Companies that can’t land clients or make sales won’t survive even with a very passionate, seasoned, and competent creative team. For this reason, it is pivotal for agencies to entice and retain top sales talent effectively.
Of course, the real challenge is finding and hiring competent candidates for the sales team. The most effective salespeople can work regardless of the industry and have opportunities and choices.
Fortunately, implementing the right course of action and strategies can help you identify top sales talent in a fiercely competitive market while also hiring and retaining them long-term.
4 Tactics to Identify Top Sales Talent For Your Team
Here are some viable ways that can help you identify the top sales talent and eventually boost your company’s performance:
Ask Creative Interview Questions
Interview questions can often be monotonous, allowing the potential candidate to prepare artificial responses and deliver them on cue. As the sales process is unpredictable, it is imperative to gauge how well a job candidate for sales can respond to unanticipated questions.
Ask unique and more offbeat questions to break the potential sales applicant from their rehearsed answers. That way, you will be able to measure and know a lot about how a particular candidate can deal with off-script circumstances.
Gauge Their Professionalism
The demeanor of a candidate during the interview session is a good indicator of how they will handle their interaction with prospective customers. For instance, did the applicant shake hands and greet in a professional manner? These small things can help them deliver significant results later on.
Everybody who spoke with the candidate should get an opportunity to contribute to the hiring discussion. Candidates who treat lower-level assistants and secretaries poorly in an interview most likely do the same when a sales deal is at risk.
Develop A System To Evaluate Critical Traits
A disciplined approach to the recruiting process is imperative to identifying and hiring the top sales talent. To achieve this effectively, take the example of your top performers and see what they have in common. Before you begin your in-person interview sessions, recognize traits that correlate to sales efforts and success within your company.
Every member in the interview panel can take on the responsibility of evaluating the candidate on two to three qualities during the interview. Make a heading for each trait. Also, check the evaluation process against the interviewers’ expertise and strengths.
You can use these evaluations to inform your decisions to identify the top sales talent and see which candidates you should call to go ahead with the hiring process.
Use Sales Assessments
If you have concerns regarding a particular candidate, the right assessment can challenge or confirm your perceptions of the applicant. Some evaluations are sales-specific. However, general personality tests are also informative and help gauge and identify the top sales talent.
These assessments are also helpful when it comes to cultural fit evaluation. If you have deal-breakers in particular aspects, the evaluation can help you with an additional perspective.
Wrapping Up
Recruiting is hard, and onboarding the best of the best is even more challenging. But a systematic process customized to your anticipated outcome can help you alleviate common pitfalls, setting your company up for success.
Gauging sales hires and identifying the top sales talent is an intricate process. However, by implementing the strategies mentioned above, you can gain a holistic view of the potential hires and recruit the top sales candidates.
