profile the sale<\/a>.<\/p>\nI can’t stress this enough, job descriptions typically won’t define the skills needed for a strong sales hire.\u00a0 They work for other positions, but sales is vastly different.\u00a0 I think this is where general recruiters get into difficulty.\u00a0 I’ll go further and say even experienced sales managers get in trouble here.\u00a0 Many of our customers tell us that they have tried to hire salespeople themselves without any tools or processes and it was just a crap shoot.\u00a0 All – all<\/em> – of them have more than one sales hiring nightmare story.<\/p>\nHere is the crux of the problem when it comes to determining what is needed to hire the right salesperson – bachelor’s degrees and time in the industry do not predict success in sales.\u00a0 “Ability to develop territory,” “strong hunter” and “service existing accounts” are not going to cut it.<\/p>\n
You need to understand the sale.\u00a0 There is a difference in skill sets needed if it takes 5 contacts to close 1 deal versus 55 contacts to close 1 deal.\u00a0 There is a difference in skills needed to close a 1 year sales cycle versus a 1 week sales cycle.\u00a0 This information<\/em> provides the qualifications to determine sales success.<\/p>\nFor instance, if the typical sale requires 75 calls (to suspects) that filter down to 1 sale and the average sales cycle is 2 weeks, you have to source candidates that have the ability to build rapport quickly, qualify efficiently and handle rejection easily.<\/p>\n
Understanding the critical aspects of a typical sale is the starting point for a successful sales hire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s what we often see from hiring managers or recruiters that focus on a wide variety of positions.\u00a0 They tend to look for qualifications in their sourcing activities.\u00a0 Obviously, this approach is warranted and required when sourcing for positions like accountants, medical personnel, IT, engineers\u00a0and so forth. But what about sales?\u00a0 What qualifications determine sales success?\u00a0 A college degree?\u00a0 5, 7 or 10 years tenure?\u00a0 Industry experience? The difficulty in sales is that there are so few, if any, verifiable qualifications that properly filter applicants out.\u00a0 The better approach is to list the skills that the sale requires.\u00a0 Notice I didn’t write “position?”\u00a0 The typical sale is what needs to… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[1762,282,554,555,539],"class_list":["post-1521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiring-salespeople","category-sourcing","tag-hiring-salespeople","tag-profile-the-sale","tag-sales-qualification","tag-sales-recruiting","tag-strong-sales-candidates"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-ox","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":700,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/02\/overwritten-sales-ads\/","url_meta":{"origin":1521,"position":0},"title":"Overwritten Sales Ads","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"You don't have to read this, just look at it's sheer girth: Qualifications\/Necessary Skills: Attention to Detail. Able to be alert in a high-risk environment; follow detailed procedures and ensure accuracy in documentation and data; concentrate on routine work details and organize and maintain a system of records. Able to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Employment Ads"","block_context":{"text":"Employment Ads","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/employment-ads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1656,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/07\/tightening-the-ad\/","url_meta":{"origin":1521,"position":1},"title":"Tightening The Ad","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been reading through many sales employment ads recently and am seeing a trend - the ads are written tighter.\u00a0 A couple of examples: -Minimum of 5 years of related public accounting and\/or corporate sales -A minimum of two years\u2019 business development experience in a pharmaceutical and\/or CRO biotechnology, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":773,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/03\/ad-writing-essentials\/","url_meta":{"origin":1521,"position":2},"title":"Ad Writing Essentials","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"March 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the past week there have been more articles than I care to count on how to write an effective job ad - none of which are written with sales positions in mind. When it comes to sales, you need to think a bit differently. Let me give you an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Employment Ads"","block_context":{"text":"Employment Ads","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/employment-ads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":925,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/05\/an-ad-without-clarity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1521,"position":3},"title":"An Ad Without Clarity","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In reading through more sales ads this morning, I kicked up an example of an ad without clarity about the position. Here are the qualifications: -Hard working and dependable -Sales experience is necessary (____________ industry, preferred) -Must have no travel restrictions in covering assigned multi state territory -Must be computer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Employment Ads"","block_context":{"text":"Employment Ads","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/employment-ads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1416,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/dulled-by-success\/","url_meta":{"origin":1521,"position":4},"title":"Dulled By Success","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"There is an effect we have noticed when recruiting salespeople from larger companies that seems to be consistent across markets.\u00a0 Some salespeople, maybe many, lose their edge when it comes to prospecting when they land a large customer.\u00a0 I see this effect happening in larger companies, for some reason, more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Compensation"","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1059,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/07\/3-years-and-a-cloud-of-dust\/","url_meta":{"origin":1521,"position":5},"title":"3 Years And A Cloud Of Dust","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"If you have been sourcing salespeople recently, you have probably noticed some short tenures among the Gen Y candidates.\u00a0 We are sourcing for an intermediate-level sales position that has garnered a noticeable response from Gen Y (or young Gen X) candidates.\u00a0 The remarkable trend is that many of the candidates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Candidates"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Candidates","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/sales\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}