In spite of the fact that there are over 22 million sales professionals in North America, it can be incredibly hard to find good people looking for a sales career path to hire for your company. Even if you have been in a management position for a long time, you might not be properly qualified for hiring a sales rep that will be a great fit for your company. Just because someone is looking into careers in sales, does not mean that they are actually prepared for a job in sales. If you are a sales recruiting manager sifting through applications of people looking into a sales career path, then here are the top five things that you should be looking for.
1. Did you know that people the turnover for people looking for a sales career path on a sales team is over 40 percent per year? In fact, the cost of a sales hiring mistake can be up to six to ten times a sales person’s base salary. One of the most important aspects of hiring a sales rep, is to make sure that you are hiring is someone who will stick around and preform for the long haul. The cost of a sales hiring mistake can be as much as six to 10 times the base salary of the sales person. It is best to hire the best people for the job so that you do not have to spend the money finding, hiring, and training a new person.
2. Almost a third of all sales people have been with their company for less than 12 months. Since so many people spend so little time at their sales jobs, it can be hard to find the people who can do the research needed for the position. In order to be good sales representatives, your recruits have to have good research skills. They need to be able to find out about their prospects, know the needs of the business, and understand exactly what it will take to get the job done.
3. In sales, experience is not always the most important thing to look at in a candidate. This is most important if you have existing sales reps who can assist in the training and mentoring of new recruits. There are certain intangible qualities that you want to look for and give preference to.
4. There are certain intangible qualities that help make a salesperson successful. These include, but are no means limited to charisma, adaptability, confidence, and enthusiasm. Some of these qualities can be difficult to find if you do not have a lot of experience hiring a sales rep. In cases like this, you might want to hire sales and marketing headhunters instead. They will be able to help you find the best people for the job, and they also often offer additional training for the great candidates that they find.
5. Lastly, one of the biggest indicators of whether a candidate will make a good salesperson is their overall attitude and countenance. A warm genuine smile and firm handshake can go a long way during a sales call. This is particularly important since 80 percent of non routine sales occur only after at least five follow ups. Finding people who are patient and friendly at the same time is key to the success of your company.