“Stable” Sales Recruiting

There is a common marketing approach used in recruiting that states some form of “we locate the candidates who aren’t looking.”  I suppose the hook is that we can find amazing candidates that you can’t find.  It’s a hook, I guess.  Anyway, here is one I received in an unsolicited email: What we do is go after the best candidates & the elite that are not currently looking for a job as they already have one. We personally present and sell your specific company’s opportunity to their individual needs. Our clients find that these hidden candidates are more stable, more qualified and haven’t been interviewing all over town. Stable?  More… Read More

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Multi-Channel Sourcing

We preach to our clients that simply placing an onlie ad is not a sound sourcing strategy.  Managesmarter.com has an article that gives 3 good, quick tips for leveraging the Internet to fill open positions. The only way to effectively recruit is to use multiple channels. You’re trying to find that one person who is exactly right, and that means exploring multiple avenues. This includes your offline efforts, by the way—don’t stop networking just because you’ve posted a job online. Work multiple sources (both online and real world) to get the word out about your opening. Make sure you’ve got an accurate, well-written, exciting job description. You need a posting that… Read More

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A Database Of The Discarded

A headline from the Wall Street Journal – Employer Alliance Aims To Streamline Recruiting.  “Streamline” is one of those overused business terms that I find annoying.  Yet, the article is rather interesting: Seven of the nation’s largest employers have teamed up to help one another with recruiting. They’ve formed a consortium called AllianceQ, which allows them and future members to share information about job applicants they don’t hire. Which leads to this: Since QuietAgent.com doesn’t feature job ads, professionals will only learn about career opportunities if employers contact them. By giving out referrals to QuietAgent.com, AllianceQ members are helping job hunters they don’t hire find employment elsewhere, says Jason Kerr,… Read More

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3 Sales Hiring Inhibitors

Even bad salespeople can appear to be strong in a face-to-face interview situation.  This reason is why sales recruiting is truly different than any other form of recruiting.  Reviewing resumes and assuming abilities is is a fool’s errand.  Yet, there are certain aspects of general recruiting that can that hinder effective sales recruiting. The Resumes. Yes, resumes.  I have sat through far too many discussions where hiring managers or recruiters attempted to divine incredible insight from a sheet of paper.  Granted, you can probably eliminate the retail salespeople from your B2B Sales manager process.  Sales is still a people-oriented profession so overanalyzing a document is not the most effective technique… Read More

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What Qualifications Determine Sales Success?

Here’s what we often see from hiring managers or recruiters that focus on a wide variety of positions.  They tend to look for qualifications in their sourcing activities.  Obviously, this approach is warranted and required when sourcing for positions like accountants, medical personnel, IT, engineers and so forth. But what about sales?  What qualifications determine sales success?  A college degree?  5, 7 or 10 years tenure?  Industry experience? The difficulty in sales is that there are so few, if any, verifiable qualifications that properly filter applicants out.  The better approach is to list the skills that the sale requires.  Notice I didn’t write “position?”  The typical sale is what needs to… Read More

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