How to Improve Sales Hiring Strategies

23 Sep

Posted by profilesint as Business

Would you like to be able to find and hire sales people who have what it takes to improve sales in a competitive environment? This article will provide you with information that will help you hire competent sales people who consistently perform at their best level. Whether you’re an executive, a manager or a team leader, the following information will be beneficial to you.

Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to find sales people who can actually sell consistently, year after year? You are probably familiar with the “80-20″ rule in sales in which 20 percent of the sales people make 80 percent of the sales. By improving your sales hiring strategy, you can beat the “80-20″ rule once for all.

When hiring salespeople, the objective is to hire only those who have the characteristics of top performers. The challenge is to find a way to assess those critical characteristics with a high degree of accuracy so that you can take the guesswork out of hiring people for sales positions.

Research indicates that the selling profession requires qualities that not everyone has. The high turnover of salespeople in so many organizations simply reveals ineffective sales hiring and selection processes. The reason for high turnover is that half the people hired for sales jobs should not have been hired; they had absolutely no chance of being successful. Only about a third of those with a chance for a successful sales career will achieve their potential because their skills are never properly developed or they are trying to sell the wrong product or service.

Some people hired into sales positions lack the sales personality and the fundamental attributes essential to becoming top performers. In fact, more than 50% of those individuals hired for a given sales position may not even be suited for sales. Another 25% may have selling skills, but are selling the wrong product, are in the wrong industry or do not fit well within their sales team. These factors reduce the number of sales professionals from whom sales leaders can expect superior performance.

Having the ability to have the right sales people in the right sales positions is up to ten times more likely to impact sales results than other talent-related dimension of sales effectiveness, including recruitment and retention. Putting the right people in the right positions, however, isn’t subjective. You must have a formalized process that quantitatively assesses the strengths and capabilities of each individual team member. The ability to absorb product knowledge, business acumen, or specific industry experience are all really good. But to make really smart, talent-based decisions, you must understand the inherent strengths of an individual and put them in positions that leverage those strengths.

Imagine what it would be like if you could predict which sales candidates would be top performers before you hired them. Today, many organizations are using pre-employment sales assessments as a part of their sales hiring strategy. Pre-employment sales assessments can help you to:

- Accurately predict success in a given sales position
- Develop strategic succession planning
- Implement employment/redeployment programs
- Receive important information on thinking style, behavioral characteristics and occupational interests on current employees or candidates

Jim Sirbasku is co-founder and CEO of Profiles International, a leading provider of human resource management solutions and employment assessments for businesses worldwide. For more information about using assessments to improve sales hiring, visit our website.

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