Category: Sales Recruiting

Should You Recruit Salespeople from Competitors? The Pros and Cons.

Posted on by hiredna

When recruiting salespeople, the goal is always to find those that are the most talented and qualified — the best of the best, the cream of the crop. Often that means choosing between the pool of candidates that apply for a job posting. But other times, the true rockstars are already employed by the competition and aren’t even looking for a job. 

This raises an interesting question. Should you recruit salespeople from competitors? 

Let’s find out.

Why Passive Candidates Often Make the Best Salespeople 

Passive candidates are individuals who are currently employed but open to new career opportunities if they come along, as long as they meet the right criteria. For example, a passive candidate would potentially entertain an offer if they could earn more money, receive better benefits, have a more flexible schedule, and so on. 

These people aren’t always on a recruiter’s radar, but they definitely should be. 

“Passive candidates can offer a lot of value to your business, and they shouldn’t be ruled out just because they’re not actively searching for a job,” says Mike Kappel of Forbes. “In fact, they’re often the most valuable type of candidate.”

Just think about it. Who’s likely to be the better salesperson? One who has to apply to dozens of jobs and is low on the totem pole for consideration? Or, one who was headhunted by top companies across your industry and is gainfully employed?

The latter, of course. 

Not only would they have the right qualifications, they probably wouldn’t need much training to get up to speed. You’re essentially plugging them into your system, which means you shouldn’t have to do any of the “hand holding” that’s often required with conventional hires.  

And what’s interesting is that 75% of candidates considered themselves passive, with most willing to talk to a recruiter. In fact, only a small 15% of candidates are completely satisfied and don’t want to move. 

It should also be noted that younger generations of Millennials and Gen Zers have a significantly higher average churn rate than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, meaning they’re especially ripe for the picking. 

So, if the only candidates you’re considering are the ones that are applying with you, you’re likely missing out on A players that could bring immense value to your company. 

An Ethical Quandary 

With all that said, recruiting salespeople from competitors does have its downsides. Mainly, it creates a moral dilemma where “poaching,” as it’s sometimes called, can bring your brand integrity into question. 

If this is a strategy you use time and time again when assembling your sales team, it can potentially give you a bad rap. Those within your industry could potentially view your company as being unscrupulous and underhanded, which isn’t going to do your reputation any favors. And we all know how fast negative publicity can spread in today’s social media age. 

Other Issues

You also have to consider the legal implications. “Very few job applicants for key positions show up without any competition restrictions,” explains attorney Oberman Thompson. So, making the wrong move could result in costly litigation and all of the headaches that come along with it. 

That’s why you need to “know the issues in advance, and address them — up front,” Thompson adds. One of the first things you should ask a candidate you’re seriously considering is whether or not they’re bound by a non-compete clause. If not, there shouldn’t be any major obstacles in the way, and you can pursue them unencumbered. 

Besides that, you could also make the argument that recruiting a salesperson from a competitor while they’re already hired means their loyalty is questionable. “Common sense will tell an employer that if a sales representative is willing to break an agreement with a past employer, it is more than likely that the employee will repeat their action,” writes Ken Sundheim of Forbes. “This behavior does not exist in a vacuum.”

In turn, they could potentially be snatched away from you by a different competitor whenever the slightest hint of a better offer comes around. In other words, you could “get a taste of your own medicine” in certain situations.

The Pros and Cons of Recruiting Salespeople from Competitors

At this point, you should have a pretty good overview of this tactic as a recruiting move. But to ensure that you see the full picture, here’s a list of the pros and cons. 

The Pros

  • Salespeople who are already hired are often highly skilled and talented
  • They usually don’t require as much training as salespeople you hire through a traditional job ad
  • Most candidates are willing to talk, and only 15% don’t want to move from the current position they’re in 
  • These candidates may have valuable connections you can leverage to find even more top talent

The Cons

  • If done inappropriately, it can potentially hurt your reputation
  • In many cases, there are legal issues you have to deal with
  • If handled incorrectly, it can potentially lead to lawsuits
  • Salespeople who are recruited this way may be more likely to “jump ship” later on if wooed by another competitor

A Recruiting Strategy to at Least Consider

Trying to recruit salespeople from competitors is something that runs through most organization’s minds at some point. After all, it’s hard to do better than a key competitor’s best rep. There are solid arguments both for and against this strategy. But at the end of the day, it’s clear that it definitely can work as long as you do things the right way and don’t overstep your boundaries. 

Want to take your recruiting to the next level and hire better sales talent, faster? See how HireDNA can help you source top talent from a verified national network of sales recruitment experts. 

Attract the Best and Brightest Salespeople By Offering These 10 Benefits

Posted on by hiredna

There are numerous factors that go into attracting top salespeople. Compensation, advancement opportunities, and company culture are often some of the first things that come to mind. 

But benefits have become a major factor as well. “In today’s hiring market, companies have to fork out more and more to create benefits packages that both attract and retain talent,” writes Kerry Jones, marketing director at Fractl, a growth marketing firm. 

The question is, which specific benefits should you offer? 

What the Data Says

Fractl performed a comprehensive survey that asked 2,000 people which benefits out of a list of 17 were most important to them. Here are the most valued benefits according to the data.

What we want to focus on here is the top 10 benefits so you’ll know which ones to prioritize. They are as follows. 

  1. Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance

Unsurprisingly, this is the number one benefit — something that’s primarily due to the rising cost of healthcare. Just look at how the total national health expenditures have increased between 1988 and 2018. 

It’s becoming a bigger and bigger challenge for Americans to keep up with rising healthcare costs, so offering fully paid healthcare to salespeople can be a game changer for attracting top tier talent. This is no doubt one of the most expensive benefits, averaging $11,394 for a base salary of $60,000… 

…but it can be well worth it when you consider the competitive edge it can give you. For a rundown on offering health insurance to employees, check out this guide from Gusto. 

  1. More Flexible Hours

This came in just behind health, dental, and vision insurance at number two on the list. 

“Steering away from a traditional 9-to-5 workplace structure that dictates the whereabouts of an employee, moving toward a modern workplace model that improves satisfaction and productivity, is ideal in today’s job climate,” says Joshua Stowers of Business News Daily. 

Giving salespeople more say over their schedule and allowing them to balance their professional and personal lives can be instrumental in attracting the best and the brightest talent. 

  1. More Vacation Time

Not far behind health insurance and more flexible hours is more vacation time. Here’s how much paid vacation the average salesperson receives according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

If you can go beyond that, your company instantly becomes more attractive to elite salespeople.

  1. Work-From-Home Options

Being able to work remotely at least part of the time has been an attractive benefit for a while. But with COVID turning the world on its head, it’s pretty much a must for businesses nowadays. 

There’s never been a more important time to invest in technology that allows your salespeople to work-from-home than the present. To learn how to help your team make the shift to remote processes for talent acquisition, check out this previous post we wrote. 

  1. Unlimited Vacation

At first glance, this benefit may sound a little crazy, but it’s really catching on as of late. “Although the perk is far from widespread,” says Kerry Jones, “unlimited paid time off has been adopted by a growing number of organizations” with some of the most notable being Netflix and LinkedIn. 

When done right, it can offer multiple advantages, including a healthier work-life balance, more time for salespeople to recharge, and a deeper sense of trust between you and your team.

  1. Student Loan Assistance 

In 2020, the average student loan debt was $30,062, which is more than a $6,250 increase from what it was in 2010. 

So it’s no wonder that student loan assistance clocks in at number six of the top 10 benefits. This is a perk that more and more companies are offering, including Chegg, Estee Lauder, and First Republic.

  1. Tuition Assistance

And for younger salespeople who are still finishing their education, tuition assistance can be an extremely enticing benefit — especially for those attending private institutions, which have an average tuition cost of over $35,000 per year. 

  1. Paid Parental Leave

“The United States is one of only two countries in the world that doesn’t provide paid maternity leave to its workers,” notes Kerry Jones. “However, this benefit is important to employees.”

In fact, 26% of salespeople reported that they’ve switched jobs specifically for family benefits. Offering paid parental leave can put your company at the top of the list for ultra talented salespeople that are family focused.

  1. Free Gym Membership

Lower on this list but still important is a free gym membership. We’re living in a day and age where people are becoming more conscious of their personal health. So, being able to stay in shape by going to the gym — something that costs nearly $700 a year — can definitely be enticing. 

While interest has obviously waned post-COVID, it’s likely to pick up again in the near future. 

  1. Free Day Care Services 

Finally, there’s free day care. In 2019, about 40% of US households had children under the age of 18, which makes this attractive to a good chunk of salespeople. And with all of the complications that have arisen with child care due to COVID, this can be a major selling point for those with young children. 

Make Your Company a Top Contender

The success and longevity of your company relies heavily upon the quality of your salespeople. And one of the most effective ways to attract the best and the brightest is by offering the right benefits. 

The list above zeroes in on the 10 most popular according to reliable data so you’ll know exactly which benefits to prioritize moving forward. 

Learn how HireDNA can help you take your recruiting and hiring to the next level. See how it allows you to source top talent and use intelligent matching and science-based assessments to find elite salespeople in your industry. 

Book your live demo today. 

The Latest Innovations in Technology That Can Empower HR Teams

Posted on by hiredna

Driven largely by the need for better recruiting and to help salespeople and sales leaders realize their full potential, HR technology has grown by leaps in bounds in recent years. In 2019, it was a $148 billion market. And with 74% of companies increasing their spending on HR tech in 2020, that market is quickly accelerating.

The HR Technology Conference & Exposition, which took place on October 20, 2020 featured the latest innovations in technology, including “AI and machine learning, chatbots and blockchain, digital transformation, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement and more.” 

Here are some of the most game changing new products that can empower HR teams moving forward. 

Bryq Bias-Free Pre-Hire Assessment

Bryq utilizes cutting-edge AI technology to “blindly screen for skills and personality, not resumes.” It’s designed to mitigate bias and provide companies with an objective means of assessing salespeople. In turn, this greatly reduces the chance of recruiters falling victim to common hiring biases such as the halo effect, expectation anchor, and affinity bias. 

One of the more noteworthy features is Bryq’s Profile Prediction, which analyzes a job description and comes up with the ideal combination of concrete skills and personality traits.

It then ranks candidates according to how well they stack up based on the assessment and how good of a fit they are for the position, while taking hard skills and personality factors into account. 

This platform is built on powerful input/output psychology data that not only helps HR teams pinpoint exactly who they’re looking for but adds a level of unparalleled objectivity that has eluded recruiters so far. Bryq takes factors that could skew hiring decisions such as gender, race, and ethnicity out of the mix, which is huge for increasing workplace diversity and finding top tier salespeople. 

And the results are undeniable. Companies that have used Bryq collectively reduced their time-to-hire by 54% and lowered turnover by 62%. 

If unconscious bias keeps getting in the way of your hiring, Bryq could be just the solution you’ve been looking for. 

Explorance Employee Journey Analytics

Roughly a third of salespeople fail to meet expectations and don’t reach their quota at least part of the time. It’s an ongoing struggle not only for salespeople themselves but also for the HR teams and sales leaders that are responsible for managing them. 

But Explorance, a company that offers sophisticated “employee journey analytics,” could have an answer to this problem. They offer a new type of machine learning called Blue, which allows companies to gather feedback across a multitude of different surveys, including the following:

It then takes that information and synthesizes it to provide a 360 degree view of what’s going on. That way HR teams “can start understanding employee sentiments, improving performances, and identifying patterns across different stages of the employee journey.”

Explorance automates the feedback gathering process and uses a comprehensive reporting engine to provide HR with actionable guidance on what they can do to help salespeople maximize their potential — from the moment they’re hired to when they retire. 

This makes it a promising end-to-end salesperson development tool that could have a huge impact on long-term company culture. 

ePerkz Offboarding Tool

HR teams spend a ton of time and money on onboarding and give it a massive amount of attention. However, they don’t always do the same for inevitable offboarding whenever salespeople leave the company. 

ePerkz is a newly developed platform that’s specifically designed to streamline severance and offboarding while ensuring compliance every step of the way. It offers a robust Employee Transition Hub with the following features:

By using it, companies can automate end-to-end calculations, agreements, and workflows to reduce the offboarding processing time by an average of 50%. ePerkz also features powerful compliance tools to prevent litigation due to unlawful termination. 

So, when it’s all said and done, HR teams can offboard salespeople with minimal friction, while at the same time providing a better employee experience. 

Optify Leadership Coaching Management System 

Finally, there’s Optify which provides “scalable leadership coaching that supports organizational growth and impact, one person at a time.” At the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, they announced the launch of their Leadership Coaching Management System (LCMS) that’s built to provide companies with scalable coaching programs with one on one coaching to help sales leaders elevate their skillset and maximize their potential. 

The process is highly individualized and matches sales leaders with handpicked coaches to reach concrete goals.

Users complete assessments to determine what their current capabilities are and what specific goals they’re looking to accomplish. They then work with coaches to successfully reach those goals, using proven training to accelerate results. 

It’s all about tangible, measurable growth, which Optify ensures by incorporating robust analytics to keep track of progress and identify additional areas for improvement. 

So, if sales leadership development is one of your top priorities, Optify is definitely a platform to consider. 

Taking HR to a New Level Through Tech

Although HR has historically been slow moving in terms of tech adoption, there now appears to be a more open mindset with many companies taking strong initiatives to leverage new technology. And as we’ve just learned with the products mentioned above, there are some exciting advancements that can help HR teams flourish. 

For a full rundown on the products featured at the the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, check out this press release from Global Newswire. 

And speaking of innovative platforms. If you’re looking for a science-based software that offers an all-in-one solution to recruiting, screening, hiring, and retaining top level salespeople, check out HireDNA. 

It eliminates 96% of hiring mistakes and reduces turnover by more than 33%. And 92% of candidates that are recommended through it are top performers within their first year. 

84% of Talent Acquisition Teams Now Use Remote Processes: How to Adapt in a Post-COVID World

Posted on by hiredna

To say that 2020 has been a bit chaotic would be a gross understatement. COVID-19 shook the entire world to its core, and we’ve all encountered massive challenges we’re still recovering from. One particular branch of the business world that’s been forced to rapidly adapt is HR. 

With traditional face-to-face interactions greatly limited or altogether eliminated, HR teams have had to scramble to come up with viable talent acquisition solutions. And the biggest tool in their arsenal is making the shift to handling the recruiting and hiring process remotely. 

Here’s the details and how to adapt in a post-COVID world. 

Technology Has Created a Paradigm Shift in Recruiting and Hiring

Although many HR teams have used technology in some capacity in recent years, COVID has been the catalyst for widespread technology usage in 2020. More specifically, HR teams are rapidly implementing it to find, interview, and onboard new employees 100% remotely. 

COVID has really lit a fire under HR, and out of sheer necessity, most are now using remote processes to handle recruiting and hiring from end to end. 

Stuart Gentle of online recruitment magazine (Onrec) offers perspective on this trend saying, “84% of talent acquisition teams are adapting their processes to work remotely. This demonstrates the agility of talent acquisition teams, their leadership and commitment to deliver candidates to their companies to help build the business, even in times of adversity.”

The pandemic has shown just how essential it is to adapt by leveraging technology, and the companies that flourish are usually the ones that make it an integral part of their framework. 

And This Trend is Unlikely to Stop Post-COVID

COVID dealt the economy a major blow and one that will take a long time to completely recover from. That said, it is starting to recover, which is evidenced by growth in the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the past six months plus. 

Here’s where it was on March 23, 2020, when COVID was in full swing in the US. 

And here’s where it’s currently at on October 27, 2020. 

Restrictions on face-to-face interactions are starting to ease, and life is gradually returning back to normal. However, a large percentage of HR teams plan on sticking with the technology they’re currently using for remote hiring moving forward. 

“Most employers are now comfortable using technology for talent acquisition, with 82% of hiring managers saying they will continue to interview using video once the pandemic is over,” Stuart Gentle adds. 

That’s largely because of the major benefits that remote hiring technology provides, including:

  • Greater efficiency
  • Time savings
  • Reduced costs
  • Streamlined onboarding 

You just can’t put the genie back in the bottle on something like this, and it’s clear that a growing number of talent acquisition teams will continue to embrace remote processes in the future.  

How to Adapt Post-COVID

Now the question is, how exactly can you get your HR team up to speed with remote hiring technology?

Maybe you had already made some small initiatives prior to the pandemic. Or, maybe you hadn’t made any initiatives at all. 

What are some specific steps you take to adapt moving forward?

Here’s the general four-step formula you’ll want to follow. 

  1. Examine Your Current Recruiting Process

First, you’ll want to map out the process you’re currently using step-by-step so that you have a bird’s eye view of your methodologies, technologies, tactics, and so on. 

  1. Identify Which Recruiting Steps Could Be Done Remotely

Next, look over your current recruiting process to identify specific areas where technology could potentially be implemented to be done remotely. Maybe, for instance, it would be possible to interview candidates through a video conferencing platform without skipping a beat. 

Or, rather than having HR members meet with one another physically to assess candidates, they could use a recruiting and hiring platform to find top talent based on core selling competencies. 

  1. Determine Which Technologies Could Be Used

Once you know the areas where technology could realistically be applied, you’ll want to figure out which specific technologies you could use. For interviewing, you may want to use a leading video conferencing software like Zoom. And for candidate assessment, you could use HireDNA, which assesses candidates on 21 core selling competencies such as motivation, desire, and coachability. 

  1. Implement Those Technologies In Phases

From there, it’s just a matter of putting those technologies to use. The key to being successful is getting everyone in your company to buy in from the top down. It starts with senior leadership and trickles down to HR leaders and eventually everyone else within your HR team. 

Move in phases so as to not overwhelm anyone, and offer a comprehensive knowledge base featuring answers to FAQs, videos, and tutorials to make it simple for your team to learn the new technology. 

This quick guide from Atif Siddiqui of employee engagement platform Achievers should help make the transition as seamless as possible. 

Helping HR Adapt to a New Recruiting Reality

COVID has drastically changed many aspects of how modern businesses operate, and HR is no exception. Basically overnight HR teams have been forced to figure out new techniques for recruiting and hiring, with the vast majority adapting their strategy to accommodate remote processes. 

And this is something your company can do as well by following the four key steps listed above. That way you can find and onboard top talent regardless of what happens next. 

See how HireDNA can help improve your hiring, while embracing a more remote-centric approach. 92% of recommended candidates reach the top of the sales force within a year of being hired. 

Book a live demo now. 

The 3 Biggest Reasons Why Top Performing Salespeople Leave (And How to Lower Turnover)

Posted on by hiredna

Turnover. It’s one of the biggest causes of stress and frustration for employers. And if left unchecked, it can waste time, erode profits and bring company growth to a grinding halt. 

What’s concerning is the sheer number of people leaving their jobs these days. “The percentage of US employees quitting their jobs is at an all-time high,” says Gallup. Further, “67% of US employees are disengaged at work, and 51% say they’re actively looking for a new job or are open to one.”

In this post, we’ll get to the heart of why top performing salespeople leave and go over some specific steps you can take to address this problem. 

The 3 Biggest Reasons for Turnover

SiriusDecisions, a global B2B research and advisory firm performed extensive research to identify the main reasons why top performing salespeople left the companies they worked for. 

Here’s what they found:

  1. Insufficient compensation – This was the reason why 89% of salespeople left
  2. A lack of connection with leadership / Incompetence of leadership – 60 – 80% 
  3. Concerns about their company’s ability to meet market needs – 75%

Note that a certain amount of turnover is normal and shouldn’t cause any major disruptions to your business. Currently, the average turnover rate for sales organizations is hovering just under 35%. But if the number gets much higher than that, like it does for one in 10 companies with a turnover rate above 55%, it’s definitely a cause for concern and something that should be addressed right away. 

Now let’s take a closer look at these three main reasons for turnover and discuss some potential solutions. 

#1 – Insufficient Compensation

Above all else, not being paid what a rep thinks they’re worth is the number one reason why they head for greener pastures. And this is nothing new. 

Just like with nearly every other industry, those in sales are quick to jump ship if they can earn more somewhere else. This is especially true for SaaS salespeople where there’s been an explosion in the number of companies that were launched in recent years. 

So, what exactly is considered adequate pay? According to recent data from PayScale, the average salary for a salesperson in 2020 was $45,676. 

If you’re paying well below that, especially in a larger market, high turnover is an inevitable issue that’s going to plague your company. The solution though is quite obvious — pay your reps more so that it’s competitive with other sales organizations in your area. 

And if possible, consider offering your top performers rewards like bonuses, health benefits, and recognition awards, which collectively help boost your employee value proposition (EVP). A study by Gartner found that effectively delivering on your EVP can lower annual turnover by 69%. 

#2 – Leadership Issues

The second biggest culprit for high turnover is when there’s either A) a disconnect between sales reps and company leaders or B) a perceived incompetence among leaders. Liz Ryan of Forbes chimes in on this saying, “Turnover is a leadership problem. When you as a manager are told over and over again that your employees will get raises and over and over again, the raises don’t come through, you become part of the problem.”

Admittedly, this isn’t usually something that’s a quick fix and often requires a fundamental cultural shift. That said, there are some specific techniques higher ups in your company can take to become better leaders. Lolly Daskal, President and CEO of Lead From Within, offers some great insights, including:

  • Accepting criticism
  • Being open to feedback from salespeople
  • Being authentic, honest, humble, and transparent
  • Taking a “practice what you preach” approach to leadership
  • Constantly striving to improve communication skills
  • Being quick to praise reps for a job well done

#3 – Concerns About a Company Meeting Market Needs

“‘Marketplace needs’ is a marketing concept that relates to the functional or emotional needs or desires of a target market,” explains college marketing professor Neil Kokemuller. “Generally, a successful company identifies when a segment of customers is not effectively served by existing providers and develops and promotes products or services to match.”

But when a company fails to do this effectively, it can create concerns for salespeople, where they have anxieties about its long-term growth and success. And this is understandable given that nearly 400,000 startups close their doors each year. 

Couple that with the negative impact COVID-19 has had on the economy, and concerns from salespeople are definitely justified. 

By these numbers, it’s clear that companies need to have a pulse on market needs — both functional and emotional — and be constantly evolving to stay relevant. It’s also important to develop a strong unique value proposition (UVP) and offer products that give your brand a clear edge over the competition. Not only is this important for carving out a sustainable niche, it lets your salespeople know that they have job security, which reduces the likelihood of excessive turnover. 

Keeping Turnover In Check

Turnover has become a serious problem for many of today’s organizations. BambooHR found that nearly a third of people have quit a job within the first six months, and 68% of those people left within the first three months. 

While there’s no magic bullet for turnover, understanding the root causes we’ve discussed here should help you gain a better understanding of what compels top salespeople to quit. Then, implementing solutions like offering competitive pay, developing better company wide leadership, and better meeting market needs should help you get it under control.

And with the right effort and focus, you can keep your most elite salespeople around for the long haul. 

Another big part of increasing retention is improving your recruiting process. Find out how you can use HireDNA to attract and recruit better candidates using science-based sales assessments. 

Here’s How to Develop a Winning Sales Recruiting & Selection Process

Posted on by hiredna

As many as 80% of salespeople fail to hit the mark, and 55% of them should actually be doing something else, according to the National Association of Sales Professionals. These numbers illustrate just how difficult it is to succeed in sales and shows that the CEOs and sales leaders responsible for hiring reps have their work cut out for them. 

But in this post, we’ll outline a definitive strategy you can use to develop a winning sales recruiting and selection process to ensure you only hire the best of the best. Let’s jump right in.  

First, Identify the Most Important Areas That Influence Success

Each company is different. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach is seldom effective. Instead, you need to start your sales recruiting campaign by pinpointing which specific areas most influence success in your business. 

In their eBook Best Practice to Recruiting the Hardest Role in the Company, SG Partners says “Best Practice Sales Team Selection process commences with a clear understanding of the criteria for success in your market. You need to identify the candidate’s experience in the 20 most important areas that will influence success.”

They then go on to list some examples of factors like:

  • Markets where your company operates
  • Your customer base
  • Competitors
  • Sales cycle
  • Method of compensation 

Screen Candidates Objectively with a Sales Assessment

Before you look at a single resume or begin interviewing, you’ll want to use a candidate sales assessment to get an objective snapshot of selling skills to determine which candidates have what it takes to thrive. 

“This unique screening process was developed exclusively to identify those salespeople that WILL be successful in specific sales environments,” explains SG Partners. “It separates out those candidates that may look like salespeople and sound like salespeople but simply won’t sell.”

There are many different tools out there, but the main one we suggest using is the sales assessment from Objective Management Group (OMG). It’s based on a massive amount of data, including over 2 million salespeople from more than 30,000 companies across 200 industries. 

And its predictive validity rate is unparalleled, with 92% of suggested candidates reaching the top half of the salesforce. This will analyze 21 sales core competencies like the will to sell, motivation, coachability, and so on to filter through your list of candidates and narrow it down to the most elite. 

Phone Screen Shortlisted Candidates

Now it’s time for the actual interviewing process to begin. For the first round, you’ll want to phone screen the candidates who successfully completed the sales assessment, possess the right skills you are looking for and match your unique selling environment. 

This should be brief at around 15 to 30 minutes and is simply meant to see how well they engage with you, as this will be a great indicator of how well they’ll engage with leads if hired. 

You’ll want to create a basic script for your phone screening to ensure all candidates get the same questions and have the same opportunities. SG Partners recommends intentionally putting candidates under pressure to see how they respond to gauge their overall effectiveness. And you’ll also want to use quantitative scoring to rate a candidate’s response to each question (e.g. a 1 to 5 rating). 

For a full rundown on how to effectively use phone screening, check out this previous post we wrote. 

Conduct Short Interviews with Top Candidates

Once you’ve narrowed down your candidate pool even more, it’s time for a round of more detailed but still relatively short interviews of around 35 minutes. Ideally, this will be done face-to-face, but given the current climate post-COVID, doing it over video conferencing software like Zoom should be sufficient, specifically if they will be selling virtually. 

“The candidate is screened on issues or concerns with their work history or suitability based on their resume and also issues that were identified through the [sales assessment],” says SG Partners. “This interview is again designed to measure the ability of the candidate to respond to challenging objections while seeking to gain control of the interview process.”

The exact questions you ask can run the gamut, but Meg Prater of HubSpot highlights 10 sales interview questions that should help get the ball rolling. You can also download our interview questionnaire for a more detailed list of behavioral style interview questions. 

Perform In-Depth Interviews on Your Top 2-3 Candidates

At this point, you should have narrowed it down to your top two or three candidates who all show great promise. You’ll then want to have highly in-depth interviews with these candidates and really dive in deep to figure out what they truly bring to the table. 

“This interview is a very extensive process that requires the candidate to take you through a structured overview of their work and experience following a clear chronological order,” writes SG Partners. “This process can take up to two hours and is designed to separate truth from fiction in relation to the past history of the candidates.”

And don’t forget about reference checking. 

Given the amount of preparation that in-depth interviews like this take, it’s crucial that you perform plenty of planning and preparation in advance. 

Hold a Final Interview for the Candidate You Want

The last step in the sales team selection process is to have a final interview, which is where you go over the formalities and get everything squared away. Here are some specific things that SG Partners suggests covering. 

From there, it’s just a matter of making an offer.

Rinse and Repeat

Rockstar salespeople don’t grow on trees. And we’ve seen time and time again that haphazard hiring practices and selecting candidates based on “a hunch” lead to unfavorable outcomes. 

While nothing is 100% foolproof, following SG Partners’ sales team selection process can promise with near certainty that you’ll find the right salespeople that fit in perfectly with your company culture. 

Once you have the formula, rinse and repeat. 

For more on how to level up your recruiting, download Best Practice to Recruiting the Hardest Role in the Company. 

And to learn about which mistakes to avoid, read The Top 5 Reasons You Are Failing at Recruiting Consistently Great Sales Teams. 

How to Ensure You’re Hiring Based on Actual Skills Rather Than Just “Personality”

Posted on by hiredna

Have you ever encountered a candidate who oozed charm and charisma? Who said all of the right things? Who had the “it factor?”

People with great personalities naturally make a great first impression, and more often than not, they end up walking away with the job. In fact, personality was deemed the single-most desirable quality in an employee by 78% of hiring professionals, according to an executive survey. 

And while it’s certainly a nice trait to have, it’s important to ensure that you’re hiring based on skills rather than solely on “personality.” Here’s why. 

A Long-Standing Misconception 

SG Partners, a professional sales training and coaching company, wrote an eBook entitled The Top 5 Reasons You Are Failing at Recruiting Consistently Great Sales Teams. In it, the first mistake they mention is evaluating “personality” rather than job skills. They talk about how many CEOs and sales leaders think that personality traits like high energy, honesty, and strong work ethic practically guarantee success. But that just isn’t the case. 

“Many consultants and distributors of pre-employment tests maintain that certain personality factors help ensure management or sales success and offer psychological theories to support that belief,” explains SG Partners. “However, solid statistical research from many objective sources shows little correlation between personality factors and any specific job factors. Producers of these tests (like the Myers-Briggs) admit that they are useful for self-awareness and training but not for hiring.”

While having a great personality can certainly help a sales rep, especially when it comes to interactions with leads and their colleagues, there’s no clear evidence that it will result in success. And on the other end of the spectrum, just because someone is shy and doesn’t have a magnetic personality doesn’t mean they can’t succeed. Geoffrey James of Inc.com even talks about how introverts often make the best sales reps these days, mainly because of the growing distrust of “fast-talking, backslapping salesmen” who come across as hyper-aggressive. 

These days, many leads prefer to deal with more introverted reps because they tend to be better listeners and take a more empathetic approach. 

The Dangers of Hiring Based on Personality

And in some cases, CEOs and sales leaders can get themselves into trouble when they focus so much on personality that they overlook a candidate’s obvious lack of other skills. As humans, we can’t help but form first impressions of others. It’s how we make a baseline assessment. Jean Baur, a career coach and author of The Essential Job Interview Handbook, even says that it only takes about three seconds for someone to form an initial impression. 

But it’s far from foolproof and can often be a red herring that leads to making the wrong hire. After all, someone with a stellar personality may be likeable and get along with everyone, but it doesn’t always mean they’ll necessarily add value. If their ability to close deals and general skill set are lacking, they could be quite costly because you’ll have to start the entire hiring process all over again. 

With the U.S. Department of Labor calculating that “the average cost of a bad hiring decision is at least 30% of the individual’s first-year expected earnings,” this can be a major blow to your company. 

How to Objectively Assess Potential Sales Reps

This begs the question. How exactly do you make an objective assessment and ensure that a candidate checks all of the right boxes? 

We recommend using a tool like the sales candidate assessment from Objective Management Group (OMG). This assessment is based on an immense volume of quantitative data, where OMG analyzed over 2 million salespeople across 30,000+ companies in 200 industries. 

From their findings, they were able to pinpoint some specific factors that determine a salesperson’s likelihood of success, including the will to sell, possessing the right “sales DNA,” being coachable, having core competencies, and more. 

And the numbers speak for themselves. By using the sales candidate assessment, a staggering 92% of salespeople who were recommended reached the top half of the sales team within their first year. 

On the other hand, three quarters of candidates that weren’t recommended but still hired failed within six months. 

At the end of the day, it’s about taking a science-based, data-driven approach to hiring that gives you a comprehensive, objective view of candidates. That way you can efficiently narrow down the candidate pool without getting caught up in surface level traits like personality that don’t guarantee success. 

Keeping Your Hiring Process Objective

Hiring isn’t easy. It’s something that even the world’s top companies struggle with at times. 

Therefore, it’s common to fall back on natural human tendencies like confusing having desirable characteristics like a great personality as being an indicator of success. But as we’ve just learned, taking this approach comes with some definite pitfalls and can be more of a hindrance to hiring than an asset. 

The key to making consistently sound hiring decisions is to focus on actual skills, ideally using a tool like the sales candidate assessment, to gain an objective understanding of a person’s abilities and likelihood of success. And while having a likeable personality is a plus, it should by no means be the main factor when selecting a sales rep. 

To learn more about this common hiring mistake, along with others, check out The Top 5 Reasons You Are Failing at Recruiting Consistently Great Sales Teams by SG Partners. 

And to learn about how to improve your hiring process, check out Best Practice to Recruiting The Hardest Role in the Company. 

92% of Recommended and Hired Candidates Succeed. Here’s Why.

Posted on by hiredna

How many times have you chosen a salesperson who had an amazing personality and checked all of the right boxes, only to later find that their performance was less than stellar?

This is a common experience among many CEOs and sales leaders, and according to Shep Hyken of Forbes, 57% of sales reps fail to hit their quotas. But fortunately, there’s a way to get it right nearly all of the time. 

In this post, we’ll discuss a proven system you can use to take the guesswork out of hiring salespeople to ensure that you consistently select elite performers. 

Accurately Predicting Sales Success

Objective Management Group (OMG) has conducted rigorous assessments over the years to compile a massive amount of data on the sales force selection process. Here are some specific numbers that went into their research.

As you can see, they’ve analyzed over 30,000 companies, more than 86,000 hires, and over two million salespeople to determine what contributes to success. The volume of data is staggering and has generated some fascinating insights into what sales recruiters, sales leaders, and CEOs should look for when assessing and hiring sales candidates. 

For example, OMG found that having the will to sell, where a person possesses the right level of desire and commitment, is a key factor in success. They found that being trainable and coachable is critical. They also found that having 21 core selling competencies, like being a “Hunter, Consultative Seller, Qualifier, Closer, and so on are vital — something they can quantitatively measure. 

In short, OMG found that there’s a science behind hiring quality salespeople — a formula sales recruiters, sales leaders, and CEOs can use over and over to find top talent and retain them for the long haul. 

Check out more data from OMG, see how your sales team compares to the competition and the sales DNA of top performers in your industry here.

92% of Recommended and Hired Candidates Succeed

Through their findings, OMG has developed what they call The Original Sales-Specific Assessment, which measures sales capabilities rather than just behavioral and personality traits. This assessment takes a data-driven approach to finding the best of the best candidates and is so effective that it’s been rated the #1 sales assessment for 9 consecutive years by Top Sales World.

And here’s where it really gets interesting. OMG found that a whopping 92% of candidates that are recommended and hired through The Sales Assessment succeed and reach the top half of the sales force within just 12 months.  

This shows how important it is to make hiring decisions based on data, rather than merely a hunch. And this is something that more and more organizations are actively embracing, with a PwC global data and analytics survey finding that 61% of companies want to rely more heavily on data analysis and less on intuition when making hiring decisions. 

On the other hand, OMG also found that “75% of candidates who aren’t recommended but hired anyway fail within six months.” 

This just reaffirms the importance of assessing candidates based on concrete data and how utilizing a sales-specific assessment can be a real game changer. 

Why it Works

Now let’s take a closer look into the details as to why using the assessment works. 

First, it’s customized to your unique selling environment. “Your customized Role Specification allows you to specify the unique requirements of your position. Candidates are then assessed against your criteria to create a recommendation custom-tailored to your needs.”

In other words, it doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, the assessment looks at your exact business and identifies which characteristics the ideal sales rep, manager, or leader should possess. 

Next, it uses a Candidate Analyzer to quantitatively score candidates based on their abilities via an easy-to-use portal. This allows you to seamlessly filter through candidates and pinpoint the ones you’re most interested in for later follow-up. 

And finally, OMG has a recruiting system called STAR (Sales Talent Acquisition Routine) that allows you to deploy a more structured approach to recruiting sales talent over a four-week period and looks like this:

During the first week, there’s the initial setup, where OMG configures their assessment for the specific role you’re hiring for, creates the optimal applicant tracking questions, and writes an ad that articulates the traits, skills, and experiences a candidate should possess.  

The second week is when sourcing takes place, where the ad is placed on relevant job sites and candidates are searched for on resume databases. Then, OMG provides tactics to help you filter through the results to confirm that applicants meet base requirements along with training on how to narrow the list down through phone screening calls. 

The third week is when the top candidates are interviewed in-person or through video conferencing. This is where you go more in-depth and really get to know each candidate and see what they bring to the table. The fourth week is when the final interview takes place to identify the true rockstars and when a candidate is officially chosen for the position. 

As you can see, the process is very streamlined and can be used again and again to ensure you consistently make the right hires. Also, note that The sales assessment is designed specifically for sales, sales management, and sales leadership roles, making it extremely accurate. 

Hiring Candidates Based on Science

74% of sales reps are ineffective and fail to hit the mark, while only 6% are considered to be elite performers. At first glance, this may seem like the odds are stacked against sales recruiters, and it’s true that finding quality people can be tricky.

But comprehensive research has found that selecting salespeople based on hard data that’s generated through tools like The OMG Sales Candidate Assessment enables you to make decisions with relative certainty. It’s just a matter of putting the data to use and objectively selecting candidates based off of it. 

Interest in a free trial of the OMG Sales Candidate Assessment? You can register for a free test drive here.

For more helpful information on improving your sales hiring process, there are two eBooks to check out below. 

The Top 5 Reasons You Are Failing at Recruiting Consistently Great Sales Teams

Best Practice to Recruiting the Hardest Role in the Company

Everything You Need to Know About Phone Screening Sales Candidates

Posted on by hiredna

Historically, most interviews for sales rep positions have been done in person. However, in recent years, there’s been a shift to holding initial conversations over the phone to make a baseline assessment of a candidate’s qualifications. 

And with COVID-19 greatly restricting in person interactions, phone screening is something that many companies are doing by necessity. 

Here’s everything you need to know about phone screening so that you can streamline the process and find the best of the best sales reps. 

The Purpose of Phone Screening

In an eBook called Best Practice to Recruiting the Hardest Role in the Company, sales development firm SG Partners explains why phone screening for this position is such a smart idea. 

“Because your salespeople need to engage over the phone — doesn’t it make sense to check that they can and will be able to engage effectively with your existing and potential clients? They need to convince you that they are worth progressing to the face to face interview stage.”

This is a simple way to assess how well sales candidates perform and which ones you should advance. It also provides you with instant insights into their personality, traits, sales style, and so on. As a result, you not only learn about a candidate’s hard skills but also their soft skills and how well they fit in with your company from a cultural standpoint.

Now that we better understand the context, here’s how to seamlessly implement phone screening. 

Keep it Brief 

Given that this is a preliminary stage in the hiring process, it’s not usually the time to ask in-depth, hard hitting questions that require a long winded response, says global HR consulting firm Robert Half International. Rather, the goal is to narrow down your list of candidates and pinpoint the ones you want to give serious consideration. 

Therefore, you should keep the phone screening brief — ideally somewhere between 15 to 30 minutes — and focus only on the essentials. Then, once you’ve finished this round, you can follow up with candidates who’ve advanced and dive into deeper questions during the official interview.

Create a Script

In order to accurately and objectively gauge sales candidates, you need to have a standardized phone screening process where every interaction is nearly identical. You need to have a script. 

Why? There are two main reasons. 

First, this creates a sense of homogeneity where every candidate can be viewed through the same lens, making your assessment less likely to be skewed by variables. It’s like creating the same conditions during a science experiment to ensure the results are valid.

Second, it helps you move through phone screenings faster and more efficiently. By sticking to a script and asking the same questions (something we’ll discuss in more detail in just a bit), you can navigate through the process more fluidly and not waste time. 

And this is important considering that on average, conducting phone interviews can increase the length of the recruitment process by 6.8 to 8.2 days. 

So, what exactly should a script look like?

Here’s a basic formula you can use:

  • Offer a quick introduction of who you are, what your company is about, and what you’re looking for in a sales rep
  • Ask a series of straightforward questions
  • Take notes
  • Ask follow up questions
  • Ask the candidate if they have any questions for you
  • Close letting them know when and how you’ll reach out to them next

Ask The Right Questions

The exact questions used during phone screenings will obviously vary from company to company. That said, applicant tracking system, Betterteam, has pinpointed seven key questions that work great for making an initial assessment of a sales candidate. 

Here they are.

Besides that, you may want to ask questions to see how much they know about your company and what makes them a good fit. Some examples include:

  • What products or services do we specialize in?
  • What was it that attracted you to our company?
  • Why makes you a better fit over other candidates?

Again, the goal here isn’t to know a candidate inside and out. It’s to get a basic feel for who they are, what their skill level is like, and how good of a fit they would be for a sales position. These questions should serve as a good starting point, and you can tweak them as needed. 

When it’s all said and done, shoot for somewhere between five to 10 phone screening questions, as that tends to be the sweet spot. 

Treat Each Candidate Equally

It’s also vital that you eliminate any bias and give each candidate the exact same opportunity. “Approach every conversation with a blank slate, and treat each candidate fairly and equally,” writes Robert Half. “Remain fully engaged during every call.”

This should prevent your judgment from being clouded, enabling you to make an accurate assessment of multiple candidates, which brings us to our final point. 

Use Objective Scoring

The final piece of the puzzle is to objectively quantify your results so that you use concrete data when deciding which candidates to advance. Typically, the easiest way to do this is to use a numerical rating system to rate how satisfied you are with a candidate’s response to each question. 

For example:

  • 5 is excellent
  • 4 is good
  • 3 is average
  • 2 is below average
  • 1 is poor 

Then, add these numbers up to score each candidate, and use this to decide who moves onto the next round of hiring. You should also incorporate a sales-specific assessment that uses data and science to objectively evaluate the candidate’s selling skills and capabilities to accurately predict the likelihood of success. 

Improving Overall Hiring With Phone Screening

Phone screening sales candidates is a proven way to filter through a large applicant pool and find the true rockstars. It’s just a matter of developing an efficient system that allows you to move through the process swiftly and seamlessly. 

Need help hiring sales talent. HireDNA sales recruiting platform makes hiring sales reps easy by delivering pre-screened and qualified sales professionals. Request a demo. 

These Are the Top 5 Traits to Look for in a Sales Rep Based on a Mountain of Research

Posted on by hiredna

In another blog post, we talked about the importance of making hiring decisions based on data rather than a hunch. At the end of the day, sticking to a proven formula leads to better hires who are more productive and perform at a consistently high-level. 

It’s all about using science.

In this post, we’re going to expand on this topic and break down the top five traits to look for in a sales rep based on in-depth studies and a boatload of data. Let’s dive right in. 

The Sales Acceleration Formula By Mark Roberge

There are countless bodies of research that have analyzed what makes for a successful sales rep. For instance, sales strategist Steve W. Martin of The Harvard Business Review interviewed 1,000 top tier salespeople and performed personality tests on them in 2011. 

And the University of Florida conducted in-depth research in the early 2000’s to distinguish the difference between “tellers versus sellers.”

Research like this offers a ton of value, but one of the preeminent sources for identifying key traits is the work that former Chief Revenue Officer of HubSpot, Mark Roberge, did in 2015. He exhaustively analyzed a massive amount of data to come up with what he calls The Sales Acceleration Formula, which he wrote a book about. 

One of the key parts of his system is tapping into critical metrics to not only find high level sales reps, but create a more efficient process for doing so. After parsing through the data, Roberge came up with five specific traits he found most important. 

Here they are ranked by their importance. Drumroll…

1. Coachability

Above all else, Roberge found that being coachable and adaptable is the number one characteristic to look for in a sales rep. He specifically mentions how he’s had situations in the past where a rep who had incredible success in a prior position floundered in a new environment simply because they had a rigid attitude and weren’t open to input. For example, they had the mindset of “I’ve been selling for 10 years, and I’ll figure it out.”

But in today’s ultra dynamic business world, having a willingness to accept direction and feedback is of the utmost importance. In fact, some of the top reps Roberge has encountered who have “crushed it” are the ones who have been the most coachable. 

2. Curiosity

Next, he found that having a natural inquisitiveness is huge. Being curious about how a platform works, how it fits into a company’s sales model, how to solve a prospect’s pain points, and so on plays a key role in gaining a deep comprehension, and in turn, being an adept salesperson.

And this is a sentiment that’s shared by many other sales experts, like Matt Sunshine of The Center for Sales Strategy. “Great sellers are naturally curious and they can’t help but ask questions to learn more about how they can help.” In turn, they take that information and tailor their approach to meet the unique needs of each lead head on. 

3. Intelligence

Okay, this one is pretty obvious. A rep should always have a strong intellect and a high-level understanding of your industry, customer psychology, how your platform fits into a lead’s business model, and how to nurture a lead. It’s also helpful when they possess a solid emotional intelligence (EQ), where they know how to navigate issues like addressing prospect concerns, how to collaborate with other team members, and generally how to operate with tact. 

It should be noted that Roberge places intelligence far above what many would consider conventional sales skills like convincing, which involves an aggressive approach. Instead, he says that the top performing reps in this day and age tend to act more as consultants or trusted advisors to leads. They use their business savvy to help leads make critical decisions and explain how a platform can improve operations, rather than trying to “shove a product down their throats.”

4. Work Ethic

This trait should also come as no surprise. “Someone with a great work ethic will accelerate his or her learning curve and operate in a state of constant improvement,” explains The Muse in Forbes. “He or she will always look for ways to be better.”

Naturally being driven and willing to put in the time inevitably positions a rep for success and is integral to their evolution.

5. Prior Success

While prior success doesn’t 100% guarantee success within your company, it definitely factors in heavily. As long as a rep possesses the other four traits listed above, their odds of thriving are excellent. 

When it comes to assessing prior success, David Kurlan of Objective Management Group, explains that there are two specific criteria to look for:

  1. Sales reps reached 100% of their quota or better in a previous position
  2. They were in the top 26% of all salespeople

So, these should definitely be on your radar when assessing candidates. Kurlan also points out that using a science-based sales recruiting platform like HireDNA allows companies to identify reps in the top 6% of the total sales population. 

Always Look to the Data

The Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge reaffirms what sales recruiting experts have been saying for years. Making smart hiring decisions hinges largely on looking at objective data to make assessments. 

After performing a mountain of research, Roberge was able to pinpoint the top five traits that electrifying reps possess — coachability, curiosity, intelligence, work ethic, and prior success. 

Using a science-based sales recruiting platform allows you to effectively zero in on these areas and provides you with quantifiable data to help you make the right decision. And the best part is that this is something that can easily be rinsed and repeated. 

Want to see how you can streamline your hiring process and find top tier talent? Book a HireDNA demo today.