No doubt about it, building a sales team is tough.  The market is awash with average (at best) performers and the best sales people are normally astronomically priced and near-impossible to sign.  That said, Talent Forge has a few tricks which can help you to build and develop a great group of people.

1.Focus on Behaviours

It’s tempting to try and attract talent directly from within your industry, either from a competitor or similar business.  This often doesn’t work – The salesperson is either set in their ways or just not right for your company.

If you can identify what it is that makes your best people succeed, you can map these behaviours onto your recruitment process and identify people who are going to deliver results and add value to the culture.  These are often candidates from outside of your industry, so you are broadening your talent pool and bringing fresh energy to the group.

2.Focus on Potential

Leaders are under pressure to get results quickly and this can lead to short-term decisions.   Often the hire is made based on somebody who will ‘hit the ground running’ rather than somebody who’ll be an asset to the business for years to come.  We can all think of sales people who were ‘given a shot’ and went on to top the leaderboard.  Hiring for potential typically generates loyalty and motivation in spades.  After all, it’s unlikely the person you hired from the competition was their top performer!

3.Focus on Coach-ability

It’s not all about finding the perfect candidate. While it is important that your salespeople are motivated and goal-oriented, you need to find people that can be effectively coached and trained. When you hire people that do not add to the existing culture, this could undermine the success of the rest of the team. It’s important that you hire people that respond well to management, so you can show them the ropes and sit back to watch them thrive. Continuous learning is the key to growth, which is why you need to recruit salespeople who are always willing to learn something new.

4.Focus on Employer Brand

Your employer brand is your company’s reputation in the workforce. It’s how you market your company to job seekers and internal employees. If you want to build a high-performing sales team, you need to make sure you have a strong employer brand to communicate to people why they should apply for a job. This includes, your benefits package, your culture the overall opportunity you bring to the candidates.  According to LinkedIn 28% of candidates cited employer brand as a key reason to join.

5.Focus on Selling

The big one!  So many sales leaders forget to sell to the candidate – They spend the whole interview process assessing the candidate without bothering to sell the opportunity back.  In the end the candidate will make their decision based on what they think of you (the potential boss!) more than anything.  If you can get them bought into you personally, there’s a really good chance you’ll be able to sign them for the team

Let Talent Forge help you hire the best sales team

At TFG, we have an excellent team of  consultants who have vast experience in recruiting sales talent. In APAC alone we’ve built hundreds of sales teams from the ground up and we would love to be part of your success story.