enterprise sales executives

Recruiting Enterprise Sales – Getting Quality & Quantity

If you’re using LinkedIn to reach qualified sales candidates (which you should be) and not getting the quantity and quality of candidate flow, there’s a reason. Things have changed!  More people are looking, and more companies are recruiting.  It’s about standing out! 

First, those candidates you’re looking for are ALL on LinkedIn and the pool is enormous! 

The challenge is attracting attention and then getting them hooked.  Differentiating yourselves in a very crowded market seems challenging, but it’s not that hard. Honestly, with a little strategy and creative writing, you can get your candidate flow up after a few sessions.  Here’s why it’s so important… there are currently over 25K companies in the US looking specifically for Enterprise Sales Executives. Here’s what’s crazy, 95% of all the ads look the same.  Effective ads stand out, they speak to the candidates in their language quickly, and in a compelling way! The effective ad lets our qualified candidates know we have something special for them. This becomes more and more critical now that the opportunity to build and grow the sales effort is better than has been in a good while. 

Let’s start back with our sales training and apply some of it to recruiting…

Learn about what’s important to them. Listen and understand what they want and understand why it’s important.  Use what we know is important to them to write an effective ad to show them we are exactly what they want. Please don’t just publish a description of the job role if you’re serious about upping your recruiting game! We win at attracting the high performing sales candidates we want and need when we speak their language.  

Here’s the thing, we already know what high performing enterprise level sales talent is looking for.  We’ve listened!  They want intangibles like sales culture, inspiring leadership, independence, impactful contribution, and a mission worth believing in, to name a few.  They are also looking for tangibles like the opportunity to make big money when they deliver big performance, they want marketing and lead gen support, they want to hear our vision and know there’s a plan.  They want to be on a winning team! But you don’t need to be the Superbowl champs in your market, you just need to effectively share the vision along with a plan to get there!  This is the starting line to attracting top players.

Are you experiencing any of these?

  • Not getting the flow of candidates you need.  
  • Having to compromise or settle on the quality for your candidate pool.  
  • Confounded by what it takes to attract the best without breaking the bank.  
  • Finding that your new hire ramp-to-quota is too long, perhaps unstable, unpredictable, and potentially driving turnover.  
  • Too many reps not making their number and sucking up too many management resources.

The above symptoms are all closely connected to ineffective recruiting and not having a well-organized ramp path for new sales reps. Within 90 days, you and your reps should have clarity on how their success trajectory is doing and how they got there.  This is all part of the recruiting story, “you’re a fit for our team and we are going to help get you there.”  It gives “A” players the assurance they are not alone and the knowledge there is a team effort working toward mutually beneficial goals.  

The companies who win at recruiting top sales talent are those who know how to first attract a critical mass of qualified talent, possess a well-documented path to success, with a support team to help enterprise sales executives get the right help they need to succeed.  

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Epic Sales B2B Hiring Fails

1. Being Emotionally Involved:

They’ll sneak in and get you every time if you’re not careful! Allowing emotions to come into play in the hiring process produces bad sales hires!  Usually, emotions get involved when there is no strategy or process.  You meet someone and you think “wow, they’re great!  They’re smart, attractive, articulate and both they and their resume have said how great they are too.”  STOP, WAKE UP!!!  You may be close to a bad sales hire.  If you’re reading this, you probably know how costly it is!  The time to train and manage, the time putting them on performance improvement, the time needed to start over, and most importantly… the lost opportunities that you can never recover.  First rule… do not rely on gut feeling!  It will get you every time.

2. Not Being Precise with the Sales Role:

There are several roles but the most prominent are the Hunter and the Account Manager.  My experience tells me Hunters do not make good Account Managers and vice versa.  Here’s how to tell the difference.  Ask the Hunter to map out their prospecting strategy they have used in the past.  How do they organize their time, how do they get to the decision maker and what is their contact cadence? Ask them to role play a first call.  Similarly, ask the Account Manager to map out their strategy to expand a key account.  Ask how they network using connections, what research they do and how do they use it? 

3. Decision Maker Access:

This is a make or break for your most important deals.  Unfortunately, many salespeople do not have the self-concept, a strategy or technique to get to the decision maker.  The higher your average sale size is, the more critical this becomes.  Ask your prospective hire how they negotiate to power, and in their opinion, how important accessing power is to win a deal.  If they don’t see it as critical, they won’t do it, and they will deliver to you a pipeline full of bloat (unqualified deals that will not close).

4. Not Understanding Their Money Concept:

This gets into psychology because beliefs drive what salespeople are willing to do and not do.  For example, if you charge more than your competitors because of quality, beliefs come into play.  Here’s an example, your salesperson buys everything on price in their personal life, because high value means the lowest price. Now when fielding a price objection, this belief does not support the right outcome.  You will find these folks are the ones with the lowest margins, asking for the most concessions for the customer. Therefore, it is important to measure these hidden drivers before someone is hired. 

5. Do They Really Know How to Handle Sales Complexity:

Complexity of sales cycle is usually associated with a higher price point.  Not only does it require access to a VP or C level decision maker, but it also requires herding cats (getting everyone on the same page), executive presence, and the ability to understand and talk to the prospects business strategy.  Ask them how they do this and ask for an example of how they have tied business strategy to a solution they have sold in the past. 

6. Are They Showing Off Their Goal Orientation:

The most successful people are goal oriented, particularly salespeople.  It’s more than just writing down numbers.  It’s passion about where you are going and why it is important to get there.  Consequently, evidence of how important a candidate’s personal goals are to them is key.  Also consider if the role offered allows them to achieve their goals, assuming they are at or above company goal.  Salespeople without a “goal mindset” are not salespeople who consistently achieve! 

7. Do They Really Listen and Have Excellent Questioning Skills:

How can you listen if you cannot get people to talk?  You can’t!  Questioning skills always come first.  A great salesperson’s first tool in the bag is their questioning skills, then their ability to listen.  Ask them their top 10 qualifying questions.  They should be able to rattle these off without a second thought.  If they can’t, that’s a problem.  Also, observe their listening skills in the interview.  Do they practice active listening (paraphrasing the key things you’ve said)?  Do you feel like you are being heard and understood by them or are they more focused on getting their own questions answered? 

8. No Excuse Makers Please:

This is an important one!  Responsibility in sales is defined as the absence of excuse making.  If you have a sales team now, I’m sure you have heard “I can’t because…” In sales you must find your way around obstacles.  The minute you say you cannot, in your mind you’re right and you stop trying.  Ask about the most difficult circumstances they’ve had to overcome. If they have not had many or ones that are not impressive, chances are they won’t be impressive in the sales field either. 

9. Don’t Settle. Select the Best:

Remember the top 20% is out there and your job is sifting through candidates quickly with little expense to select the best!  You’ll be glad you did.  

The top 20% of salespeople produce 125% more than average, the top 4% produce 250% more. 

Brad Smart – Topgrading