If you had to venture a guess, what would you think is the biggest challenge facing corporate America today? Yes, keeping costs down and moving inventory are big ones, but not nearly as big as the challenge of finding the right people to keep the company moving forward. "You can have the most innovative product or service in the world, but in order to increase revenue, you need a strong sales team to sell it," says Kathleen Steffey, owner of Naviga Business Services, a national sales and marketing recruiting firm. Steffey has spent the past 15 years leading internal recruiting teams for companies looking for top sales and marketing talent, and says in order to stay ahead of the competition, business executives need to develop a top notch recruiting strategy for hiring sales reps nationally.
Among the advice she offers her customers:
* Be discerning but quick with decisions related to candidate evaluations.
* Have only your top performers in the interview process; A players hire A players; C players will never hire an A player.
* Be knowledgeable about different geographic markets and what that means for sales rep compensations (i.e. you can't offer the same base salary to someone in Kansas that you would in NYC Metro, even if the commission structure is the same or higher).
* Pay B to B sales hunters a competitive base salary in addition to a solid commission program. Specialized industry experience, technical aptitude and consultative sales ability are critical skills that make a person extremely valuable in the sales process. It is an old school compensation strategy to pay sales representatives 100 percent commission. Other companies are doing it to stay competitive, and so must you!
* Choose a specialized "national" recruiting firm that is an expert in hunting for top quality sales candidates within every major metropolitan city across the United States. Also, be sure that the firm has a researcher on staff. Recruiting firms that "hunt" for competitor/industry related talent, need researchers to find targeted names to cold call. This will tell you if they really recruit top talent, or if they passively wait for candidates to reply to their advertisements.
"Many companies think they can simply post an ad and the right candidate will come to them. While that sometimes does happen, selecting the right person is not that simple," says Steffey, who points out that the process is a full-time commitment and for companies that don't have specialized resources, "It pays to turn to a recruiter who is an expert in the industry."
Whether your business is in startup, expansion, or needs assistance with a sales recruiting strategy, log on to www.navigaservices.com today to learn how you can win the war for top sales talent!
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