Hiring sales people is often a challenge. Hiring the wrong person will cost you. It can cost your company between six to ten times the cost of the base salary of the person if you end up with the wrong person, therefore it is important to spend the right amount of time when you need to hire a new person. Sales and marketing recruitment agencies often include training and ongoing help to their clients so that they can prevent problems when new sales people are hired.

Tips from Sales and Marketing Recruitment Agencies:

• Sales is a people business. A solid handshake and a warm smile will go a long way. Developing a connection with a potential client or customer is the most important thing a salesperson can do. For this reason, sales experience is not the most important thing to look for when interviewing prospective employees. Sales and marketing recruitment agencies say that the way the person handles themselves is much more important that almost anything else. Do you like them? Do you connect with them? Listen to your gut when it comes to this.
• How well can they communicate? Communications skills are essential to any sales job so your prospective employees need to be able to do this on the phone, in person and over email. This is the number of job of any sales team. If they cannot articulate why your products or services are the best, they should not be hired. This should be a deal breaker (or deal maker if they are good in this area).
• Persistence is a key to sales. Sales and marketing recruitment agencies will tell you that persistence pays off. Good sales people are persistent and patient. They need be great at follow up. Only 20% of sales people in America follow up on their sales leads. At least 80% of sales that are non-routine come after the sales person has made at least five attempts to follow up. If your people are not willing to put this kind of time into a sales, you need to keep looking. At least 44% of sales people give up after hearing no. This is simply not acceptable. A career in sales is all about being persistent.
• Pick open ended questions and ask the same ones to all of your candidate. You can get more information about an applicant from the open ended questions than from simple ones that require a yes or no. If you ask all of your interviewees the same questions, you will be better able to judge them all.
• Make sure your job description is accurate and correct. Often people do not realize their ads so not make the impression they want it to. Some companies fail to check their classified advertising for typos and misspellings. You will not attract the right caliber people if your ad is has any errors like this in it.
• Take your time with the process. This is going to cost you a lot if you get the wrong person and you do not want to have to go through this again right away. Make sure the person is a good fit for your company. Think about your company culture and that sort of thing.

Once you have hired someone, invest in their continuing training. All of your staff can use pointers from time to time. People who have been with your firm for a long time may be in a rut and could possibly benefit from insights from newer staff members. This will also make your sales team feel more included and valued at your business. Making them happy will keep your bottom line healthy.

Sales jobs are hard and they not for everyone. Your sales team directly reflects on you and your business. This is an extension of your company. You need to hire people who will make you look good each and every time they make a sales call or answer an email. They need to be confident and trustworthy without being arrogant. Sales and marketing recruitment agencies