Thursday, August 30, 2012

The global war on Sales Talent - How to hire and retain a talented sales


"Do not ask for realization of those who have no talent. Not charge people to do what it can do. Select and give them responsibilities commensurate with their abilities." - Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military thinker

We can not blame our sales managers, if this thought is lost on them. Sun Tzu wrote those words, 2500 years ago in an essay "The Art of War" and was also in China. But it is nice to note that the appropriate and useful are these words, in today's corporate world, especially in sales.

Improvement of legislation by the WTO and other international trade organizations have facilitated trade relations between the economies easier. With the fall of protectionist barriers in the business world today has become truly global. It makes sense to hire the best talent to succeed in a competitive business environment that transcends national boundaries.

The companies would admit without hesitation, so much so that often their recruitment decisions have been too expensive for them. Sometimes personalities have taken "sales" and discovered that he had only a postulate of faith in popular myth. Wrong hiring decision costs a lot more actually estimated by sales managers. Unfit and incompetent sales staff not only hinder the growth of the organization, they drag him back. It takes two years to solve the problem of taking the wrong person sales. If you hire the right people to sell is difficult, it is a challenge to keep them on a long term basis.

And 'possible to recruit and retain top sales talent. The following would be of great help in this direction.

1 - attracting the best talent: whether the assumption of local or global challenges are similar - how to attract the best talent. Offering the best possible compensation and benefits as well as encouraging a working environment will create a pool of candidates for Prime Minister. The challenge is to separate the fit from the unfit. To publish the advertisements to fill vacancies for sales to final delivery of the letters work, organizations have to plan everything to hire the best talent possible. They should know where the sales talent achievers would look for a job change. Campus interviews are useful if the target is the raw talent. Referrals from employment agencies and employees are well trusted if skilled hands, when the parties refer to the exact nature of the work expectations of sales position.

2 - Create the right Profile: Profile of desired candidate must be created by observing the current batch of excellent performers that the sales organization. Some of their traits, if not all, are what the organization must look ahead for the candidates. Of course, the candidate should have the potential and desire to develop the remaining features that are absent in them. Candidates must have multiple profile characteristics, such as high self-motivation, good sales skills, intelligence, empathy and integrity. The strong candidates in a single profile without any feature or characteristic profile should be avoided.

3 - Having the proper method of selection: The HR department has the primary responsibility of screening candidates should work in perfect tandem with the sales department, which is often not the case. Psychologists Frank L. Schmidt and John E. Hunter led a study on the effectiveness of different techniques for selecting the employees who work sample tests, which simulate the important parts of the work are the most accurate predictor of job success. Structured interviews with a prescribed set of questions and a consistent method of scoring candidate is the second best predictor of job success. The sales and human resources department should work together to design the tests and questionnaires.

4 - Seal the Deal: the negotiations once suitable candidates are identified should be done to get a signed copy of the job. Delay could result in the candidate wanted to opt to join elsewhere.

The retention of talented and efficient sales staff on a long-term basis is a challenge. The vendors have extensive contacts and get information about openings in other sales organizations. Dissatisfaction with their current organization would have asked them to explore new sales opportunities with another company. To avoid this, the following suggestions will help.

1. Give the true picture: while the candidates for recruitment of human resources personnel and the sales manager should give the true nature of the work and not hide anything that would cause this disappointment on the part of the new hires. It works against an organization when trying to drum the advantages and disadvantages of working with hides it. The policy of non-discrimination on the basis of sex, nationality, religious belief, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or should actually be in practice.

2. Adequate appreciation and compensation: Achievers for sale should be commended for their efforts through praise and appreciation appropriate incentives and benefits. When times are tough achievers may consider giving up the monetary compensation. But what no human being can do without is the recognition of his achievements. Giving generous doses of positive reinforcement achievers.

3. Ignoring occasional failures and not be overly critical would be of great help in this direction. Having a long-term plan: Have a plan for long-term career achievers with the prospect of promotion, stock option plans, employee and pension benefits would be possible to encourage sales staff to stick with the organization for a long time .

Efforts to hire the best talent and maintaining them should be robust. Financially, it makes a lot of sense and save you valuable time, as well as energy.

Having a good recruitment practices and the support staff would produce tangible results if implemented in the spirit in which they are created. The will to implement practices must come from top management .......

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