One of the biggest shifts in selling approaches occurred in the mid-1980s when Mike Bosworth, formerly of Xerox Computer Services, popularized “Solution Sales.” Bosworth championed the idea of selling “expert to non-expert”, in which salespeople proactively uncover a customer’s business requirements and position offerings as a ‘solution’ to these business needs rather than simply waiting for purchase requests. In the early days of selling computer systems, this value-based approach empowered salespeople to develop a package of products and services that would benefit the prospect in a unique way. It also made it difficult for competitors to replicate offerings because conversations were occurring at the business level rather than the product level.

The successes achieved by early adopters of the solution sales approach led to widespread adoption by sales leaders. In fact, a full three-quarters of sales leaders report or aim to be some kind of full solutions provider (Dixon and Adamson, 2011). While the value associated with the strategy has been realized by thousands of sales departments, solutions are becoming increasingly complex as sellers compete to provide the most ‘comprehensive’ solutions.

But the movement hasn’t been entirely positive. To a large extent, the approaches mass adoption by B2B sales leaders actually reduces the competitive advantage gained from employing solution sales. Moreover, increasingly complex solutions have led to a prolonged selling process, requiring more involvement from the customer at each closing stage, ultimately leading to what Dixon and Adamson call customer “solutions fatigue”.

Buyers have responded to “solutions fatigue” by becoming more sophisticated about their own technological requirements. This change, according to Nicholas Toman, is threatening Bosworth’s model, turning the solution sale back into an ‘order-fulfilment’ discussion. So what is one of the most effective ways for sales leaders to maintain a value or solutions approach? Hire the right kind of solution salespeople.

Is your organization truly offering solutions?

Before sales leaders can begin their search for the sales person or people that fit their unique selling environment, they must firmly establish that their offering is indeed a solution. Writing in BRW, Peter Finkelstein argues that in order for sales leaders to determine if they are actually offering a solution or if a move to a solutions approach would drive revenues, they need to examine their corporate philosophy and culture.

According to Finkelstein, leadership should evaluate if their current buyer segments offer long-term sustainable growth opportunities and identify what solutions buyers in those segments want. He goes on to argue that sales leaders must then explore what it now produces and identify how these need to be changed, extended or adjusted (if at all) to accommodate the expectations of the buyers in the sales segments. In addition, Finkelstein advises leaders to examine whether they are ready to embrace the idea of extended partnerships and/or re-evaluate their current partnership programs to ensure that they meet the demands of the solutions buyer. These, however, are not the only considerations sales leaders must take into account to ensure their corporate philosophy aligns with the desired actions of their sales force. Sales leader must also ensure that their teams are incentivized accordingly.

Writing for Gartner, Tiffani Bova underscores an often overlooked issue sales manager’s face when trying to move over to a solutions approach and build their sales team accordingly. According to Bova, many sales forces are not actually performing solutions sales, but instead have simply bundled products and identified them as solutions. This can be problematic since reps become ‘over’ compensated for selling products when in fact the customer or their channel partner “actually creates the ultimate value of using a particular technology in combination with other products and services.” And when business value isn’t delivered to the customer – which is the heart and soul of solution selling – selling effectiveness decreases and a brand’s reputation can be damaged.

What makes a great solution salesperson?

Companies that actually offer solutions can begin structuring, or restructuring, an effective sales force. World-class companies understand that the sales cycle is different in complex solutions sales and that hiring salespeople with demonstrated, year-over-year success selling complex solutions have more predictable and consistent selling success in this context. As Finkelstein notes, “[solutions] salespeople have to have a far broader and deeper understanding of what buyers want and expect and what implications there are for making a decision.” Finkelstein suggests that companies recruit sales people who have superior analytical skills, broad knowledge of their industry, and the ability to think independently since informed buyers expect an informed seller that can add value and accommodate a more complex buying environment.

The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) has conducted a number of studies on solutions sales professionals, and delivered three key findings about the highest performing solution sales people:

1. They know how to evaluate prospects using a different set of criteria than those used by other reps, “targeting agile organizations in a state of flux”, rather than those that have a clear understanding of their requirements.
2. They target stakeholders who are “skeptical change agents” in the organizations they want to sell into.
3. They employ a method of coaching potential customers rather than asking about their purchasing process.

The CEB research, when boiled down, reveals that high achieving solutions salespeople seek to be more informed and more empowered than average salespeople. Rather than simply responding to identified needs and buying requests, high achievers engage prospects before they understand their requirements entirely and before they are able to articulate how a ‘solution’ will meet their requirements. High achievers also apply filters to see which companies might be most open to change and avoid working with companies that are “hamstrung by structures and relationships that stifle change” as a method of decreasing failure rates.

Identifying top performers

To mitigate hiring risk, leading sales departments work with HR and/or recruiting firms to develop a structured interview process that assesses and analyses salespeople for the traits that are required for success in solution sales.

Here are a few tips:

• Screening questions should be designed to uncover how candidates evaluate prospects and how they approach a complex solution sale.
  • Have candidates describe how they incorporate collaboration into their selling process.
  • Ask the candidate if they reach out to partner organizations in order to enhance a deal.
  • Have candidates describe how they work with prospects throughout the phases of a complex sale.
  • Require candidates to discuss recent wins and losses. Check that the candidate has consistently met or exceeded their quotes in each of the past 5+ years.

Read more on effective sales interviewing questions and techniques, here.

Top solution sellers will not only be able to answer these questions in detail, but will articulate how their analytical and evaluative skills have contributed to their consistent selling success.

Ensuring your offering is truly a solution, in addition to incorporating a structured assessment program that assesses a candidate’s skills, experiences, and selling traits will mitigate hiring risk and produce the right solution sales candidates that will drive sales, fast.

Looking for additional information on solution sales? Check out Dave Stein’s excellent article, Is Solution Selling Dead or Just Misunderstood.

Sources:

• Harvard Business Review, The End of Solution Sales, by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon and Nicholas Toman
• BRW, Product Selling vs. ‘solutions’ selling: they’re different, and require a new mind-set for your salespeople, Peter Finklestein
• Penguin Group, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Photo Credit: professor.jruiz via Compfight cc

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Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.

Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.

He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.

Connect:

Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

• 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
• How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
• Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021

When we launched Peak Sales Recruiting many years ago, we looked at the market and recognized the under served need for companies to recruit high achieving sales people. While it was overly common at the time for recruiting companies to specialize their services outside of a geographical region, we saw an even more acute need for B2B companies to recruit and hire top performing sales people.

Over the years, Peak Sales has been engaged in thousands of successful B2B sales recruiting searches. Those outside the sales profession might wonder why the business to business (B2B) matters. Aren’t all sales the same? Aren’t B2B sales the same as B2C? Hardly.

There is a stark contrast between B2C and B2B sales and consequently, the sales recruiting techniques are very different.

First, lets take a look at the differences between the two types of sales and how this impacts the selling activity.

Now, lets contrast the differences we typically see in the most successful B2C and B2B sales people:

Summarizing to this point – in many cases, B2B sales requires a more sophisticated person with a higher level of training who can have a larger impact on company profits and success, and consequently who commands a higher level of compensation.  This distinction has an enormous impact on how companies approach sales recruiting.

Need for a Strong Sales Hiring Track Record – since each sales person involves a high investment in recruiting and training, combined with the fact that they are responsible for generating significant sales as well as managing important customer relationships, the cost of a failed hire is relatively large.  Failed sales hires can have a devastating effect on sales numbers, sales force costs, company reputation and customer relationships and in turn, employers need to ensure that their sales recruiting and hiring processes select the right candidates.

Advanced Candidate Assessment Techniques – The complex set of tangible skills and intangible traits required to make B2B sales people successful are not always obvious or easy to measure and assess. An objective assessment process combined with advanced assessment techniques and background checks are necessary to properly determine whether a salesperson has the necessary traits in sufficient levels to be successful in each unique selling environment.

Extensive Searches – The unique demands of different selling environments mean that there is often a smaller pool of potential candidates from which to hire for each open sales position. Furthermore, the best sales people are employed, not actively seeking new employment positions, and not easily accessible. Employers must have a strong recruiting engine and be creative in order to get exposure to the consistently high achieving sales professionals that also possess the right domain knowledge skills and experience.

Careers Matter – becoming a consistent and high achieving B2B sales person requires time, patience and commitment. Those sales people that have put in the time to achieve success are less likely to change employers unless the career opportunity is legitimate and compelling. In order to attract the best B2B sales talent, employers need to ensure that they are not only an employer of choice, but also offer at or above market compensation and robust careers.

To your B2B sales hiring success!

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Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.

Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.

He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.

Connect:

Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

• 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
• How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
• Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021

It’s interesting to note that a paper in the American Psychological Association titled “Introverts and Extroverts” published in 1924 ends with a question about whether introverts and extroverts belong to personality types at all.

The paper provides definitions of both terms – an introvert being “an individual in whom exists an exaggeration of the thought processes in relation to directly observable social behavior, with an accompanying tendency to withdraw from social contacts.” An extrovert, conversely, is “an individual in whom exists a diminution of the thought process in relation to direct observable social behavior, with an accompanying tendency to make social contacts.”

Introversion and extroversion have become archetypes in society, but do these generalizations bring any true insight with them, or are they simply a way to classify people quickly without too much thought?

Introversion and the sales persona

It has long been conventional wisdom that extroverts make better salespeople than introverts, however, recent research undermines this assumption and gives hiring managers more to think about than simple generalizations. While extroverts certainly do better socially in situations that are important in many selling processes, it is sometimes the introvert who can gain more trust, demonstrate more competence, and ultimately win the sale. It might be that a healthy mix of introversion and extroversion is the best combination to look for when you’re hiring a new salesperson, in addition to the right sales experience, skills, and DNA.

The challenge is finding those candidates who fit your organization’s unique selling environment. Perhaps it is a candidate who is in the middle of two extremes. Someone who stands out in the interview process by demonstrating confidence, the feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities, yet exhibits that they can think realistically about their own limitations as a sales person, how they are working to transcend these limitations, the challenges presented in your sales cycle, and how their skills and experiences would enable them to overcome these and close deals.

The confidence game

A recent article in Business Life examines the difference between confidence and competence in employees and whether or not they are promoted. The article delivers some interesting findings from the scientific community that  “back up complaints that can be heard echoing in the canteens across the country – that it’s not always the best who get promoted, but the best self-promoters.”

The article pulls from U.K. research on students that shows those who are more comfortable about speaking frequently in a confident tone of voice were perceived as being more convincing in their abilities than those who were actually competent in tests.

In the U.S., similar studies deliver similar results. A Washington Post article, Why Extroverts Fail, Introverts Flounder and You Probably Succeed, cites a meta-analysis of 35 studies of nearly 4,000 sales people that found the correlation between extroversion and sales performance was barely above zero (if you’re really interested in data and analysis of personality traits and job performance, this is a comprehensive study to read.)

the correlation between extroversion and sales performance was barely above zero”

The Washington Post article also cites a study conducted by a Wharton School of Management researcher who studied sales representatives at a software company. The researcher identified introverts and extroverts with standard personality tests and then tracked their financial performance in sales. The group that stood out with the most sales were “ambiverts”, or people who are somewhere in the middle of the scale between extroverted and introverted. In this particular study, ambiverts beat extroverts in sales by 24 percent.

Finding and hiring ambiverts

It can be tempting – and almost seem natural – when hiring salespeople, to gravitate toward the more confident extroverts. Sales departments want and need professionals that project a sense of confidence and possess all the social skills they’ll need to be successful. But if you think about past hires at your company, it’s likely that at least one or two salespeople who seemed great on paper, and even better in person, just didn’t have the right skills after six months on the job.

There’s a lot more to hiring salespeople than personality tests. It’s a process that requires a structured and discipline approach. One of our recent posts, How to Interview and Spot the Traits of Top Sales People, gives an overview of the traits to look for in a job candidate during the interview process, along with tips on what questions to ask during the various interview phases. These tips will help you unearth the traits you’re looking for beyond personality, including a candidate’s level of ambition, confidence, and optimism, as well as their sense of urgency, how they interact with others, how they solve problems and how organized they are; the traits that are indicative of selling competence and success.

Updating the hiring process

The Business Life article makes the point that an interview situation is where an extrovert is likely to shine, while an introvert has a great chance of doing their worst. To battle the stereotypes, the author recommends what we recommend to our clients; that having a highly structured interview process that involves as many stakeholders in the sales and human resources department as possible will mitigate hiring risk by removing personal bias from the interview process. Combine this approach with third-party psychometric testing and your hiring committee will better understand a candidate’s traits – the most important factor in determining sales success.

Similarly, the Washington Post artict-le encourages readers to forget the stereotypes and look for “those who take a more calibrated approach – who can talk smoothly but also listen keenly…who combine the extrovert’s assertiveness with the introvert’s quiet confidence.”

It’s not easy to gain this much insight into a candidate – it takes a lot of experience interviewing to know what the right questions to ask are, how to ask those questions, and how to look and listen for cues from the interviewee. Sales people are usually outstanding in the interview process because they are excellent at selling themselves. We also underscore the fact that the cost of a bad sales hire can range from 75 to 150 percent of the rep’s annual quota, so the return on investment for implementing a structured and rigorous screening process to ensure a candidate’s confidence matches their competence is significant.

[bctt tweet=”The cost of a bad sales hire can range from 75 to 150 percent of the rep’s annual quota”]

Introverts, extroverts, and ambivalent all have something to bring to the table. The tough job is to find out how much they know, how well they learn, and how much they’ll care about selling for your company. Leading organizations pull their resources together and work with their team to define the kind of salesperson the team needs, and what kind of personality will be most successful. Consider working with HR to implement the best testing available, and back up the testing with insightful, open-ended questions and remember that a sales person’s skills, experience, and DNA are independent of whether they are an introvert or extrovert.

Sources:

• The difference between confidence and competence, British Airways Business Life, Anna Blackaby
• Why extroverts fail, introverts flounder and you probably succeed, Washington Post, Daniel H. Pink
• Introverts and Extroverts, Freyd, M., APA PsychNet
• Personality and Performance at the Beginning of the New Millennium: What do we know and where do we go next?, Murry R Barrick, CiteSeer

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Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.

Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.

He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.

Connect:

Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

• 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
• How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
• Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021

It is no surprise that recruiting top performing sales professionals in New York City is no easy task. Top sales people in the Big Apple do what New Yorkers do best – make money, and lots of it. To be the best of the best, requires competing and winning in arguably the most cut throat and fast-paced selling environment on the plant, where “no” or “maybe next quarter” is never an acceptable answer.

In the land of “time is money”,  ‘A’ level sales people don’t spend much time considering career options or looking for work, but instead are busy pounding the phones, building relationships with key buyers from Chambers St. down to State St., and closing deals with Fortune 100 companies. This reality has given rise to one of the most common questions VP of Sales and HR Mangers are faced with when attempting to recruit in Midtown Manhattan: “how and where can my organization find ‘A’ level sales talent in New York?”

The solution should come as no surprise…

Finding top sales professionals in New York takes a significant amount of time, effort, and resources. Hiring teams must first have a concrete understanding of the skills, experience, and DNA that is required to excel in the organization’s unique selling environment, and utilize those requirements to guide the recruiting plan, including the individuals that will be targeted and how the opportunity will be presented. Not to be forgotten in this process is the impact the compensation package attached to the role has. It should influence and dictate the level of professional a hiring team targets as well as the companies they are sourced from.

What further complicates the recruiting process in New York is that there are over 100,000 sales people in Manhattan alone, with +75% of them not hitting quota year after year. This abundance of sales people creates an artificially large talent pool that is heavily diluted with ‘B’ and ‘C’ level sellers, making assessment even more arduous.

Given the reality that top sellers represent an extremely small percentage of the total sales population, particularly in New York, there is a very small likelihood that traditional recruitment efforts will yield the ideal candidate an organization wants and needs. Committing to a rigorous and structured sales hiring process will mitigate hiring risk and keep a hiring team focused on searching in the right places and for the right people.

Networking Helps Exposure to Sales Talent

It goes without saying that networking and referrals are one of the most effective ways to get exposed to high achieving sales people. Why? Because top performers are looking for something, customers.

Therefore, in order to compliment other sales recruiting efforts, here are 8 sales networking events in NYC where there is a good chance of meeting some great sales people:

1. NYC Enterprise Sales Meet-up: The NYC Enterprise Sales Meet-up is a group for sales people in the NYC metro area selling to large companies and involved in complex sales cycles. The ultimate purpose of this community is to create an environment where like minded professionals can not only network with peers, but learn from other industry leaders about successful selling methodologies. This group, in particular, is great for Sales Managers in the software space looking for talent that can sell complex solutions.
2. NYC Business Networking Group: The NYCBNG has been hosting business networking events for sales and business professionals alike for 7+ years. With more than 300 events since its inception, NYCBNG has earned a reputation as one of the premier, all around business networking groups in NYC. In fact, NYCBNG won the coveted Top 100 Small Business Influencers Award in Leadership in 2011. Membership is free, which makes it one of the busiest, and well attended business networking groups in all of the United States. While not sales specific, top sellers can be spotted attending NYCBNG events.
3. Swap The Biz NYC Business Networking Group: Swap invites business professionals from all boroughs to connect, share experiences, and learn selling techniques from industry leaders. With sales professionals from Fortune 500 companies, right down to late stage start-ups and everything in-between, this group is perfect for hiring managers to connect with sales professionals from a variety of selling environments.
4. NYC Start-up Enterprise Sales: The NYC Start-up Enterprise Sales group is targeted to professionals who are currently employed at small tech start-ups selling into large organizations, agencies, or involved in complex sales cycles of any kind. Sales/Business Development pros, founders who sell, “growth-hackers”, and anyone responsible for bringing in revenue or users to a small stage company attend these meet-ups, which makes it an extremely attractive group if adding talent that has thrived within an entrepreneurial environment has been identified as a hiring requirement.
5. Networking for Professionals’ High Speed Networking: This networking event is all business and about meeting as many professionals as possible. What’s great about this particular event is that attendees have access to attendee lists; including position and title prior to attending, enabling participants to conduct research and identify high quality targets.
6. New York Business Expo and Conference: Conferences such as the NYBEC present a unique opportunity to network with fellow sales professionals while learning new sales strategies along the way. One of the underrated aspects of networking at conferences in particular is that it exposes candidates from across the country. This is particularly important when recruiting for remote roles, or if there are plans for expanding into a new territory outside of the New York City or Tri-state area.
7. Manhattan Chamber of Commerce: The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce (MCC) is a vibrant business membership organization comprised of a cross section of 10,000 business members and subscribers ranging from sole proprietors to large corporations and multi-national firms. While this is a paid membership organization, it offers a great way to connect with entrepreneurs, sales leaders and executives from throughout Manhattan.
8. Whine & Dine Networking: The Whine & Dine Human Resources Networking Group was founded in 2003 with a simple concept – to advance professional and social networking for Human Resources professionals without the burden of excessive rules or requirements and to support the HR community everywhere. With more than 10,000 members across the east coast, it has become one of the hottest networking groups for HR leaders to meet new talent.

By attending these events, hiring managers have a unique opportunity to meet with ‘passive’ candidates in an informal setting, where candidates can be evaluated against hiring criteria without even having to mention the opportunity at hand. Moreover, developing relationships with established professionals enables hiring managers to more quickly and easily respond to future hiring requirements and gain access to their own networks of contacts. Our team, are, of course, proponents of the ‘ABR’ or ‘Always Be Recruiting’ philosophy, since having a strong talent pipeline, especially in New York, is critical to the long term success of any business.

To your sales hiring success!

P.S. Are you frustrated by high sales turnover, poor rep performance and missed sales targets? This FREE eBook detailing the 10 most costly sales hiring mistakes is the answer.

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Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.

Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.

He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.

Connect:

Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

• 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
• How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
• Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021

Recruiting high achieving sales professionals onto your sales team is no simple task for a few simple reasons:

• They are rare,
• They are employed, not looking for a new job, and are constantly receiving offers from competing employers.

Overcoming these challenges takes significant effort and commitment, but the investment is justified by the superior results that top sales talent delivers.

Leading employers understand the value of attracting great salespeople and leverage many tactics to tilt the odds in their favor.

Here are the Top 10 Factors for a Successful Sales Recruitment Project:

1. Ensure Decision Maker Alignment:

Before approaching and engaging candidates, it is critical that your hiring team is aligned on the hiring criteria that all candidate’s must possess in order to be considered for the role.

It is imperative that the decision makers involved in the hiring process be united around:

• The key performance metrics and success criteria associated with the role and;
• What the long term expectations for the new salesperson will be.

Having a concrete understanding of these requirements from the start enables the hiring team to be more efficient and results in engaging the right salespeople, faster.

2. Create an Ideal Candidate Profile:

Once you and the rest of your hiring team are 100% aligned on the role’s KPIs, working to construct the ‘ideal candidate profile’ becomes one of the most important factors that will determine the success of your recruiting project. This profile, which paints a picture of the perfect candidate and breaks down the required competencies into 3 sections (skills, experience, and DNA), should direct not only where you look for candidates but also influence how you evaluate them.

3. Properly Articulate the Opportunity:

In order to attract the best, you must be able to present the opportunity as just that — an opportunity for the candidate to advance their career and achieve their financial objective. Many job descriptions include both a list of duties and qualifications, however Peak endorses job descriptions that are focused on key metrics, goals, and quantifiable objectives (for an example, check out our Job Description of an Account Executive).

We strongly advise, however, that you don’t let your opportunity profile (we don’t support the use of the word ‘job description’) speak entirely for the role. Instead, have direct managers and senior company leadership speak to candidate about what makes this an exciting role that a candidate cannot pass on.

Identify the opportunity for professional and personal growth that can take place, and if your company isn’t a name brand, articulate how it is disrupting the marketplace and working to become one of the world’s top companies. As Aaron Ross correctly states, “ignoring softer but more powerful forms of rewards such as respect, appreciation, and fun,” represents one of the fatal mistakes CEOs, Sales VPs, and HR executives make when hiring new talent.

For more information on what attract companies need to do to attract top sales talent. Read this article.

4. Be open to different backgrounds:

We often find that job descriptions are created that require candidates to have certain qualifications. Experience tells us that the typical hiring requirements of most firms have little to do with sales success. In fact, some of these “need to have” conditions adversely limit the pool of candidates and reduce the chances of making a great sales hire.

Put your focus on the exact profile that determines success within your selling environment and set aside unnecessary metrics or qualifications that might allow under-qualified candidates to enter your hiring process. And remember that the right sales DNA — character and behavioral traits — often outsell the right career credentials, so be open to salespeople who can achieve or exceed your targets vs. the ones with the right resume.

You can read more about what great sales DNA is here.

5. Have a Strong Sense of Urgency:

Since top salespeople get a lot of attention from potential employers, they will quickly lose interest in an employer that doesn’t fight for their attention. You risk compromising your chances of hooking the best sales people if you act like they are lucky to be in contact with you.

Do court the candidate. Do not fail to proactively express positive interest, cancel interviews (or not show up at all), not follow-up after the interviews, provide little or no positive feedback, make the candidate wait a considerable time before meeting them, and/or anything that says that making a great hire or hiring them is not a priority.

Here’s our eBook on the top sales hiring mistakes we consistently see companies make.

6. Practice Patience:

Great salespeople are actively and gainfully employed and aren’t typically looking for new opportunities. It takes time to not only find the best, but convincing them that making a career move would be in their interest is a difficult task in and of itself. Not to mention the time it takes to further assess them to ensure they fit with your selling environment. Unfortunately, there is no quick way around this, but the return on your investment is considerable so it literally pays to be patient.

7. Embrace Regular Communication:

Regular and open communication with your internal and/or external recruiters about changes in hiring requirements, the quality of candidates you are seeing, or even about things such as your availability to interview candidates can make or break your sales hiring efforts. When communication is made a priority in your recruiting plan, necessary changes can be made in real time and solutions to challenges can be actively developed and deployed.

8. Embrace a Structured Interview Process:

Most interviewers prepare for interviews in the moments right before an interview takes place. This introduces the risk that lack of preparation, mood, and other emotional or irrational, non-related factors will compromise an objective assessment of the candidate. By having a set interview process that asks strong sales specific questions, you mitigate the risk that arises from an unstructured, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants interview process.

9. Provide Above Market Compensation:

While financial compensation is not the only factor when top salespeople consider a change of employment, it is certainly a major factor and often the most significant. Enticing a top performer to leave an employer to join your company will often require paying at or above market. Ensuring that your team has agreed upon a compensation package that is inline with the market (and not overly complicated) makes it easier to land ‘A’ level talent while saving you time and effort.

Need instant help ensuring your sales comp plan is mistake free? See – Why Sales Compensation Plans Fail

10. Set up New Hires to be Successful:

World class employers understand that the best salespeople will only work for them if they are able to articulate how the salesperson will be set up for success. This means being able to demonstrate:

• How other reps achieve targets and how they have performed against their sales targets to date;
• A structured on-boarding process that establishes key accomplishments to be met over the first 30,60, and 90 days;
• Mapping out what new hire development and support activities will be undertaken to ensure the rep becomes productive as quickly as possible;
• Providing training on your organization, products, the market, sales systems, branding and marketing strategy, tools and support.

Here’s 6 Ways to Onboard New Salespeople Successfully.

Take these factors into consideration prior to engaging in your sales recruiting project and commit to not cutting corners, and your chances of success will increase tenfold.

To your sales hiring success!

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Eliot Burdett

CEO at Peak Sales Recruiting

Before Peak, Eliot spent more than 20 years building and leading companies, where he took the lead in recruiting and managing high performance sales teams. He co-founded Ventrada Systems (mobile applications) and GlobalX (e-commerce software). He was also Vice President of Sales for PointShot Wireless.Eliot received his B. Comm. from Carleton University and has been honored as a Top 40 Under 40 Award winner.

He co-authored Sales Recruiting 2.0, How to Find Top Performing Sales People, Fast and provides regular insights on sales team management and hiring on the Peak Sales Recruiting Blog.

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Latest posts by Eliot Burdett (see all)

• 20 Of Our Favorite Books About Sales Management and Sales Leadership – October 20, 2023
• How To Make Progress On Your Sales Goal Without A Sales Leader – September 15, 2021
• Augment Your Recruiting Strategy During “The Great Resignation” – July 26, 2021