Recruiting great salespeople is one of the costliest processes many businesses undertake.

I hear it all the time – “We take on expensive sales people and they deliver nothing… they were so experienced, but they just didn’t get results.”

As someone who has worked in Sales Management for more than 20 years, I know all these things can be true of sales people. Recruiting good salespeople can be very challenging.

What I can prove to you is that great salespeople  ‘under-deliver’ if your conditions are not right.

Average salespeople can become ‘extraordinary’ in the right circumstances.

When an employee joins your business, they are entering a new phase of their lives. They will have expectations and desires which will need to be met so they can deliver their very best for you.

At each stage of the journey, they will either thrive or stagnate. And you have control over their experience.

There are some key milestones an employee will go through when they embark on their career with you – taking the time to make sure these milestones are ‘celebrations’ for them will bring you far better results when recruiting great salespeople.

Selection

A great candidate will take the selection of what business to work for very seriously. When you are creating your recruitment process bear that in mind.

• They will want to see quality surroundings.
• They will want to meet with professional, engaging people.
• They will want to gain a full understanding of the opportunity available to them.

In short, they will want to be taken seriously. If you want to ensure you attract the top talent, then create a recruitment process that achieves that.

Assimilation

Your new recruit will want to quickly feel a sense of belonging with your organisation. They will want to feel welcomed by colleagues and comfortable in the business. This will span everything, from their perception of the management, their understanding of the expectations of the role and their general engagement with colleagues. If your business does not ensure your recruit integrates well, and quickly, they will begin to doubt their decision to join your business.

You will struggle to get strong performance and loyalty from them in the long term.

Development

An ambitious employee will want to see a clear and rapid route to progression. They will expect training, coaching and mentoring on a regular basis to add to and enhance their skill set.

Too many businesses fail to provide a clear development programme for their staff and this results in a lack of belief they can improve their skills and ability. Never stop working with your employees to give them feedback and tools for improvement.

Performance

When a good performer starts to really deliver for your business, your work is still most definitely not done! It is essential you have mechanisms in your business to ensure great performance is recognised and rewarded.

By being very clear about the measures for success, you will be able to create processes in your business to celebrate achievements, and for recognising failings, and developing around them.

If your business should be able to provide the right management at each of the stages listed, you’ll be giving everyone in your business the opportunity to really deliver for you.

So – who is under-performing?

Is it your recruit? Or is it your ability to deliver what they need to really shine?

Think about some actions you can take in your business today to impact one of the stages above.

If you have any questions or just want to let us know how you get on with recruiting great salespeople, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to get in touch via Linkedin.