| When I ask attendees at our executive briefing | | | | where you choose, then combine, common text |
| titled, "Recruiting Superior Sales Talent" to rank the | | | | phrases and demographic and psychographic words |
| importance of the recruiting steps, "Searching" is | | | | from your Identify step. Here is a brief example of |
| normally ranked incorrectly. In order of importance, | | | | how it comes together: |
| "Searching" should be step 3 after the "Identify" and | | | | Selling high end business services to C-Level |
| "Testing." Steps. However, many of you rank | | | | executives of large corporations in a complex selling |
| "Searching" as step two in your process, after | | | | environment and a growing market against the |
| "Identify." This confusion between the importance | | | | incumbent vendor. |
| and sequence of steps causes many organizations to | | | | Using the template correctly and identifying all the |
| underachieve when it comes to executing the | | | | challenges the candidate must overcome is an |
| searching step. Organizations tend to panic and get in | | | | important way to shift from traditional searching for |
| such a hurry to fill their pipeline with candidates they | | | | superior sales talent. |
| default to a traditional searching method that is, at | | | | Another way to shift from traditional searches is to |
| best, ineffective for the 21st Century. | | | | list your total compensation package in the marketing |
| The traditional method of "Searching" for superior | | | | support materials. In addition, if you really want to |
| sales talent fails for many reasons: | | | | break with the traditional way of searching for |
| Marketing for the position describes the candidate | | | | superior sales talents, don't ask for a resume. Have |
| a company would like to hire and provides way too | | | | the candidate send one or two paragraphs describing |
| much company information-instead, you should | | | | how and why they meet the specifications in the |
| describe the opportunity in detail | | | | marketing material. Next, make sure you automate |
| You need great sales people, but they are | | | | the process by using auto responders to direct |
| already in a job and typically not actively looking to | | | | candidates to a testing site before you decide which |
| change | | | | one to pursue. All of these exercises are designed in |
| You have not built in insurance, such as testing, | | | | a way that someone who is not actively looking for |
| before conducting phone screening and looking over | | | | a position says to themselves, "Wow that describes |
| resumes | | | | me! I need to look into this more." |
| . Most organizations are confused about the real | | | | Searching for superior sales talent requires an entire |
| purpose of benchmarking and how to use it | | | | company effort. You should mandate an intense |
| effectively in a search | | | | recruiting effort from the CEO to the receptionist |
| You are not using automation to its best capacity | | | | that includes PR, marketing, and Internet employment |
| in the searching process to save your team time and | | | | ads. The stakes are just too high. The incidental cost |
| energy | | | | of assessing candidates should be the insurance, not |
| You place too much faith in the job description | | | | the final criteria. I recommend that my clients |
| Past performance is not necessarily an indicator | | | | preferably have at least three hirable candidates |
| of future performance (just like purchasing a stock | | | | after the assessment process in order to hire one. |
| history is not necessarily an indicator of future stock | | | | Most clients don't like to hear that. But usually one |
| performance). If you make your search contingent | | | | candidate won't fit for some reason that everyone in |
| on previous performance, you may set yourself up | | | | the department agrees on, and then you're left |
| for a trap. | | | | arguing about which of the remaining two will knock |
| I will offer more detail on some of these traditional | | | | the ball out of the park. What a nice argument to |
| steps for searching for a sales superstar along with | | | | have! |
| some suggestions for improvement. | | | | To up the chances of attaining three great |
| Searching and marketing for superior sales talent are | | | | candidates, you must understand the posting cost |
| similar and neither can be done effectively unless you | | | | challenge. While your posting won't expire for two |
| first did the most important step in this recruiting | | | | months, you must repost your ads every week to |
| process: correctly identifying the right candidate. As | | | | continue the flow of resumes. Then, you must know |
| part of the Identify step, you should have isolated | | | | where to post the ad as well as the way the site's |
| things like the market your new employee will call on, | | | | search engines work. With Monster.com, you must |
| the size of target companies, the average size of | | | | know how to use each field and drop-down list so |
| your accounts, length of your sales cycle, who the | | | | that your ad comes up with the appropriate search |
| new employee will call on, and whether the end user | | | | key words. If potential candidates don't see your ad, |
| needs and wants your product or service-or whether | | | | they can't respond to it. |
| they need it but don't want it. | | | | It should be evident by now that you need a new |
| In your marketing you should fully describe the | | | | mindset to correctly search for superior sales talent |
| opportunity in detail, making sure to look up key | | | | in today's market. This article only touched on the |
| words that candidates will search for online on job | | | | highlights of a few steps in the process. Soon we will |
| recruiting sites like Monster, the Ladders, and others. | | | | write about using Benchmarking in the search for |
| You marry up the key words using a template | | | | superior sales talent. |
| exercise. The template exercise works like a puzzle | | | | |