I built this company going from one Industrial prospect to the next, building customers one at a time. Four years later and we are a quickly growing company that needs to find a solid, reputable outdoor sales person with whom we can count on to execute to their responsibilities. But this is almost impossible, and painfully time consuming. Does anyone have any suggestions (without having to hire a recruiting firm) on how to best find and recruit solid outdoor sales people?
Answers
Erron - you're right about outside salespeople being almost impossible to find. What I'm going to say may sound a bit odd, but bear with me. The clients I work with have the easiest time finding salespeople - and any employees really - through their own website. I'm not talking about job postings, although that's part of it.
What do salespeople want? Quality leads that will expedite the sales process. How do we do that? By turning your website into a teaching tool. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that PTLX Global is your company (based on your name and location). So, if I'm looking at your Illumination Terms page, I see some great definitions (LUX, Lumen, etc.), and each of those definitions deserve their own webpage. Why? When you have something akin to a FAQ, Google doesn't know what that page is about. Google's computers are looking for answers to specific questions (e.g., when someone types in "What is a lumen?"), and it's finding many answers to many questions on your Illumination Terms page.
The clients I work with that write educational articles find two things - 1. Their Google rankings for their keywords go up, and 2.They draw more and more visitors to their site. I can give you multiple examples where readers of a company's blog - or whatever you'd like to call it - have eventually become employees.
If you want to check out my site, I've written quite a few articles about this concept, and I know it can help you find quality employees as well. Just let me know if I can be of any assistance. Good luck!
Spencer X Smith
http://www.spencerXsmith.com
Several job posting sites exist, e.g., http://www.indeed.com/hire, or www.glassdoor.com/Job/bothell - where you can localize the solicitation. Assume you've tried all of these?
Additionally, if you're not on https://www.linkedin.com/ - I would register (free); once in the system, you can use search terms (e.g., title, geography) to identify individuals with posted profiles. From there, you can connect and explore options.
Finally, and while obvious, have you contacted your Air Force, college or high school career resources - including the local/regional community college job boards?
Best wishes for success with your company.
Erron,
I have hired 150+ sales people over the past 20 years. Most were good to great, but there were several disasters. Remember, people are on their best behavior during the hiring process. If you have doubts, don't hire. You won't be able to change them.
In terms of sourcing, most people scan the job boards (Monster, CareerBuilder, etc.) My suggestion is to be clear as to the specifics of the job and the realistic compensation. You have to decide what level of experience you want. In some cases, hiring someone else's rep can pay huge dividends because they are trained. In some cases, taking someone with minimal experience gives you the opportunity to train them your way.
I have three non-negotiables that I look for when hiring.
1 - Ethical/Work Ethic. Unethical representatives will kill your business. You can't recover from an ethical lapse with a customer. The number one reason sales reps succeed is their work ethic.
2 - Ability to Learn/Coachability - Regardless of what you sell, you can be certain that the business will constantly change. Your representative will need to be able to change with the market. Also, if their attitude is "I know what I am doing, leave me alone and let me sell" you will be looking for a new rep soon.
3. Basic Job Requirements - The person you hire should have the ability to do the job. Back to number 2, you may have to teach them your business, and if you hire someone with minimal experience, you may even need to coach them on the basics of selling. The interview process is a sales process. You will get an idea as to their sales style/ability as they try to sell you on hiring them.
I hope this was useful.
Take care,
Bill
Go to your next trade show and steal the sales guy or gal off the floor. OR Ask your current clients who is selling against you, find that person and offer them a job. Industry has been doing this for hundreds of years. It works.
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