With thoughtful and strategic planning, you can reduce costs associated with recruitment, onboarding, and training while avoiding costly turnover due to poor hires.
As a business owner or top executive, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking a quick hire will be the fastest path to meeting revenue goals or making up for lost time.
But rushing through the development of an effective hiring strategy can lead to a devastating impact on your bottom line.
This is especially true when it comes to sales hiring given a seller’s interface with your customers and the image they project to the marketplace.
The goal of this article is to help you reduce risk by describing what’s involved in investing critical thought and the right resources to develop an intentional hiring plan.
If you are not well versed in the current day hiring strategies I outline, I welcome you to get in touch.
And just because you decide to invest yourself in developing a solid hiring plan doesn’t mean you need to wait to hit your revenue goals.
I have established vetted sources that can serve as stopgap SDRs and BDRs (sales and business development representatives) for cases when a client cannot delay increasing sales pipeline activity. This enables them to focus their attention on the long game… getting sales hires done right, while meeting short-term goals.
Develop a Thoughtful and Effective Hiring Plan
When entering the development phase of your hiring plan, start with understanding your needs as an organization. To drive strategic growth, your sales team structure and talent needs to be aligned with your sales strategy.
- Revisit Sales Team Structure
- Create a detailed Position Description
- Define the Ideal Candidate Profile
- Verify Sales Compensation alignment with market conditions
- Develop a Talent Acquisition Plan
- Assign the right resources to the Talent Acquisition Plan
In addition, it is important to have a robust onboarding process in place to ensure that every new hire gets off to a great start. Check out a prior article I wrote that includes helpful guidance called, “The Keys to Successful Sales Onboarding”.
Adapt to Major Job Market Shifts
The job market has changed drastically since the onset of the pandemic. Many organizations have seen a decrease in available sales talent and are having trouble recruiting new hires due to more competition among employers.
This also creates an opportunity to screen sales candidates on how they present themselves through virtual communication methods. As cited by rigorous studies from Select Software Reviews:
- 57% of candidates prefer video interviewing
- 98% interviewed via video tend to perceive the employer as innovative
Improve Your Digital Presence – candidates are screening you!
Key Takeaways
- Get the right people in the right seats and keep them there by executing on an intentional sales hiring plan.
- Slowing down to define, attract and secure the right sales hire(s) will improve your bottom line.
- Build sales pipeline momentum by utilizing my vetted SDR/BDR resources as a stopgap or long-term solution.
- Attract qualified sales talent by using updated recruiting methods that are proven to work in the post-pandemic employment market.
- Improve your digital presence to attract high performing sales candidates into your recruiting process.
Dan Mahony
President
I am part of a national group of Senior Sales Leaders who collaborate to share insights like the examples shown in this article. We formed because of our shared passion to help business leaders exponentially grow their revenue.
