Two of the most crucial areas businesses need to excel at in order to be successful are human resources and hiring. Specifically, they need to be able to find sales reps who can help to spread, sell, and protect their brand. However, it seems that hiring sales people who are skilled, reliable, and driven is nearly impossible.
Consider, one-third of employees working in sales careers have been doing so for less than 12 months at their company. What does that mean? Effectively, that demonstrates the very real issues with low retention and high attrition rates that companies are having to deal with. Whether using a recruitment agency, like Executive Search Group, or going it alone, here are three crucial characteristics to look for when hiring sales reps that will stick around while doing their jobs well.
- Personality
- A Professional Record
- Communication Skills
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Especially with sales professionals, it is important that friendliness and warmth are among their character traits. Consider, when sales reps are meeting with longtime partners or new potentials, they need to demonstrate their appreciation for the time and efforts of the other party. A warm smile, a handshake, and a positive attitude overall go a long way at a sales call.
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Statistics on sales professionals in North America are not what can be described as fantastic. 40% of sales reps will miss quota, 22% are untrainable, and only 10% will be successful in providing their employers with a return on investment. However, by looking for potential hires with a strong background in business, customer service, and sales, businesses greatly raise their chances of gaining part of that 10% that provides a financial return and benefit.
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Most, if not all, of what sales representatives do is communication. They call potential leads on the phone, meet with them to discuss business, and communicate via e-mail. Subsequently, strong communication skills, both verbal and written, are necessary for a successful career in sales. If a potential hire has trouble speaking in public or writing competently, they, likely, are not a good choice.
Recruitment Agencies Can Help
Even with these tips, doing hiring in-house can be a resource intensive process. Interviewing, hiring, and training all have their costs in time and money, after all. However, through the use of recruitment agencies, like Executive Search Group, businesses stand to automate the process of getting professional sales reps. Consider, Executive Search Group, for example, screens and places sales reps with their new companies, effectively managing the process from start to finish. This means companies can focus on business while leaving time and money intensive HR searches to reputable sales recruitment firms like Executive Search Group.
The fact has been and will continue to be that the sales department at any type of business is the gateway to a financially successful business that has the respect of its partners. Keeping these tips in mind, whether using a recruitment agency or not, can be key to that very important factor.