Recruiting top-performing sales reps is not easy to do, especially if you don’t have a proven process for hiring sales reps.
Many companies will dive right into recruiting without a plan and quickly encounter problems. For example, without a dedicated HR team, hiring is passed off onto other employees who don’t know the ins and outs of recruiting. Another example is only posting the opening on job boards and expecting to get tons of qualified applicants.
At Naviga, we receive calls every day from frustrated HR professionals, sales leaders, and CEOs seeking out our help when they run into these problems. Each company reaches out for a different reason, but they all end up asking us the same question: What is your process for hiring top sales reps?
Our answer to this question comes in the form of our 10 step sales recruiting process. Over the years, we have tweaked and refined our sales recruiting process to produce the best candidates possible. Learn about these 10 steps and the process it takes to hire top sales reps with a retained recruiting firm.
1. Calibration
The first step of our process begins with a calibration call. The calibration call takes place between the recruiting firm and the hiring manager in order to define the specific requirements of the open position and to learn what type of candidate they’re looking to hire. This is our opportunity, as recruiters and account managers, to ask as many questions as we can to get to the exact science of what an employer or hiring manager needs. The calibration call can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the intensity of the position and the level of the position.
2. Create/Approve Search Specification
Once the calibration call is complete, we then create a search profile. The search profile is the recruiter’s and account manager’s interpretation of the company’s hiring needs. Once the interpretation is down on paper, we send it to the client to make sure we are in agreement about what their requirements are for the position. This is an important step of the process because it eliminates any gray area and streamlines the recruiting process. We don’t want to spend time submitting candidates to our client to find out afterward that the client wants a completely different type of candidate.
3. Establish Recruiting Strategy
The next step of the process is to internally develop a recruiting strategy. Each job strategy is unique and created based on the position’s specific requirements, location, and industry. After the strategy is complete and the team starts to execute, a project timeline is created and given to the client.
4. Construct Project Timeline
This timeline not only holds our team accountable but also allows the hiring manager to come up with a timeline for any training or onboarding sessions for the new hire. The timeline for each position varies, but on average, Naviga places sales and marketing professionals within 45 days of starting the recruiting process.
5. Recruit and Qualify Candidates
Once the requirements and timelines are nailed down, it’s time for the recruiters to start recruiting and qualifying candidates. There are many actions the recruiters take during this stage in order to find the right candidates. They are proactively recruiting, sharing job descriptions, reaching out to passive candidates, and refining and changing the recruiting strategy when needed. The recruiter’s goal during this stage is to create a shortlist of candidates for the client to review.
6. Present Short-List of Candidates
At Naviga, our recruiters submit a shortlist of four candidates to our client because we have a ratio: if we submit four people, we get one hire with B2B sales recruitment. The recruiters don’t just submit the first person that comes across their desks or looks good after the first screening. The four candidates that are submitted have been evaluated for weeks and are the best people out of the pack. Being able to discern top talent and narrow it down to four great candidates helps move the hiring process along and ensures that the client is only seeing the best candidates possible, and not wasting their time with poor candidates.
7. Client Interviews
During the process of finding qualified candidates, an interview date is established with the client to screen the four candidates. Having a set interview date makes the recruiting process tight and is incremental in getting the candidates interviewed in an efficient manner. When recruiters submit one candidate to the client, then wait for feedback, and then submit another candidate to the client and wait for feedback, it really kills the whole recruiting process. The busiest people in the world are owners, VPs of Sales, Directors of HR, Vice Presidents of HR, so it’s important to respect their time. We give our clients a two-week time period to set interview dates with the four candidates. Once interview dates are set, there is accountability on both ends and helps keep the momentum going during the process.
8. Reference Checks/Background Check
After the interviews take place, reference checks and background checks are performed on the top candidates. These reference checks are essential in evaluating top candidates against each other and helping move one of the candidates into the offer stage.
9. Offer Negotiation With Candidate
Our recruiters then assist the client and candidate during the offer stage in order to make sure there are no discrepancies when it’s time for a formal offer to be extended.
10. Consult During Transition
The final step in our process is a 30-day check-in after the candidate’s start date. We ask the client how the candidate is doing, and how they are onboarding. We also check in with the candidate to see how they are doing in their new position. It’s a way for us to manage little things in the process that might be missing from the hiring manager or missing on the candidate side. It’s our way of performing quality control to make sure all parties are happy.
Before retaining a recruiting firm, it’s important to find out about their process and how they will find you your ideal candidate. For Naviga, it’s a very strategic ten-step process for hiring sales reps that has been proven throughout many years in business. Click here for more information on Naviga’s sales and marketing recruiting process.
What does your current recruiting process look like? Is it successful or is there room for improvement?
