Are you looking for a salesperson to boost your company's sales but are apprehensive about the recruitment phase? Are you having trouble finding the right person? We explain how to recruit the perfect senior sales person as we approach 2023.
The essentials for recruiting a good senior sales profile
Here are the main steps to follow to recruit a good senior salesperson:
- Define the profile of the salesperson that meets your needs: "hunter" or "breeder"?
- Write a relevant and attractive job offer: highlight your company while adopting the vocabulary of the salesperson and offering a suitable salary.
- Mobilise all possible resources: personal network, recommendations, social networks, recruiters, schools, etc.
Define the tasks of the salesperson to find the right profile
Before starting the recruitment phase, ask yourself several questions:
- What sales profile do I need to develop my sales?
- What will be its daily tasks?
- What targets do I want to set for the recruited profile?
Indeed, depending on the mission, the profile of the sales person and his/her objectives will be different! For example, if a salesperson can generate more sales, you need to recruit the right profile according to the maturity of your company.
The 'hunter' salesman to conquer the market
If your company is looking to conquer a market, look for a "hunter" profile, i.e. a salesperson who likes adventure and challenge.
They must be able to prospect, work at a fast pace and overcome obstacles by being creative. They are tenacious profiles who do not give up until they have succeeded in talking to the right person.
In your job description, remember to specify that prospecting will be one of its main daily tasks.
The "breeder" sales to make your portfolio grow
On the other hand, if the salesperson you are looking for has the task of growing an existing portfolio of clients, you will need a"breeder" profile.
This type of salesperson favours networking and has a very good sense of service which enables him/her to develop recurrent sales with his/her clients. They generally have more experience than the "hunter" and prefer to be more methodical and analytical.
In your job description, you should therefore prefer people who are organised, rigorous and who know how to manage their portfolio independently.
Writing an attractive job offer
The drafting of a job description is a central stage in the recruitment of sales staff. It should therefore not be done too quickly, as it is the essential tool for specifying the sales profile you need and for giving each candidate a precise reference for positioning himself.
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Showcasing your business
An advertisement that simply describes the profile of the candidate sought without detailing the nature of the company, its history, its values and its objectives, is unacceptable. It is a question of standing out from the crowd because there is no shortage of job offers for salespeople, and this is possible by selling your company.
To do this, follow the steps below:
- Give a general description of your company: its field of activity, its history.
- Then explain its current direction: its vision, its growth plan, its short, medium and long-term objectives.
- Describe your company culture: the premises, relations with colleagues, hierarchy, efforts made to promote well-being at work, etc.
- Guarantee prospects for development: it must be made clear to the employee that he or she will grow along with the company.
Support all these elements with concrete examples and figures, in order to be very convincing, to make people dream without being abstract!
Describe the job commercially
In your job advert, adopt a human tone to make the candidate want to apply, while expressing the tasks with commercial lexicon rather than with generic HR terms. You are talking to a salesperson, a sales expert: you need to speak their language!
In the job advertisement, you should detail :
- The range of products or services sold,
- The type, technicality and length of the sales cycle,
- The interlocutors addressed and their issues,
- The balance of prospecting and breeding within the portfolio,
- The sector entrusted and the potential of the sector,
- The average basket and the turnover target,
- The ease of selling or the weight of competition.
Offer a suitable salary
Although the salary may not appear on the job advertisement, the question of remuneration should be kept in mind from the beginning of the recruitment process.
In order to define a salary, you need to articulate the salary:
- The salesperson's objectives: it is first and foremost his or her tasks that will define the remuneration.
- The expectations of the salesperson: a remuneration package must be proposed that is consistent with their previous experience, but also attractive: company car, telephone, luncheon vouchers, or even a Spotify account, a subscription to a gym, etc.
- Your remuneration policy: this should be consistent with the overall remuneration of the company, and thus the salary should be defined in relation to other positions with similar levels of responsibility.
- To the market remuneration: compare the remuneration of salespeople from job offers available on the internet, in a sector, geographical area and for functions similar to what you are offering.
Resources for recruiting the perfect salesperson
Your personal network
You should not hesitate to mobilise your social and professional network: friends, family, acquaintances from your studies or in your workplace. There may be a number of competent sales people in your network, or professionals who like and know how to express the value of a product and convince many people.
You can contact these people and see if any are willing to work with you in your company.
References and recommendations
You can also ask for recommendations if you are unable to recruit a good salesperson from your personal network. A friend or acquaintance may know someone who works as a salesperson with high persuasive skills, or who possesses the qualities you expect. Referred candidates are worth looking at.
The professional social network LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the largest professional social network in the world. It is therefore one of the best places to search for profiles and build a list of potential candidates for your sales recruitment.
LinkedIn is very useful for this as its search functions are powerful, and can help you find qualified (but often already employed) salespeople in your particular niche. As most salespeople are passively looking for opportunities, this social network allows you to recruit existing profiles by contacting them directly or by posting jobs that may be seen by thousands of users.
Other social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, or Quora could also be useful for recruiting your sales people. Hundreds of millions of people regularly visit these networks to participate in professional conversations.
Recruiters, headhunters and traditional job boards
Job boards such as Indeed or Monster provide online interfaces that connect recruiters to candidates.
You benefit from straightforward recruitment services, and obtain relevant labour market data, such as median salaries for specific positions, sectors and geographical areas, which are very useful in determining the remuneration of the salesperson.
School leaver profiles
Take advantage of the relationships you have built up during your studies. You can also look beyond the places you attended, such as other universities in the area, if you need to create a larger talent pool.
Don't hesitate to mobilise alumni networks, by posting ads on school networks or by contacting directly the profiles that interest you.
Financing your sales recruitment with Karmen
A new funding scheme
The major comparative advantage of the FBR is its speed and the non-dilution of the capital. Indeed, unlike a fund raising, the RBF is a non-dilutive solution.
But what is capital dilution? Dilution is when a company has to give a part of its share capital against investment. The increase of the capital by issuing new shares will generate this dilution.
The major disadvantage of dilution is that the entrepreneur at the helm loses decision-making power. The issuance of new shares will create new voting and decision-making rights for the new investors.
This dilution, therefore, leads to a lower return per share.
Karmen avoids this dilution while being a fast and digitalized solution.
How do we do this? In concrete terms, we integrate with the company's various tools in read-only mode: invoicing, accounting and bank account tools (open banking). This allows us to have a real-time, 360° view of the company's financial health and thus to give an eligibility response within 48 to 72 hours and to offer the best financing deals (ifeligible).
Financing your recruitment, at your own pace
The idea of Karmen financing is not to do a one-shot deal and get a large amount of money that will not be used immediately. Instead, we support the company's long-term growth with additional tranches of funding every 2-3 months. Each tranche is to be repaid monthly over a repayment period of 4 to 12 months. It is therefore a short-term financing tranche but a long-term support:
- Get funded;
- Recruit your ideal sales profile;
- Develop your company's performance;
- Pay back your recruitment on a monthly basis.
So to recruit a good salesperson, you first need to define their profile according to your company's needs, then write a convincing job offer while mobilising all your networks. And as far as financing is concerned, there is Karmen 💙
