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.