Sales employees are the life-blood of your company. When hiring a new rep, you take your time to carefully analyze their skills and personality traits to ensure they’ll be the best representation of your company.
This process is extensive and can take an inordinate amount of time. So, when multiple new roles open at once, recruiting top sales candidates quickly and efficiently is a significant challenge. But when you’re hiring for a fast-growing company, there’s no time to waste.
The next sales reps you hire are in charge of introducing top new tech, changing how consumers put dinner on the table, how quickly you receive products, and even how you get to your next business meeting, according to this year’s Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies.
While the rest of your team is off changing the world with products, it’s your job to improve the company with top quality sales reps. To do this, you need to approach talent acquisition from the eyes of a leading sales professional.
Here are four ways to attract and hire the best new sales reps without disrupting your company’s growth track:
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Excite Recruits with Your Employer Brand
Hiring for the sake of filling open positions leaves you with less-than-qualified reps. In the sales world, this is a double-edged sword. You end up depleting your recruitment budget on ill-fitting hires, and the company loses money overall from poor sales techniques.
One of the most efficient and fastest ways to hire top sales talent is to draw them in via employer branding. To do this, recruiters aren’t getting ultra fancy or shelling out the big bucks. In fact, BLR’s 2018 Real-World Recruiting Survey, 77% of respondents say the company website is a top way to fill open positions. Another 47% say social media is important, too.
Even though these recruiters are using what seems like a simple and obvious approach to branding, their success goes far beyond their website and social media. These are outlets for their brands. However, if they aren’t actively exciting passive candidates using their brands, it doesn’t matter if they plaster it on the tallest billboards.
You’re a fast-growing company in a time of extremely low unemployment. So it’s time to light a fire underneath your brand—now. Accelerate the number of candidates who aren’t just seeing your openings but are interested in discovering more about them.
Start by grabbing a few selfie sticks for your sales employees. Ask them to share a bit about themselves, why they love your company and your product, and to take them through pieces of their daily workdays. This gives recruits an exciting look inside your company, giving them a sense of belonging before they’ve even stepped foot inside your office for an interview.
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Add Pressure to the Hiring Timeline
Sales candidates are comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. They live for the adrenaline rush of cold calling, making split decisions, and ultimately having customers sign on the dotted line. This fast-paced world is a place where they thrive.
Unfortunately, with 72% of companies taking more than two weeks to fill a position, according to the previously mentioned BLR survey, the hiring process often feels less than exhilarating for candidates. In the meantime, your current sales team is taking on additional clients and stresses to keep up with the pressures of a fast-growing company.
Give sales candidates the pressure they need to make a decision. Add specific and tight deadlines to your recruiting process. If you’re asking for skills tests, request the results within a 48 to 72 hour period. When you reach out to candidates, add a quick deadline for application materials. Putting candidates to the fire like this gives them a sense of urgency and sends only the best and most serious sales pros into your pipeline.
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Double Down on Employee Referrals
An impressive 82% of recruiters in the BLR survey say employee referrals are a top option when recruiting for open positions. For a fast-growing company, these referrals are gold—especially in the sales department.
Whether it’s friends, family, former co-workers, or people they’ve seen in their professional networks, your sales team knows who has the drive and passion for succeeding on your team. They understand the product and your clients better than anyone else at your company. So why not let them point out your next top sales recruit?
Motivate your sales team to send referrals your way by offering fun referral benefits. Cash rewards, PTO, or even surprise trips are a great way to create fun competition. Add a timeline and smaller goals to create even more excitement. The first person, for example, to have a referral confirm an interview receives the afternoon off or lunch on the CEO.
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Think Outside the Typical Sales Talent Pool
Years of sales experience, a specific industry or product sold, sales goals hit, education—these are all traditional sales job requirements. But it’s important to remember, change inspires growth. Rapidly growing companies need salespeople who are open-minded, motivated, and excited for the future of their companies.
These traits are found in people from various backgrounds with experiences in any industry. Removing limiting qualifications from your job description opens up a whole new world of talent for your sales positions.
Rather than asking for ten years of direct sales experience, ask for the specific skills those with ten years of experience hold. In many cases, this includes high emotional intelligence, a strong work ethic, motivated by both passion and money, and strong communication skills, to name a few.
Meshanda King is the Digital Marketing Coordinator at MedReps, a job board which gives members access to the most sought after medical sales jobs and pharmaceutical sales jobs on the Web. Connect with Meshanda on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.