Cheat Sheet to Hiring Sales Professionals Faster
Becca Eddleman
Every day spent with an open sales headcount can cost your company thousands of dollars. That’s why urgency is so important in the hiring process. For example,
An AE with a $1 million annual quota will bring in $83,000/month on average. That’s a lose of $4,150 a day this position goes unfilled.
Say you have two or three open sales positions that you need to fill, making hiring urgency even more detrimental to your quarter and annual goals. The sales hiring process can feel overwhelming if you don’t first establish an ideal candidate profile and institute an efficient interview process.
That’s why Skaled Consulting and Betts Recruiting have partnered to build a comprehensive “cheat sheet” or guide to hiring sales professionals and ramping up faster in the ebook Faster Hiring Means More Sales.
In this post, we’ll address the latter topic to help you set your company up for success throughout the sales hiring process. Download the full ebook for a more in-depth look and to also learn the keys to onboarding success.
Sales Hiring: Ideal Candidate Profile
Competition is fierce in B2B sales, which means you need the right people in place in order to hit your goals and scale. Building the ideal candidate profile is the first step. Hiring sales professionals fast is important, but you also want to make sure you don’t have to go through the process again in 6 months because the candidate ended up not being a good fit or didn’t have the right experience.
In the ebook, we cover 3 candidate profiles to help you hire A+ people. Here’s a preview of what you need to know.
Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) Profile & Experience
Characteristics:
- Self Motivated – SaaS sales is a tough job. SDRs need to be able to motivate themselves through the ups and downs.
- Naturally Curious – Do they stay on top of industry trends, read sales books, and run experiments?
- Coachable – Do they seek out advice to get better at their job? Do they accept constructive criticism and use that to improve?
Experience:
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Competitive Nature
- Prior Sales Experience a Plus
Account Executive (AE) Profile & Experience
Characteristics:
- Prior Sales Experience – Most account executives have considerable experience in sales, and often started as an SDR.
- Savvy Negotiators – They’re well-versed in the psychology of sales and are comfortable negotiating high- stakes contracts.
- Self-Confident – AEs need to be confident chatting with founders and C-level executives.
Experience:
- SDR or Junior AE experience
- 5+ years of sales experience
Sales Manager Profile & Experience
Characteristics:
- Evangelist – If the company is in its early stages, sales leaders are often major forces for increasing brand awareness. Your director or VP of sales should be able to channel enthusiasm and excitement for your product, and have strong social media savvy.
- Analyst – As the team member largely responsible for creating your sales team’s KPIs, your director or VP should have the analytical capabilities to map out future success and troubleshoot prior shortcomings.
- Strong Sales Record – Sales leaders will almost always have prior experience as a sales rep. For the ideal leader, that experience should include exceptional examples of success: hitting their quota even in slow quarters for the team, closing enterprise-level accounts, or generating a high volume of business at a small company.
Experience:
- Strategy
- Prior sales roles
- Accounting
Download Ebook for Full Profiles
Sales Hiring: Interview Process
The golden rule to remember in your hiring process is:
No more than 3 days between steps.
Your interview process is your roadmap and your timeline. If the goal is to hire the right salespeople faster, then don’t break the golden rule and keep your interview process concise whether you’re hiring an SDR or a sales manager.
Remember. Not only do you pay every day you go with an unfilled sales headcount, but you’re also giving great candidates the opportunity to take another offer because you didn’t move fast enough or they thought you weren’t interested.
Download the ebook for the full…
3 step process of hiring an SDR
5 step process of hiring an AE
7 step process of hiring a Sales Manager
To get you started, here’s a cheat sheet to 9 general interview questions that reveal natural sales talent and goals:
- How do you remain knowledgeable on trends considering your target industry or audience?
- Is meeting quota every time more important than ensuring your customers are happy?
- When do you decide a prospect isn’t the right fit?
- What are you really good at professionally?
- What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally?
- How do you handle objections?
- If a deal is lost, do you ever ask the prospect why? If so, what did they say?
- What are your thoughts on collaboration within the sales team as well as with other teams?
- What are your career goals?
Contact Skaled for Your Sales Hiring Needs
Skaled is a pioneering sales consultancy dedicated to helping small to large sales organizations put the right people, processes, and technology in place. Stay tuned for our next post on the keys to onboarding and faster ramp-up! The third section of Skaled and Betts Recruiting’s Faster Hiring Means More Sales ebook.