It can save you tons of money!
So often, people tell me that recruiting salespeople is the same as for any other position. I wish this were true. Reality tells us that with this approach, it usually ends up filling seats mostly with underperformers. After six to 12 months, expectations are lagging, revenue is falling short, and disappointment kicks in. Everybody starts wondering what happened.
To better understand why it’s essential to approach the recruitment of salespeople differently than when hiring for other positions, I’ve sketched an average day of a high-performance salesperson and listed some other job-related issues.
A working day should look somewhat like this:
Get up at 05:30 - Take a shower and dress - Get coffee.
06:30: Check planning, which includes today’s task list - Check emails - Check CRM - Analyse pipeline - Review prospects – Review pending proposals to be closed - Check customer retention targets - Go over the elevator pitch, make possible adjustments - Check value proposition, adjust, rehearse
07:30: Have some breakfast.
Pick up the phone and start calling six customers and twelve prospects - Digest a lot of rejections - Hang on, don’t give up and get to speak to two customers and leave messages for the other four - Get to talk with one prospect, got an appointment, rebuffed by six secretaries and need to call back the rest.
12:30: Enjoy a healthy lunch.
13:30: Have three face to face calls with prospects and customers in the afternoon - Have two online calls with one prospect and one customer – Have a call with the direct manager for updates - At the end of the day, enter all essential activities and notes into the CRM system - Answer most emails - Complete one proposal and send - Check and prepare for the next day’s activities – follow-up on deals to be closed.
17:30: Turn off the switch and focus on the family.
Next to the above, most salespeople are responsible for a revenue from € 300.000,00 up. Naturally, this depends on what they sell. To give an idea: an Airbus industry salesperson would be doing millions per contract, whereas someone selling business gifts might be doing 300 K per year.
Remember also, most salespeople clock tens of thousands of kilometres per year.
One more aspect we need to bear in mind: being a salesperson demands being responsible for results. This responsibility includes lots of self-reflection and development and avoiding excuse-making. And last but not least, salespeople are out there, on their own, with no one to observe and give them feedback. You need a considerable amount of resilience and a sense of responsibility to do a resultful job.
Do these demands sound crazy? Not really. With the right sales skills in place, combined with high Sales DNA, use of sales technology, good motivation in place and some other attributes, successful salespeople can perform like this without losing their will to sell and still be fit at the end of the day!
The top 30% of salespeople have these traits.
The activities listed above show why it’s essential to pay close attention to these aspects when hiring salespeople. It’s not only about skills. It’s also Sales-DNA, will-to-sell, motivation, drive for success, high commitment, the ability to embrace change and sales technology and much more.
Did the above attract your attention and make you wonder how to find the right salespeople? With the right tools, approach and recruitment process, this should be possible and sometimes easier than you might guess.
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Our Sales Talent Acquisition Routine STAR recruitment process can assist you in setting up a recruitment process that will save you time, money and recruitment headaches. In the end, you will be able to find and recruit the best-performing salespeople.
