An interesting post on Business2Community discussed the concept of ongoing sales recruitment which, as a sales recruitment agency, we were interested to hear the proposed merits of. See a summary of the ideas presented below.
Growth, Not Replacement
One of the points put across was that sales people who are recruited as and when someone leaves are often being brought in primarily to replace someone as supposed to raise the bar.
But when it comes to overall company growth, surely bringing in talent to add to the mix and help improve overall sales performance as supposed to simply replacing lost talent could be a better way forward? With an ongoing sales recruitment strategy, such talent could be sourced constantly with a long term benefit on performance and a less pressurised hire.
High Turnover
The relatively high turnover within sales departments means that recruiting sales talent is likely to be a fairly frequent task for employers. Anticipating this need with a constant effort going into procurement can mean less pressure on sales recruitment agencies such as ourselves and better, first time hires.
The 80/20 Rule & LinkedIn
Only 20% of LinkedIn’s membership are actively looking for employment. 80% are passive candidates – when actively recruiting with time constraints, you’re more likely to have access to that 20% of LinkedIn candidates actively seeking new jobs. However, with a longer, more constant flow of sales recruitment, you could open yourself up to nabbing some of the 80% passive candidate group too.
No Bad Blood, New Blood
By constantly incorporating new blood and new talent into your sales team with a steady stream of recruitment you can raise the bar – and kiss goodbye to employee complacency. The pressure’s always on to perform with eager and new employees joining a sales team regularly, but being in an environment with the same team for years on end could lead to being more comfortable… and complacent.
Of course to enable continuous sales recruitment you need big budgets to cope with any influx of talent should it arrive in batches – being able to meet payroll is crucial after all! However the arguments for a consistent sales recruitment strategy are compelling to say the least, and if your budget can accommodate one – the benefits in bringing the company forward could be well worth the cost.
Castle Hill House