Tag: sales hiring

What SaaS Founders Need to Know About Building a World-Class Sales Team

Posted on by Nick Mann

Outside of the product itself, your sales team’s performance is arguably the biggest factor in your SaaS company’s long-term success. As such, it’s essential to look beyond quick wins and see the big picture when deciding who to hire. For this post, I’ll dissect the components that go into building a world-class sales team so you’ll have the right mindset to thrive in the subscription economy.

Success Relies on More Than Just Hard Skills

Don’t get me wrong. Hard skills like product knowledge and pipeline management are extremely important. And you’re probably not going to get far if you hire SaaS salespeople who lack fundamental hard skills.

But I think a common issue among many SaaS founders is that they focus too heavily on hard skills, to the point that they neglect equally critical soft skills. In fact, given how soft skills like communication, active listening, and resilience are to this profession, you could argue that many soft skills are just as important to a rep’s success.

For perspective, I asked Google Gemini to create a table with a side-by-side comparison of core hard and soft skills.

With a glance at this table, it’s easy to see why you shouldn’t skimp on soft skills. Instead, finding salespeople who possess essential soft skills is something you want to bake into your SaaS sales recruiting process. This brings me to my next point.

Objectively Understanding a Rep’s Core Competencies is Vital

As I just said, hard skills are certainly important. But that doesn’t mean soft skills should be overlooked.

But even better than basing your hiring decision on analyzing both hard and soft skills is basing it on understanding a rep’s core competencies — something that’s almost guaranteed to show you the big picture.

Some specific examples of core competencies can include motivation, being able to control emotions, lead-hunting capabilities, and decision-making skills. There are a plethora of other core competencies, but this should give you a basic idea of what I’m referring to.

The question is, how do you objectively assess a salesperson’s core competencies?

Perhaps the most straightforward strategy is to use a SaaS sales recruiting tool like HireDNA. With it, you can create a detailed candidate profile that includes all of the core competencies you need.

This gives you a complete overview of what someone brings to the table, and you can easily compare multiple candidate profiles side-by-side for a bird’s-eye view to choose the optimal candidate.

Choosing the Right Salespeople Depends on What Stage You’re At

Another important aspect of building a world-class sales team that some SaaS founders overlook is their current growth stage. If, for example, you’re a brand-new startup just getting the ball rolling, you’ll likely want to aim for ultra-scrappy go-getters who will scratch and claw their way to build relationships and reach their sales quotas.

However, if your SaaS company is well-established and you have a well-defined sales process, you may want to aim for salespeople who can play by the rules and consistently move leads through the pipeline.

While you’ll always want individuals with a certain amount of hustle, this is a factor to keep in mind and know that who you consider to be “the right salesperson” may evolve over time.

Data is Everything

Like most business areas, using insight-driven data can have a positive impact. But when u building a world-class sales team, data isn’t just a luxury, it’s a necessity — especially when considering the hyper-competitive landscape of the SaaS industry.

According to a sales operations survey by Gartner, Inc., “42% of sales leaders rate their sales analytics ROI as significantly higher than expected.” And a report by Deloitte found that it leads to a 35% boost in salesperson performance.

From identifying weaknesses in your sales pipeline to increasing customer engagement to optimizing customer personalization to predicting future trends based on prior patterns, sales data is your ticket to getting your sales team to operate at its peak potential.

That’s why I believe a strong sales analytics platform should be implemented from the very start, and you should use the data you generate to continually refine your processes, as there’s always room for improvement.

Great Performance Requires Ongoing Development

Speaking of ongoing improvement, the final way SaaS founders can go about building a world-class sales team is to invest in the perpetual development of their reps. Think of it like this.

Hopefully, the initial group of salespeople you hire is professional, capable, and productive. And if you use a quality SaaS sales recruiting tool, it should be.

But like I just said, there’s always room for improvement, and getting your SaaS sales team to operate at their best requires endless iterations. And when you consider how fast the SaaS industry (and tech in general) is moving, you must stay at the forefront.

That’s why it’s important to use an ongoing SaaS sales training program that fine-tunes the skills of your salespeople and helps them stay sharp. This doesn’t need to be anything over the top, and you certainly don’t want to burn your team out from fatigue. But a steady drip of training and development can go a long way.

For an overview of some of the top sales training platforms, check out this list from Salesforce.

Building a World-Class Sales Team from the Ground Up

Let’s be honest. Jumping into the SaaS industry and trying to compete with well-established titans can be daunting. And there is no magic bullet for ensuring success, no matter how great a digital product you have.

That said, following a well-laid-out template can tilt the odds in your favor so you can 1) get started out on the right foot and 2) set the stage for sustained growth.

If you don’t want to leave your SaaS sales hiring to chance and want to find the true superstars with elite sales DNA, check out the Sales Skills Assessment. It leverages 30 years of data and is 95% accurate at finding the optimal salespeople.

How SaaS Talent Leaders Can Simplify Sales Hiring Without Compromising Quality

Posted on by Nick Mann

I don’t need to tell you how disastrous a wrong SaaS sales hire can be. For perspective, a single bad hire can cost up to three times the rep’s annual salary—translating to losses between $250,000 and $500,000 when accounting for missed quotas, lost pipeline, and the expenses of replacing them. In the never-ending quest to accelerate SaaS sales hiring and quickly fill positions, it’s easy to take shortcuts. Sometimes those pay off, but in many cases, they don’t. For this article, I’d like to explain specific strategies on how to simplify sales hiring without compromising quality.

In fact, these techniques should maximize your collective candidate quality and help you pinpoint your industry’s true elite. Let’s dive in.

Start By Analyzing Existing Data

Assuming you’ve been in business for at least six months and have a decent amount of SaaS sales hiring data, the first thing I recommend is thoroughly analyzing your existing data to identify patterns, trends, and most importantly, weaknesses. Note that if you’re a brand-new startup and haven’t done any hiring, you’ll want to skip this step, but you should definitely use it later on once you’ve generated some initial data.

Here you’ll want to zero in on the most critical metrics, such as applications per opening, time to fill, time to hire, quality of hire, and cost per hire. Here’s a more extensive list for additional ideas.

Armed with this information, you should be able to get a baseline reading of how well you’re performing in each area and identify any glaring inefficiencies that are holding you back.

For instance, maybe your time to hire is much longer than it should be, but everything else looks good. In this case, it would be clear that lowering your time to hire should be your top priority. Improving in this area should put you on track to achieving greater efficiency and minimize candidate drop-off.

Use a SaaS Sales Recruiting Tool

Although recruiting tools have been around in some capacity since the 1970s with the advent of application tracking systems, their capabilities have grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. Case in point — a SaaS sales recruiting tool like HireDNA.

With this platform, you can simplify sales hiring in a wide variety of ways while also finding the best of the best candidates.

For example, HireDNA uses cutting-edge data-driven assessments to provide an objective overview of each candidate’s core competencies, such as motivation, responsibility, and the ability to handle rejection.

Using a simple scale system, you can conveniently compare candidates side-by-side and confidently narrow your candidate pool down to the cream of the crop. Rather than relying on your gut, which is prone to bias, this gives you crystal clear insights into what each candidate brings, so you find the optimal fit for a position.

Best of all, it can be a huge time-saver because you don’t have to manually sift through a mountain of candidates, which can dramatically lower your time-to-hire.

Leverage Candidate Scorecards

Once you’ve narrowed down the candidate pool to a few select candidates, you need a way to efficiently see how they stack up against one another and how good of a fit each one is to your unique SaaS sales environment. But how do you do this?

One of the best ways is to use candidate scorecards, which allow you to objectively compare each SaaS sales candidate at a glance in key areas.

For example, you could use a cultural fit scorecard where you rate how well someone aligns with your company values or their work style compatibility.

Or you can rate specific skills, such as their proficiency using software or problem-solving skills.

There are many possibilities. Implementing scorecards like this should help expedite shortlisting as you navigate through the latter stages of SaaS sales hiring while giving you a bird’s-eye view of how adept each person would likely be if hired.

Automate Interview Scheduling

While this isn’t as integral to the SaaS sales hiring process as the previous strategies, this can have a tangible impact. Not only can it simplify and streamline things, it can also contribute to creating a better candidate experience, as it gives them flexibility for choosing convenient interview slots without unnecessary back-and-forthing with recruiters.

One of my favorite tools for interview scheduling is Calendly because it makes the end-to-end process a breeze.

A candidate can easily choose a date and time that fits their schedule based on open slots.

Then the interview time is automatically synced with your sales recruiter’s schedule with zero disruptions. Besides that, Calendy offers automatic reminders to drastically reduce no-shows.

That way, you can focus on more pressing business activities and coordinate SaaS sales interviews with minimal friction to better simplify sales hiring.

Reduce the Number of Interview Rounds

In many cases, there will be multiple rounds of interviews for a SaaS sales position. This is especially true for mid-level, high-level, and specialized roles.

And that’s fine. Often, it takes more than one round to get a sense of who’s the best fit for a role.

That being said, you shouldn’t have any more interview rounds than you truly need. This only adds complexity, slows you down, and can be a turnoff for many elite candidates who don’t want to go to the trouble of showing up for interview after interview.

What you want to do is find the sweet spot where you can confidently choose the best person for a role without having needless interview rounds. That’s why I recommend experimenting with this until you find the lowest number without sacrificing candidate quality.

Simplify Sales Hiring: Streamline for Speed and Success

Accelerating SaaS sales hiring isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about leveraging strategies and tools to slash through inefficiencies and find legitimate superstars without wasting time and money.

To recap, this includes tapping into existing hiring data, using a SaaS sales recruiting platform, implementing candidate scorecards, automating interview scheduling, and trimming back interview rounds.

If you want to take the guesswork out of hiring and leave nothing to chance, try the Sales Skills Assessment to provide in-depth insights into each candidate.

Using Data-Driven Assessments to Hire High-Performing SaaS Salespeople

Posted on by Nick Mann

Here’s a sobering stat. 70% of SaaS salespeople failed to reach their quota in 2024. While there’s a laundry list of reasons why many SaaS salespeople fall short, it’s important to look to the very beginning — the initial hiring stage — when looking for a solution.

If a hiring leader fails to make the right decision and hire truly elite talent that not only has the skills and qualifications but also fits in culturally, problems will likely arise. Fortunately, many hiring mistakes can be avoided by using data-driven assessments to find the best of the best.

The Problem with Intuition

In the past, much of SaaS sales hiring relied heavily on intuition. The logic was that if a hiring manager knew the ins and outs of their product and industry and what it takes to succeed, they could use their expertise to find talented SaaS salespeople.

And in some cases, intuition works out. That said, it’s easy to get yourself in trouble with this approach.

That’s because relying on one person’s subjective judgment — something that’s often laced with bias — can lead to bad decisions and potentially high turnover.

For perspective, “When hiring is over-reliant on intuition and assumptions about candidates, we make successful hires only about 30% of the time. At that rate, you get better odds with a coin flip.”

As hiring technology has progressed, we’re now able to quantify things that previously were unquantifiable and objectively measure a SaaS sales candidate’s ability to make smarter decisions.

That’s where data-driven assessments come in.

The Power of Data-Driven Assessments

Rather than taking what a candidate says at face value and relying on intuition, data-driven assessments arm you with valuable information to help you make consistently great hiring decisions. Let me give you an example.

The Sales Skills Assessment by Objective Management Group allows you to thoroughly analyze a SaaS sales candidate on a granular level by objectively assessing multiple selling competencies, such as relationship building, consultative selling, presentation approach, closing, and much more.

This gives you a bird’s-eye view of exactly what each candidate brings to the table, which allows you to make a hiring decision with far greater certainty and accuracy. With it, you can compare candidates side-by-side to see who’s truly the most skilled based on the specific criteria you’re looking for when filling a role.

While it’s always been easy to compare candidates on factors like education, previous experience, and industry knowledge, core selling competencies have been trickier to pin down. But with data-driven assessments, you can know for sure just how capable each candidate is to dramatically improve your SaaS sales hiring.

If you’re looking for concrete numbers, 92% of candidates recommended by the Sales Skills Assessment went on to reach the top half of their sales force within their first year. And 72% became top performers.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Sales Skills Assessment is just one example, and there are several other options you can use to zero in on the particular aspect of SaaS sales hiring that you want.

For instance, there are personality assessments that provide insights into a candidate’s true personality so you can get a sense of how well they would match your company culture. There are situational assessments that let you see how they would react in real-life SaaS sales scenarios.

There are behavioral analysis assessments that give you a feel for interpersonal skills. And there are psychometric assessments that provide insights into cognitive abilities and working style.

Whatever part of a SaaS salesperson you want to analyze, odds are there’s a data-driven assessment for it.

The Full Scope of Benefits When Using Data-Driven Assessments

At this point, it’s clear that using data-driven assessments can help you make better hiring decisions. But let’s go a bit deeper and discuss some specific reasons why.

First, it significantly increases your odds of choosing the right person for each role. By analyzing hard skills, soft skills, and everything in between, while factoring in the specific role you’re trying to fill and company culture, you can use the data to greatly improve hiring accuracy. That way, you’re far less likely to make the wrong hire, which brings us to our next key benefit — less turnover.

One study from Deloitte “found that companies leveraging data-driven approaches to hiring saw a 36% increase in employee retention.” And it’s easy to see why. Whenever you find the perfect person for a SaaS sales role — someone who was made for the position — it’s only natural that they’ll A) succeed and B) stick around for the long haul.

This means you don’t have to worry about excessive turnover, where you constantly have to rehire. By getting it right the first time, there should be greater stability and you can build a cohesive SaaS sales team, with some hires moving up the ladder into leadership positions.

It also streamlines your hiring process. Rather than having to meticulously sift through candidate after candidate the old-fashioned way, data-driven assessments help accelerate recruiting so you can create a shortlist of top candidates without eating up a ton of time.

And let’s not forget about sales performance. Whenever you hire the cream of the crop, where SaaS salespeople possess the essential core competencies it takes to thrive, you can expect increased performance.

Needless to say, that’s extremely helpful, as this often leads to a host of other benefits, including higher conversion rates, increased profitability, greater customer satisfaction, and a stronger bottom line.

Final Thoughts

We’re at an exciting point in history where hiring leaders now have access to cutting-edge technology that simply didn’t exist a decade ago. Case in point — data-driven assessments, which can be used to quantify and objectively understand even the most intangible of candidate traits.

By leveraging this technology, you can capitalize on a plethora of amazing benefits, including smarter hiring decisions, shorter hiring time, reduced turnover, better sales performance, and ultimately bigger profits.

Learn more about the Sales Skills Assessment feature above and how it can help you find A+ SaaS salespeople.

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

Posted on by Nick Mann

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

A High Tech IQ

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

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

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

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

AI Fluency

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

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

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

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

Consultative Storytelling Abilities

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

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

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

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

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

Natural Resilience

Being a salesperson is tough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adaptability

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

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

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

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

And they possess the agility to:

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

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

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

The Anatomy of a Winning Sales Rep

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

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

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

Posted on by Nick Mann

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

What happened? What went wrong?

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

One Statistic You Absolutely Need to Know

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two Other Compelling Stats

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

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

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

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

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

Make Faster Decisions

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

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

Maintain Consistent Candidate Communication

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

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

Strike Fast With a Job Offer

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

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

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

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

Winning Top Talent By Proactive Recruiting

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

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

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

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

Posted on by Nick Mann

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

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

A Current Snapshot of Trust Levels Among Candidates

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

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

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

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

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

Create a Clear Hiring Timeline

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

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

Be Detailed About Salary and Benefits

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be Upfront About Job Challenges

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

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

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

Offer Responsive Feedback (Even if it’s Negative)

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

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

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

Quelling Candidate Uncertainty with Your SaaS Sales Hiring Process

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

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

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

The Impact of Compensation Structure on SaaS Sales Recruitment

Posted on by Nick Mann

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

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

Attract Top SaaS Sales Talent

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

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

Motivate SaaS Salespeople

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

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

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

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

Drive Revenue Growth

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

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

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

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

Retain Sales Reps

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

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

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

How Much Should You Pay Your SaaS Salespeople?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Importance of a Strong Compensation Structure

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

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

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

Posted on by Nick Mann

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

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

Why It’s Important to Have a Clear Hiring Timeline

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Outline the Sequences of Your Hiring Stages

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

This one is quite simple and involves five basic steps.

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

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

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

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

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

Provide an Overview of the Hiring Timeline to Sales Candidates

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

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

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

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

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

Track Progress and Make Adjustments

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

Here are some specific quantitative KPIs to look at:

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

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

Optimizing Sales Recruiting with a Clear Hiring Timeline

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

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

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

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

Beyond the Job Posting: Innovative Ways to Attract Sales Superstars

Posted on by Nick Mann

For many sales recruiters, the first thing that comes to mind when hiring is slapping up a job posting on a career site. While that can certainly still work, we live in an age where sales recruiters have access to a wide array of innovative new options to attract sales superstars.

Not only is it helpful to leverage innovative recruitment strategies, you could argue that it’s now become necessary for standing out from the competition and accessing a wider talent pool. Further, it can drastically reduce your chances of making the wrong hires, as well as reduce turnover because of the caliber of talent you can attract.

With that said, here are some specific strategies I recommend.

Create an AI-powered Sales Recruiting Chatbot

These days, we’re accustomed to encountering chatbots on websites and apps across nearly all industries. They provide a simple yet effective way to answer visitor questions and direct them to the right resource or rep. We even use one on HireDNA.

As AI technology evolves, so do the applications of AI-powered chatbots. And we’re now at a point where they can be used to not only automate sales recruiting but also improve the candidate experience.

Take, for instance, a platform called HireVue, which provides a “text-powered recruiting assistant that enables you to hire up to 4x faster by engaging your candidates all the way from ‘Hi’ to ‘Hired.'”

It can be used on your website, email, social media, SMS, and other messaging apps — wherever you interact with sales candidates. Whenever someone is interested in applying, the chatbot will engage with them throughout the process, answering questions, pointing them to relevant resources, and ultimately setting them up for an interview.

This creates a frictionless candidate experience and should supply you with a steady stream of qualified leads while saving your sales recruiting team a ton of time in the process. In terms of impact, HireVue states that companies that use it see:

  • 5x faster time-to-interview
  • 32% higher candidate satisfaction
  • A 20% decrease in cost-per-hire

You can learn more here.

Show Sales Candidates What it’s Like to Work for You Firsthand

Every sales hiring team is going to hype up their company and say it’s a great place to work. But that’s only going to take you so far. To really attract sales superstars and motivate them to apply, it’s helpful to show them firsthand why they’d love working for you.

And there’s no better way to do that than to let them hear from members of your current sales team. One company in particular that stands out in this area is Proctor & Gamble, which offers a robust sales page on its website that lets potential candidates view all sales opportunities,…

…get an overview of sales responsibilities,…

…and walks candidates through a day in sales and a year in sales, complete with video testimonials from actual salespeople.

The videos are brief at around 1 1/2 minutes, but they’re excellent at connecting the dots for interested candidates and driving home the key benefits of working as a salesperson for Proctor & Gamble.

The other thing I love about this technique is that Proctor & Gamble’s sales recruiting page acts as a valuable SEO resource. Because it’s loaded with targeted keywords, I would imagine that they receive a significant volume of organic traffic from qualified candidates without having to post traditional job ads. Therefore, I suggest checking it out and using it for inspiration in your own sales recruiting campaign.

Partner with Colleges and Universities

Let me start by saying this strategy won’t be viable if you’re looking for seasoned salespeople with years of experience. However, if you’re interested in acquiring fresh, young talent and sculpting them into professional salespeople, this strategy may definitely be for you.

The idea is to offer internships, sponsorships, or mentorship programs to college students or recent college graduates who show a lot of promise — preferably individuals who are majoring or who have majored in relevant degrees like business or finance.

After identifying a list of schools you’re interested in, “You need to create a compelling value proposition that showcases why your organization is a great place to work for their graduates,” explains HR and recruiting expert Uros Dmitrovic. “You need to highlight your mission, vision, culture, benefits, and opportunities in a way that resonates with your audience and differentiates you from your competitors. You can also use testimonials, stories, and videos from your current employees who graduated from those schools to add credibility and authenticity.

From there, it’s just a matter of building relationships with a few key stakeholders, crystallizing a formal partnership program, and building a talent pipeline. Going this route, admittedly, takes a substantial amount of time to set up. But once you have it in place, you should have access to some of the best and brightest sales talent in your area.

Thinking Outside the Box to Attract Sales Superstars

Don’t get me wrong. Posting job ads on career sites is still a viable way to find sales talent. But in today’s increasingly competitive business world, it feels that it’s having less and less of an impact.

Getting creative and thinking outside the box using strategies like the ones mentioned above can provide your sales recruiting team with exciting alternatives that can help you tap into A+ talent in a way that your competitors are not.

On a final note, one of the best ways to gauge a candidate’s ability, skillset, and overall “sales DNA” is with a sales assessment. The Original Sales Assessment is one of the most accurate and predictive in the industry, with 92% of candidates reaching the top of their sales force.

You can learn more about The Original Sales Assessment here.

Screening Sales Resumes: Key Indicators of High-Performing Candidates

Posted on by hiredna

Countless factors determine a salesperson’s likelihood to succeed. For perspective, the screening process we use at HireDNA analyzes 21 selling competencies, including the will to sell, hunting, and relationship-building just to name a few. So it’s no surprise that HR/talent leaders can feel slightly overwhelmed when screening sales resumes.

For this post, my goal is to provide you with a streamlined, ultra-concise methodology for efficiently screening sales resumes to find high-performing candidates. Let’s jump right in.

Quantifiable Achievements

While achievements don’t always tell the whole story, they usually serve as a good starting point for assessing a salesperson’s general abilities. They also allow you to objectively measure someone’s past performance so you can determine how likely they would be to thrive in your sales environment.

Therefore, achievements — specifically quantifiable achievements that are measured in numbers or percentages — are one of the first things I suggest looking for in salesperson resumes. Some examples can include sales revenue generated, percentage of quotas met or exceeded, and number of leads converted.

Sustained Sales Growth

Everyone has to start somewhere in the sales industry. And even the best of the best may struggle initially as they’re cutting their teeth. That’s why you can’t necessarily judge someone’s capabilities by their first couple of years in sales.

However, looking at larger patterns like sustained sales growth over time (assuming they have at least three or so years of experience under the belt) should lend accurate insight into their performance. After all, if someone has proven they’ve consistently improved over time, this typically indicates an ability to learn from mistakes, implement feedback, and persevere through challenges.

Again, it’s helpful to have quantifiable data because concrete numbers paint a clear picture.

Motivation

You could argue that half of the battle of successful selling is simply staying motivated. By nature, the sales industry comes with a lot of ups and downs. When the chips are down, reps may find it difficult to find the will to keep pressing forward. And when things are going well, reps may be inclined to become complacent.

An essential part of building an elite sales team is finding a group of reps that continually stay motivated regardless of the situation. So how do you identify motivated candidates by screening sales resumes?

One way is to look for individuals who have shown an eagerness to take on new projects and learn new skills. Say, for instance, someone voluntarily participated in multiple sales training courses to enhance their skill set. That would likely indicate a high level of motivation.

Resilience

To say that sales can be challenging would be an understatement. It’s incredibly competitive, and dealing with rejection on a constant basis is part of the job description. Therefore, it takes a certain personality type where someone can handle frequent rejection and get right back on the horse.

It takes resilience.

Like motivation, resilience isn’t something that’s easy to quantify. But there are ways to find candidates that demonstrate resilience if you know what to look for.

What I suggest is looking for candidates who highlight their ability to overcome rejection, handle objections, and adapt to changes. Ideally, this is something they’ll specifically address on their resume.

Sales Tool Knowledge

Whether you’re looking to hire someone for an onsite position, remote, or hybrid, it doesn’t make a difference. To thrive in today’s tech-centric world, almost everyone needs to have an intimate knowledge of sales tools like CRM software, lead outreach apps, and lead scoring software.

While you shouldn’t necessarily disqualify someone just because they don’t have direct experience using the exact tools your team uses, it’s extremely important that they know the ins and outs of general sales tools. That’s why this is something else to look out for when screening sales resumes.

Take this sample resume, for instance. Here the candidate specifically references using Zoom to maintain a 91% closing rate. On top of that, they mention that they used Hootsuite to develop and schedule social media content, which shows they have experience using software for other purposes outside of direct sales, for an added plus.

Strong Communication Skills

This is a no-brainer, but I wanted to include communication skills because 1) they’re such an integral part of sales success and 2) you can assess communication skills directly by reading a candidate’s resume.

While you can’t necessarily measure the full spectrum of a person’s ability to communicate from a resume, you can get a solid idea of how well they articulate their ideas by simply reading their writing. For instance, if they provide a concise overview of their skills, qualifications, education, and so on, that should be a good indicator that they can communicate clearly with leads and customers.

On the other hand, if they’re writing is inarticulate and lacks brevity, their communication skills may be lacking. This isn’t to say that you should expect every salesperson to be a wordsmith, but they should be able to clearly present the information on their resume to you.

Finding Elite Reps By Effectively Screening Sales Resumes

As I said before, a resume won’t always tell the whole story of a candidate’s full abilities. But it can tell you a lot.

While I recommend leveraging other tools like a data-driven sales recruiting platform to find the best of the best, effectively screening sales resumes should still provide you with a shortlist of high performers. You just need to know the key indicators to look for and how to measure them.

For help building an all-star sales team, register with HireDNA today. We offer cutting-edge technology that can help you find top candidates and eliminate 96% of wrong hires.