Whenever a good person leaves your business, you lose a lot of money. Your loss should include recruitment fees, start-up time, and the cost of lost sales. In many cases these will run into at least tens of thousands of dollars.
To recruit a replacement sales person, then, spend as much as you would expect to lose. If you take time to develop a good recruiting program, you will be able to increase your recruits’ average level of performance dramatically. If you do not have the time, consider using good recruiters and give them a clear picture of the kind of sales person you need.
Experience is critical in Relationship and Consultative sales. This may require at least three years for a motivated recruit. If you can afford that development time, you may be able to pick candidates fresh out of school. Choosing experienced people will be the answer.
Consultative selling is both the hardest and easiest. It’s difficult because it depends upon a technical base which comes naturally only to academic people. It’s easy because it relies on a well-developed selling system that has been carefully planned and implement. If you don’t have extensive classroom and on-the-job sales mentoring and training programs available, pick an experienced pro.
Recruiting from competitors offers a two-edged sword. Such candidates may already have many of the necessary skills. On the other hand, if salespeople will leave a competitor, they may well leave you as well. The key issue is whose fault was the transition. Strong “superstars” who left a company because their careers or commissions were capped are a good source to recruit. Be wary of competitors whose poor-to-average sales people may simply be looking for a new, easier opportunity.
Also, be aware that many competitors’ jobs vary just enough from your own that negative transfer of skills becomes a problem people who had their leads generated for them. Now they have difficulty generating leads of their own.
Good recruiting is not a matter of chance.In the long run, by carefully analyzing what you need, identifying who likes to do that well, and offering them the “reward” they really want, you’ll set a company “image” that will recruit for you! Now you can pick from some of the best recruits available... and they contact you!
© 2010 Growth Resources, Inc.