Sales Team Recruitment: A Comprehensive Guide to Building an Effective Team

Good help can be hard to find. 

The costs of getting it wrong can be considerable—30% of new hires resign within 90 days, leaving you to pick up the pieces and start the recruitment process all over again. 

Employing the right hiring strategy can help you build your sales team while avoiding the costs of a bad hire. 

The Importance of an Effective Sales Hiring Strategy

We already hinted at the possibility of a bad hire if you proceed with a failing recruitment strategy.

In the long run, a bad hire will cost more than what you’ll spend creating a bulletproof recruitment strategy. It’s a consequence that’ll negatively impact your company’s bottom line.

Poor sales team recruitment can hinder revenue growth and business growth by preventing you from building a high-performing team that drives sales and supports company expansion.

In addition to the added cost, it can take weeks to terminate a bad hire and find a new candidate for the position. Moreover, frequent bad hires could lead to a reduction in force, a situation where the company needs to lay off employees to realign its workforce with its strategic objectives, further destabilizing team dynamics and morale. This can also negatively affect overall team performance, reducing innovation and effectiveness.

It’s easy to avoid a bad hire by identifying specific competencies, skills, and traits that qualifying candidates must possess. Setting clear expectations during the recruitment process is essential to ensure alignment and avoid misunderstandings. A structured recruitment process helps guarantee that new hires fit your company goals and sales culture.

Free to use image from Unsplash

Core Skills to Look For in Your Sales Reps

The following are behaviors that candidates must possess to qualify them for your sales team. In addition to technical abilities, soft skills such as communication, adaptability, and emotional intelligence are crucial for success in sales.

Proactivity in learning

Proactivity in learning demonstrates initiative and ownership of one's own growth and tasks, which is crucial in a sales representative.  

Look for candidates that have extensive product knowledge. Their know-how shows their commitment to learning and understanding the product they're selling.  

Make a note of candidates that show a growth mindset. The sales profession has come a long way from knocking on neighborhood doors. Without adaptability and growth, sales reps wouldn't have made the jump from door knockers to making outbound calls or handling inbound calls. 

So look for candidates seeking opportunities to learn and expand their skill set.   ​​​​​​​

Empathy & relationship building

Empathy is vital for salespeople to understand their customers' needs and find the right way to form a mutually beneficial relationship rather than a revenue-driven transactional one.  

Successful salespeople who empathize with customers will engage in conversation. They'll ask the customer questions and use active listening to dig deeper into what solutions their product can provide. 

For example, in an ecommerce business selling laptops and mobile devices, an empathetic sales rep will tailor their pitches to the needs and concerns of their customers. For younger buyers they would offer devices with specs that can cater to social media use or gaming. For seniors they would recommend user friendly devices that are easy to use and navigate. 

Most importantly, highly competent sales reps are not only concerned with numbers, reaching quotas and improving ecommerce analytics, they also value building rapport and a good relationship with customers. 

Solid work ethic

Look out for work ethic indicators in the applicants when hiring.  

A salesperson with a solid work ethic will be punctual. They won't neglect less interesting tasks for high-profile assignments. They'll deliver expected sales results to the best of their abilities. They will efficiently schedule client meetings and won't constantly move and reschedule commitments.

A sales rep with a solid work ethic will have good client relationships. Their work ethic will be evident from their sales accomplishments and performance records.

Free to use image from Unsplash​​​​​​​

Integrity

In the world of sales, it's understandable when sales reps get excited about their product. But it's a fine line between enthusiasm and misleading information. 

Integrity in sales means a sales rep promotes their product, but only in an honest fashion thus building customer's trust.  A sales rep shouldn't sell the customer on false claims. They should be honest about timeframes and budgets. Stretching the truth or lying to a customer will only damage any work you've done. 

To find out where your sales rep candidates rate on the integrity scale, check-in with their references to see what their character is like.

Communication skills

Communication skills are the be-all and end-all for any sales rep. To make a sale, you have to communicate with a customer and prove that your product has value. Apart from that, the ability to keep up with digital communication trends is also a plus in sales.

A good sales rep should be able to listen, pay attention, and understand tone. It doesn't hurt if they can read body language or read between the lines of what a customer is saying. They should be specific about product details and curious about customers' problems. 

You can get a good feel for a sales rep candidate's abilities when speaking to them on the phone or by email throughout the hiring process. 

Steps in Building Your Sales Team

Remember, you’re not just hiring individuals, you’re building a high performing sales team. Building strong sales teams requires fostering a positive sales team culture and focusing on collaboration and support among each team member to create a successful team. Team-building is a technical process that requires a detailed plan aligned with your company's goals and broader business goals.

Sales professionals, sales representatives, and sales managers each play a critical role in driving team success, ensuring that the team’s efforts support the organization’s objectives and vision.

Value hiring as your long-term asset and not a temporary fix

On average, businesses spend roughly $4700 per job hire. While it may seem attractive to rush through the steps, putting more care into the process and hiring for the long-term means better sales rep retention down the road. When planning for sales hires, it's essential to evaluate potential hires carefully to ensure the right fit for your team and long-term success.

Create a hiring and onboarding strategy that walks through each stage of the process with defined objectives and share it with relevant team members so that everyone is on the same page during the process. A well-structured onboarding process is crucial for integrating new hires and new salespeople, setting them up for success from the start.

Consider your retention rates and what may be affecting them. Do you have a positive company culture? Do you offer good benefits? Is there career mobility? These can all be factors in creating a sales team that will stick together.

Map out what you need in your team

Sales team needs will vary from business to business. Before you hire 50 sales reps, sit down and map out what you need in a sales team. Are you a small business with a few employees? You can start small by using easily scalable business PBX phone systems. Hire one sales rep, see how it goes, then hire more sales reps and add them to your system as your business grows.

When hiring, consider the specific sales position you need to fill. For example, if you are looking for a junior salesperson, focus on candidates who show potential and a willingness to learn, especially for entry-level roles.

Running a larger outfit, but your existing sales team is stretched thin? Determine how many seats you need to fill to re-balance the workload. Evaluate your team’s skills and look for a hire that fills in the gaps.

For example, if your team aces sales to small businesses but your company is expanding into enterprise-level sales, look for candidates with experience at that level. Understanding your sales cycle is crucial here, as the length and complexity of the sales cycle will impact the type of new salesperson you need to hire and how you structure your team.

Free to use image from Unsplash

​​​​​​​Create a hiring profile

After identifying what your team needs, formulate a hiring profile based on the mapped-out details. The hiring profile will specify the skills you want in your next great hire and help you attract top talent to your organization.

To determine what your perfect profile would look like, focus on ideal skills, background, and experience, and keep it specific to your industry. For example, a rep familiar with the software and tools you already use.

Once you’ve nailed down your hiring profile, you can use it to measure candidates and find the best match for your successful sales team. During the screening process, carefully evaluate potential candidates to identify the right salespeople who align with your company goals. Recognize top performers and ensure your hiring process is structured to attract and retain top talent.

Craft your questions and plan your interview techniques

When hiring, create interview questions and techniques that enable you to quickly identify the candidates who possess the core skills you want. As part of a structured interviewing process, ensure you are advancing only the most qualified candidates to the interview stage.

If you want to assess their adaptability, ask them to describe a time when they failed to meet a sales quota and how they overcame it. When evaluating their sales experience, be sure to include questions that reveal their objection handling skills, such as how they responded to a tough prospect or overcame client objections. Explore their big-picture thinking by asking them for ideas on a go-to-market strategy for your newest product.

Keep detailed notes of their responses so you can go back and review them after the interview. Consider keeping a scorecard for each interviewee that will give you a clear picture of each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

Create a solid job description

Job descriptions can range from one paragraph to full-on novellas. Try to find a balance that keeps it simple and reflects your business.

Clearly describe the job role and your company’s product. Outline specific sales targets and sales goals for the position. List key responsibilities followed by necessary and preferred skills.

For example, if looking for a sales rep for an inventory system, a good candidate will have not only good communication skills, but also experience in handling inventory and product management. Make sure you include this on the job description, along with other requirements like a working knowledge of sales tools for prospecting. Also, note the importance of understanding the target audience for the sales position. By doing this, you are attracting talent that are generally easier to train because they already have the basic knowledge of the product.

Cover information about earning potential, incentives, and company culture. Include any details that make your company stand out, like free lunch Wednesdays or team building events

Close the job description with what candidates can expect while on the sales team. When writing the job description remember to reflect your company’s tone and style.

Build a candidate pipeline

Start with job advertisements that will get potential applicants interested. LinkedIn is a great place to start, and sales-specific job boards like SalesHeads and SalesJobs will put you in front of excellent candidates.

A structured recruitment process is essential in sales recruitment. It ensures you attract, evaluate, and select the right talent for your sales team.

Another way to find great candidates? Ask the people you know.

Reach out to friends, business contacts, your network and other online businesses, and see if they have any sales candidate referrals they could send your way. Once you have candidate resumes coming in, make use of a dedicated HR management system to keep everything organized. Be sure to evaluate potential hires carefully to ensure they have the right skills and fit for your team.

Free to use image from Unsplash

Get your existing team involved

Your team knows what they need as much as you do. Each team member can provide valuable advice and support. Encourage team members to share stories of success and best practices, as this can motivate others and reinforce effective strategies. Regular communication among team members is essential to maintain alignment and ensure everyone is working towards common goals. Keep them in the loop, and they’ll be able to help you identify the best candidate for the team. Some companies have advocacy programs involving their employees. Happy and satisfied employees are the perfect ambassadors for your brand.