The cost of poor sales selection

By / / Assessments, Brain Science, Brand & Reputation, Competition, Performance Management, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Management, Sales Psychology, Sales Research, Sales Talent

Have you ever done the math on how much sales recruitment costs you, especially when you get it wrong?

If you are like most managers then chances are you haven’t. So let’s consider the costs, overt and covert, involved in sales recruitment.

If you don’t know it already, sales recruitment is one of the toughest assignments around. I know this firsthand, as I was in this role for over 8 years with a leading consultancy and recruitment company. During this time, I interviewed about 8,000 sales people face-to-face in the technical, industrial, medical, and scientific industries. Remember, this is not counting all …

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Who’s in charge of your sales recruitment?

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Management, Sales Talent

1. How much is a good sales person worth to you?
2. How much is a good hiring manager worth to you?

Speaking about recruitment in these current economic times may seem foolish, however in the area of selling, this is where you could make great strides by picking up highly effective sales people who have found themselves on the job market or are looking for a better business to work in. I know of a few highly competent sales people and sales managers who have been let go along with other staff as part of large staff reduction strategies.

In …

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Daring to be Different (part 2)

By / / Assessments, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Talent

Here is the second of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry.

Even though I have not worked as a traditional recruitment consultant for more than 14 years many of my long standing clients still talk about those ‘out of the box’ placements we made. Was it just the recruitment approach that made the difference. Well NO. What these savvy mangers is did was make sure the culture and the business could accommodate these ‘new’ types of people.

They took their current team along on the journey to …

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Daring to be Different (part 1)

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Management

Here is the first of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry.

When it comes to assessing sales and sales leadership capabilities in your business do the lines blur between the cultural morays, views and perceptions, gossip and politics and the real capabilities needed to be assessed against your actual sales strategy?

In my line of work I am often requested to sit on senior management interview panels for clients because of my background and expertise in assessing sales leadership and sales performance and the issues around of internal and external …

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Don’t confuse quantity for quality, or biggest for best

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Talent

Attracting and Searching for Candidates
Just like sales, in today’s market you need a combination of ‘Push & Pull ‘ contact strategies for finding the right candidates for your business. Advertising alone is not likely to yield the candidates you seek. When you decide to recruit externally, the following methods are available to select from:

  • Advertising (On-line job boards (MyCareer, SEEK, CareerOne, etc.); Newspapers;Magazines;Radio and television)
  • Recruitment Agencies
  • Executive search firms
  • Viral Marketing email campaigns
  • University Job Boards
  • In-store Advertising (shop window)
  • Family & Friends
  • Your own website
  • Information Seminars
  • Search (direct contact)
  • Networks
  • On-line network groups (My space;Link Me;Linked in)

With the advent of online job boards, many people can DIY …

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Getting Sales Recruitment Right

By / / Assessments, Attitudes & Behaviours, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Role Clarity, Sales Assessments, Sales Consulting, Sales Psychology, Sales Talent

Your small business is growing and diversifying. You’ve experimented with bringing in an inexperienced sales person (who did not work out). You realise you need a more experienced direct sales person, but you don’t know where to go or what to look for.

All you know is you need a sales person who is able to prospect for, and win, new business opportunities on a consistent daily basis, however you are not really able to detail anything else. You know your recruitment approach is haphazard at best. And what’s worse, it’s costing you big time.

You are not alone. Many SMEs …

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Sales Recruitment and the use of online psychometric assessments.

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments

Everyone seems to be is using online testing these days. That’s fine, however many people (candidates and companies alike) have fallen foul of testing especially when it comes to sales selection.

  • Online testing is becoming the way of the future
  • However, many online assessments are being marketed as credible with little regard for their limitations
  • Security is still the biggest issue!

Some web-based test publishers have prioritised speed, ease of integration and usability over a rigorous approach to testing itself. Unless security issues are fully addressed, the test content can be duplicated and candidates can ‘practise’. This reduces the …

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