topic Allego examined in their research. According to their findings, the top three actions sales managers take to handle competency gaps are:

  • Implementing performance improvements plans – 50%
  • Increasing focus from management – 31%
  • Increasing training – 15%

Allego summarizes it perfectly with this quote. 

By these numbers, it’s clear that top sales managers take initiatives to put concrete performance improvement plans in place, have leaders place a bigger focus on helping reps improve, and generally offer a higher level of training. 

Note that a very small percentage of sales managers fire reps at just 3%. Therefore, we can surmise that simply letting underperforming reps go isn’t usually the best solution, and successful companies opt for investing in their people. 

Practical Tips to Help Reps Close More Deals

For the final part of this post, I’d like to share with you a few key strategies that are highly effective for helping salespeople increase their close rate. 

One is to create a resource that’s designed specifically for overcoming sales objections. The purpose is to 1) identify common sales objections and 2) show reps how to respond in each situation. That way they can react instantly and efficiently disarm the situation using “muscle memory.”

HubSpot wrote an amazing post about the 40 top sales objections, with the top five being:

  1. It’s too expensive.
  2. There’s no money.
  3. We don’t have any budget left.
  4. I need to use this budget somewhere else.
  5. I don’t want to get stuck in a contract.

They also include rebuttals for each. I suggest reading over that post and using it to create a customized resource for your team members. That alone can be a huge help. 

Next, work on ironing out any kinks in the lead handoff process from marketing to sales. As Allego pointed out earlier, 31% of sales managers increase their focus from management when reps aren’t closing as much as they should. It’s all hands on deck, and your whole team should work on moving marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to sales qualified leads (SQLs) with the least friction possible. 

This may include:

  • Using lead scoring to quantitatively rank leads so marketing knows the perfect time to hand them off
  • Ensure marketing passes along notes to sales mentioning key information (e.g. a lead’s pain points or current software)
  • Using meeting scheduling platform to strike while the iron is hot

For more on improving the MQL to SQL handoff, check out this article from Chili Piper. 

Finally, provide ongoing support for your salespeople. I recently wrote a post that talked about looking past a rep’s initial development and equipping them with the tools to continually improve and stay engaged. And I can’t stress enough how important this is, especially when your reps are in a slump. 

Not only can continual training help underperforming reps get back on track, it creates a framework for perpetual refinement that helps them operate at their absolute best. 

Here are some ideas:

Assessing Reps on the Most Important Skill

A big part of successfully recruiting potential new salespeople and analyzing the performance of your current ones is knowing what specific skills to assess. While there are several that are important, the ability to close is the most important of all based on data. So, keep this in mind moving forward and use this as your bottom line metric. 

Looking for a surefire way to recruit top tier reps? Learn how HireDNA can help you find the best of the best in your industry and eliminate 96% of hiring mistakes. 

Use This Tool to Accelerate New SaaS Salesperson Ramp Time By 20-50%

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I talk about SaaS sales rep onboarding a lot for one simple reason. It’s insanely important. 

Research has found that effective onboarding can increase your win rate by 15% and quota achievement by 14%. Further, leading SaaS companies with A+ onboarding practices experience 39% higher employee engagement, which not only translates into much better performance but a dramatically lower turnover rate. 

But there’s a problem.

Most SaaS Companies Have a Sluggish Ramp Time

One aspect of SaaS onboarding where many companies struggle is with speed. According to data involving 384 SaaS companies, ramp time takes an average of 4.5 months. However, that time is even longer for nearly 20% of companies, where it takes longer than seven months to get their salespeople completely dialed in. 

So, while reps are still learning the ropes, they’re not hitting their full potential, and deals are likely being lost. Fortunately, there’s a tool that can help you accelerate new SaaS salesperson ramp time by 20-50%. Here it is. 

Use Cutting-Edge Sales Onboarding Software

Like nearly every aspect of sales, there’s software available that’s specifically geared toward SaaS salesperson onboarding. Simply put, “sales onboarding software is a tool that helps sales managers onboard team members smoothly, develop courses and programs to train sales reps, and build their product knowledge.” 

By adding it to the mix, you can establish an extremely efficient process and structure that turns even the greenest salesperson into one that knows the ins and outs of your products and can confidently close deals. 

Common Features You’ll Find in Sales Onboarding Software

For starters, these platforms offer real-time access to interactive, personalized learning content. You can, for example, create learning videos, product demo examples, and quizzes that new hires can access 24/7 from anywhere in the world.

Whether they’re working in-house from your office or remotely on the other side of the planet, salespeople can get up-to-speed quickly, soaking up information in a structured, uniform way. 

Most platforms also offer guided selling systems that teach new salespeople how to close more deals faster, along with tips and tricks to maximize their potential. Saleshood is a sales onboarding software that includes sales playbooks, presentations, knowledge sharing, and win stories that show new reps firsthand how to thrive within your company and rapidly evolve their skills. 

And just like learning hubs, guided selling systems can be fully customized and modified over time to evolve along with your salesforce. 

Role-playing practices are another critical part of sales onboarding software and give new reps a framework for practicing their skills for calls, demos, and negotiations. This is huge for helping salespeople feel more comfortable and confident once they’re actually in the thick of things, and they should be ready for whatever is thrown at them. To quantify, reps that properly practice these skills increase their sales by more than 75%, says sales onboarding platform, Lessonly. 

Finally, you’ll usually find some type of analytics built into this type of software. Sales enablement and readiness platform, Brainshark, for instance, allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your training program as reps enter the field. With their software, you can “visualize the impact of training programs by tracking course data alongside sales KPIs.”

This is super helpful because it offers objective insights on which specific elements of your onboarding program are working well and which need to be tweaked. So, over time, you can get it down to a science.

Offer Ongoing Reinforcement

In an ideal world, you would give new SaaS reps initial training, and they’d be off to the races never needing a second of further instruction. But it just doesn’t work that way. 

“Research shows that most new reps get overwhelmed with information in the first 30 days, and they can forget as much as 80% of sales boot camp training if they do not receive ongoing reinforcement.” That’s why it’s critical to provide ongoing reinforcement until a new salesperson is firmly rooted and firing on all cylinders. 

Fortunately, most sales onboarding software offers continuous learning where salespeople receive consistent updates and assessments to ensure they retain the information and keep evolving. MindTickle is a good example and places a heavy emphasis on reinforced sales skills so the knowledge reps gain sticks. 

Also, note that some platforms feature additional learning, such as micro courses and certifications that are designed to take salespeople from being good to great. So, when you have a new rep that quickly works their way up the ranks and shows a lot of promise, you can help them elevate their skill set even more through this type of training. 

I’ve featured a handful of different sales onboarding software in this post, but for a full rundown, comparison, and information on pricing, I suggest reading this resource from G2. 

Reducing Your Ramp Time By as Much as Half

There’s no denying how vital proper onboarding is to the success of new SaaS sales reps. Research has found that it significantly increases win rate, boosts quota achievement, creates higher employee engagement, and lowers turnover. The problem, however, is that many SaaS companies are inefficient at the process.

But this is something that can easily be remedied through sales onboarding software. In fact, brands that use it are able to accelerate new SaaS salesperson ramp time by 20-50% on average. That combined with ongoing reinforcement is incredibly potent and can help you get the absolute most from your sales team. 

Speaking of sales teams, are you looking to hire top-tier sales talent, faster? See how HireDNA can help you find the best of the best in your industry using intelligent matching and science-based assessments.

The Science of New SaaS Salesperson Onboarding: Breaking the Process Down Into 4 Key Phases

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Having a streamlined, structured onboarding process for new SaaS salespeople can have a dramatic impact on both productivity and retention. To quantify, businesses with effective sales onboarding see a 6.7% improvement in quota attainment and 50% higher new rep retention. 

Not bad! 

But how exactly do you accomplish this? And what are the exact steps you need to take?

That’s what I’m going to discuss in this post. Here’s the science behind new SaaS salesperson onboarding broken down into four key phases. 

Phase 1 – Introduction and Acclimation

One of the biggest mistakes I see businesses make is overwhelming new reps by bombarding them with information right from the start. You obviously want to get SaaS salespeople up-to-speed quickly, but you don’t want to throw too much at them at once. 

That’s why the first step involves a basic introduction and acclimation phase where you do the following:

  • Make introductions to sales leaders and team members
  • Familiarize them with your company, industry, and mission 
  • Let them know about your philosophy and culture
  • Explain your unique value proposition (UVP)
  • Articulate what differentiates your brand from key competitors
  • Provide reps with training materials like product info, sales scripts, and demo examples

This is also the time to take care of formalities like tax documents, software platform logins, and so on. The main goal here is to reduce the chaos and make it easy for new SaaS salespeople to get their bearings. 

Think of it as letting them dip their toes in the water but not taking a full plunge. Don’t worry about getting into the real nuts and bolts just yet. This will come later. 

Phase 2 – Initial Development

Once a new SaaS salesperson has had some time to digest the materials from phase 1 and get a basic feel for the position, it’s time for phase 2 where you focus on initial development. This largely revolves around providing them with a standardized training program — one that’s uniform among all sales reps. 

“If you expect your team members to meet their goals, you must also give them the knowledge and tools they need to succeed,” explains Michelle Richardson, VP of Sales Performance Research at Brooks Group. “A training program that teaches new sales hires a consistent sales process is a must.”

While the specifics will vary from company to company, some common sales training content objectives include the following:

I personally suggest starting with product knowledge, as this is integral for creating context for new reps and should help them connect the dots as they move into other areas like customer use cases and communication. Teaching them how to give a powerful product demo is especially important because it has such a strong impact on their conversion rate. 

I also recommend reading this previous post I wrote for creating a streamlined checklist for this process. In it, you can get tips for:

  • Creating a single orientation resource
  • Training reps on the software they’ll be selling (and using)
  • Educating them on buyer personas

The goal isn’t for new SaaS salespeople to perfect their skills here. It’s simply to lay down the core foundation so they’ll have the base level of knowledge to sell your products and be in alignment with the rest of your team. Incremental improvements, which I’ll discuss in a minute, will come later on. 

Phase 3 – Ongoing Support

By this point, a SaaS salesperson will have gotten the hang of their initial skills development and have a firm command of the sales process. They should also be adept enough at nurturing leads and delivering demos that they’re comfortably meeting their sales quotas. Once they’ve hit that mark, it’s time for phase 3 of providing ongoing support, which is designed to keep salespeople engaged and refine their skills. 

This graphic from sales enablement platform MindTickle pinpoints some specific strategies that go into providing ongoing support. 

In particular, I suggest:

  • Competency assessments to determine a rep’s overall level of comprehension
  • Remediation to see which areas could use improvement
  • Metrics reporting for analyzing KPIs

Then, as you unearth information, provide new reps with either one-on-one support or relevant training materials to help them get better. This leads me to the final phase of SaaS salesperson onboarding. 

Phase 4 – Continual Improvement

Phase 4 is about one thing — sales mastery, which serves two main purposes. One is to get the absolute most from each rep. By helping them maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses, for example, they should become more productive and consistently reach (if not exceed) quotas. 

The other main purpose is to increase your retention rate. LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report found that 94% of salespeople would remain with a company longer if it invested in their career. 

And it’s easy to see why. After all, who wants to stick around in a dead end job where there’s no opportunity for growth and advancement. Following a continuous improvement cycle, which looks like this, is critical for helping reps reach their full potential and motivating them to stay with your company. 

Perfecting Your SaaS Salesperson Onboarding 

Unfortunately, the onboarding process of many SaaS companies merely involves a cobbled together plan that’s barely fleshed out. “While you want salespeople to be resourceful, it’s a mistake to simply throw them into the pool and expect them to swim,” notes Michelle Richardson. 

By having a clear, repeatable, long-term process in place, you can get new SaaS salespeople up-to-speed quickly without overwhelming them, while ensuring they reach major milestones. The 4 key phases I’ve outlined here should provide you with a tangible game plan so that you get your onboarding down to a science. 

Want to hire better sales talent, faster? Learn how HireDNA can help you recruit elite SaaS salespeople while reducing 96% of hiring mistakes. 

How to Build a Winning Saas Sales Team Step-By-Step

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Seldom does a winning SaaS sales team come together on its own. A study by the Harvard Business Review found that half of high-performing companies had sales processes that were “closely monitored, strictly enforced, or automated.” On other hand, 48% of underperforming companies had sales structures that were either nonexistent or informal. 

One of, if not the most important aspects of organizing sales processes is having a system in place for building your sales team. Not only does this increase your chances of hiring top tier talent that aligns with your company’s mission, it provides a framework that maximizes their productivity and ultimately boosts profitability. And in many cases, this can also contribute to less turnover so you can keep your true rockstars around for longer. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to build a winning SaaS sales team.

Step 1 – Prioritize SaaS Sales Roles

In most cases, SaaS companies gradually scale up over time. If you’re a newer startup, you may not have the resources (or the current demand) for a massive team of inside sales reps, sales development reps, account executives, and so on. Therefore, you need to be selective about the specific positions you hire for initially and focus on only the most essential. 

Say, for example, you’re just getting the ball rolling. You’d probably want to hire a single account executive and a handful of sales development reps and inside sales reps. Then, as you grow, you could expand as needed.

Step 2 – Pinpoint Critical Skills and Characteristics 

It’s vital that you’re hyper-specific with what you’re looking for in your SaaS sales team members. Simply taking the “we’re looking for a great sales rep” approach is only going to lead to ambiguity that marginalizes your impact. That’s why you’ll want to pinpoint a distinct set of hard and soft skills to accurately predict each team member’s aptitude to ensure they’re an ideal fit for your company. 

For instance, Sales Hacker compiled a list of over 30 sales skills that must be mastered to become a top performer, which is a good starting point. Here are the top nine from their list. 

And you can use a technology sales recruiting platform like HireDNA to screen and assess candidates based on core selling skills and capabilities to find the best of the best. 

This is an excellent way to quantify traits like having the will to sell and being coachable that would otherwise be difficult. And 92% of recommended candidates become top performers on their sales team within a year. 

Step 3 – Use Proven Recruiting Strategies

Many SaaS recruiters look in the wrong places to find salespeople. Traditional job boards and staffing agencies, for example, may seem like safe bets.  But they often lead to underwhelming results for the simple reason that top performers aren’t actively looking for jobs. However, many are open to offers as long as they check off the right boxes. 

So, how do you find these heavy hitters? It’s actually quite simple. Use recruiting software. 

A recent study found that more than 98% of Fortune 500 companies currently use it, and 68% of recruiting professionals say it’s the number one way “to improve recruiting performance over the next five years.”

You can get full details on why recruiting software is such a game changer in this post I wrote. 

Step 4 – Onboard with Ruthless Efficiency

The quicker you get new SaaS sales team members acclimated and up-to-speed, the quicker you can extract their full potential. But here’s what’s crazy. 

“88% of organizations don’t onboard well.”

So, if you take measures to onboard efficiently, this essentially puts your company in the top 12%, enabling you to get the absolute most from your SaaS sales team. This is another topic I’ve covered in detail in a recent blog post that you can read about here. 

And here are the key steps involved with great onboarding:

  • Create a single orientation resource to give new hires a bird’s eye view of their position
  • Provide comprehensive training on the software they’ll be selling
  • Offer training on the software they’ll be using (e.g. your CRM and lead scoring platform)
  • Break down buyer personas
  • Pinpoint your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses

When it comes specifically to SaaS sales reps, I also suggest having them run through a mock demo so you can critique it, as this helps work out the kinks in a hurry. 

Step 5 – Develop a Legit Retention Plan

“The average turnover cost per sales rep is $97,690 when you add up recruiting costs, training costs, and lost sales,” according to a DePaul University study. Not to mention, high turnover is incredibly disruptive to everyday operations and diminishes synergy within your sales team. 

So, the final step is to create an actionable game plan to keep your team members around for as long as possible. Here are some ideas:

  • Start by offering a competitive salary (89% of salespeople leave due to insufficient compensation)
  • Help sales leaders be their best (you can find leadership building tips here)
  • Provide your team with modern sales tools like CRM and lead scoring software to make their lives easier
  • Give top performers advancement opportunities 
  • Consider large retention bonuses at strategic inteverals (e.g. after 1, 2, 4, and 5 years)
  • Promote from within whenever possible
  • Be quick to celebrate team wins 

Putting the Pieces Together

At the end of the day, your SaaS company is only as good as your sales team. Without the right combination of professionals that are cohesive, collaborative, and “all in,” it’s hard to make any real progress. And as I pointed out earlier, there’s a clear correlation between organizing and systemizing this process and high performance. 

See how HireDNA can dramatically improve the recruiting aspect of your SaaS sales team building and eliminate 96% of hiring mistakes. Get your demo today. 

90% of SaaS Companies Look for Salespeople in the Wrong Places: Here’s Where You Should Be Looking

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What are some of the first places that come to mind for SaaS companies when recruiting sales reps?

For most, it’s conventional resources like job boards, LinkedIn, staffing agencies, and so on. That’s where 90% of SaaS companies look, says Steli Efti, CEO of sales CRM, Close.com. 

But, as he points out, these are often the wrong places and tend to yield underwhelming results. 

Here’s why. 

A+ Salespeople Seldom Have to Look for Work

“You know who the only salespeople are who are actively looking for sales jobs?,” asks Efti. “Bad salespeople. The good ones are too good at selling to be out of work.”

I think he summarizes it perfectly with this line and illustrates the inherent problem of using conventional resources for recruiting. Although there can certainly be situations where even the best of the best SaaS salespeople find themselves out of work on occasion (the fallout from COVID is a great example), he makes an excellent point. In most cases, the truly elite reps are already employed. So, if you slap up an ad on a job board, you can’t expect miracles. 

It should also be noted that the reps that are hyper-qualified are often headhunted because of their insane selling abilities. Therefore, you’re probably not going to see them applying for a sales position through a job board. And you’re almost certainly not going to see them going through a staffing agency. They simply don’t need to because SaaS companies come to them. 

Are there ever exceptions? Sure. But generally speaking, high caliber salespeople are in enough demand that they don’t need to spend time job hunting. 

Another Area Where Many SaaS Recruiters Go Wrong

Besides taking traditional recruiting approaches like I just mentioned, another common mistake I see many SaaS sales recruiters make is obsessing over industry/product experience rather than actual selling skills. This is something I talked about in-depth in a previous post, but let me give you the highlights. 

There’s a tendency where many saas sales recruiters fixate on finding sales candidates with several years of experience but aren’t necessarily heavy hitters in terms of their sales talent. According to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 64.5% of recruiters prefer to hire sales reps with relevant work experience. 

This is a stat that’s understandable, but having this mindset can sometimes end up sabotaging a SaaS sales recruiter’s efforts if they pass up potential rockstars because they’re concentrating so intensely on industry/product experience rather than core selling skills. 

My point here is that you’re almost always better off looking for top-tier salespeople with transferable skills rather than mediocre salespeople with years of industry/product experience. After all, the former can always learn your industry/product, but the latter will likely plateau because they simply don’t possess the intrinsic sales DNA.

So this is something else to keep in mind when determining your hiring approach and filtering through candidates. 

Where You Should Be Looking

If a conventional approach is likely to only have a marginal impact, what exactly is the approach you should be taking with your SaaS sales recruiting?

“The first place to look for these people is always your own network: friends, acquaintances, fellow founders whose startup just failed or is on a path of failure, family members,” explains Efti. “Always ask if they know somebody who might be a good fit.” 

Rather than turning to the usual suspects like job boards, LinkedIn, and staffing agencies, tapping into your own network can often put you in touch with homerun salespeople that could be massive assets to your team. 

That’s a good starting point. 

The other main, and often best route to take is using a technology sales recruiting platform like HireDNA. Designed specifically for SaaS companies, HireDNA sources top talent from a verified national network to generate next-level candidates. 

It uses intelligent matching that analyzes 21 key data points to help you pinpoint the optimal candidates based on the role criteria you’re looking to fill. It also uses science-based assessments built on 21 core selling competencies like motivation, relationship-building, and the ability to handle rejection in order to predict success. 

That way you not only find active candidates who are looking for sales jobs, but also passive candidates that match your criteria. This in turn, can put top talent on your radar that you wouldn’t otherwise know about if you were using conventional resources. And as we just discussed, this tends to make for the best candidate pool. 

Then, HireDNA delivers the most qualified candidates to your inbox for feedback and approval. From there you can browse through the list and pick the ones that are the best fit and start scheduling interviews. It’s very straightforward. 

Finding SaaS Salespeople in the Right Places

There’s no lack of sales reps out there. In fact, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there are about 14.3 million in the US alone. So, it’s not hard to find them, and putting in a traditional job ad can easily bring in hundreds of applicants. 

Finding high-level performers, however, is another story. As sales expert, Steli Efti, pointed out, your chances of finding these professionals are low if you take a conventional approach. The problem is that this is exactly what 90% of SaaS companies do. 

But that’s good news for you. Switching up your approach and focusing on your network or a technology sales recruiting platform like HireDNA can supply you with all the A+ talent you need to assemble a winning team. This, in turn, can give you a huge advantage over most competitors that are still using stale, outdated SaaS recruiting techniques. 

See firsthand how HireDNA can help you find top sales talent. Request a demo now. 

A Dead Simple Checklist for Quickly Onboarding New SaaS Sales Reps

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

But what exactly does that entail? 

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

Provide a Single Orientation Resource

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

Topics to cover may include:

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

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

Offer Training for the Software They’ll Be Selling

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

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

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

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

Offer Training for the Software They’ll Be Using

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

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

Educate New Hires on Buyer Personas

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

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

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

Here’s a simple example.

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

Check out her in-depth guide here.

Explain Key Competitor Strengths and Weaknesses

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

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

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

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

As for weaknesses, identify:

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

Critique a Rep’s Product Demo

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

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

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

Setting the Stage for Success

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s why you should too. 

Some Telling Stats

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

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

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

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

Why Recruiting Software is a Game Changer for SaaS Companies

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

Quickly Generate Top-Level Candidates

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

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

How? 

A platform like HireDNA:

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

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

Evaluate Sales Candidates Objectively

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

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

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

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

Make Better Hiring Decisions 

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

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

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

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

Fill Positions Quicker

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

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

Drastically Reduce Hiring Mistakes

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

Increase Salesperson Retention 

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

Leveraging This Potent Technology

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


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