Attract “A” Player Sales Talent by Properly Defining Sales Roles

  

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What is the first thing a potential candidate sees when they are job hunting?  Many times it is the name of the role, followed closely by an elaborate, seemingly never ending job description.  Who cares?  You should, if you are trying to attract top sales talent.

Remember, you are hiring sales professionals.  They are looking for an exciting career, with huge upside, and a competitive, fun environment.  Many job postings are about as exciting as watching Judge Judy on a Tuesday afternoon.  They include a bunch of HR policies and mumbo jumbo that make Sales Reps run in the other direction.  Also, listing 50 different requirements doesn’t make the job sound more important. Sales professionals think they are going to be bogged down doing so many non-selling activities that they may never make a single dollar in commissions. 

So what do you do?

1. Cut out the noise
2. Include only the key competencies (focus on scorecard)
3. Put the HR requirements in the back and minimize them

Cut out the noise:

• Bad: We need a team player to execute the corporate strategy while focusing on core business objectives that will lead to long-term success.
• Try Instead:  Need experience team selling with a track record of exceeding quotas

Include the Key Competencies (focus on scorecard) required for the job:

• Drive new business growth through aggressive prospecting
• Minimize customer churn by executing ABC company's client retention game-plan
• Increase market share within existing client portfolio

Put the HR requirements in the back and minimize them as much as possible:

• These can be a necessary evil, but do whatever you can to shrink, compress, and eliminate them.  No sales person in the history of mankind has been attracted to a job because it was a requirement to be able to lift 25 pounds and have a driver’s license. 

What have we learned?  Having clear and concise role definitions can help weed out the people you don’t want to apply and attract the “A” players that are looking for a dynamic and challenging sales career.  Are you wondering why that post on Monster only drove 2 applicants and 1 of them is currently mowing the neighbor’s lawn for a career?  Read the job/role description again and put yourself in the candidate’s shoes.  Are you inadvertently screening top talent?