What to Look for in a Sales Management Recruiter

Sales recruiting is a unique profession because of the wide array of innate traits and learned skills required to be successful. It can be a difficult field to get into, and even more difficult to excel and last at, because of certain requirements that simply cannot be taught. This also makes it a very competitive field, which means you have a lot of options when choosing a sales management recruiter.

However, if you’re not used to working directly in the recruitment field in can be difficult to know what to look for when shopping around for different firms. Recruiting sales people can take time, and you don’t want a recruiter to rush a potential hire, but you don’t want to waste time either. When you start looking at upper level positions and need a sales management recruiter, the stakes are higher and the process can quickly become more complicated.

Recruiting sales people for entry or mid-level positions is different than recruiting for sales management; a recruiter looking for senior positions needs to put a lot more time and effort into finding the right candidate(s) because of the nature of the position. This is true in every industry; the higher up the position, the more skills and experience are required, which means fewer applicants meet the necessary requirements. It can also take more to entice an upper level executive or manager to consider leaving their comfort zone to move to a new company.

Because of the importance of a management position, and the differences between recruiting sales people and recruiting sales managers, you need to be especially careful when choosing a sales management recruiter. There are a few things you should look for when comparing sales management recruiter or firm:

Track Record
Overall, how are they at recruiting sales people and placing employees at all levels? This is a good first indicator of work ethic and will give you an idea of how the recruiter or firm will work for you.

Management Placement History
Do the employees that they find stick around? A good sales management recruiter should know how their recent placements are doing and hopefully has a proven record of how long previous placements lasted so you know what to expect.

Guarantee
Are you protected if the new hire doesn’t work out for some reason? Most agencies guarantee their placement for a certain amount of time in case the new hire doesn’t meet expectations.

These are just some basic guidelines to get you started, and they can be applied whether you are looking for someone to work on recruiting sales people or trying to find a sales management recruiter. Make sure you do your homework and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Happy hiring!

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Permalink Reply by Margaret Graziano on September 10, 2008 at 1:49pm

Peter, you are so SMART !

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Permalink Reply by Peter Marinilli on September 10, 2008 at 11:23pm

No...you are lol

Margaret Graziano said:

Peter, you are so SMART !

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Permalink Reply by Margaret Graziano on September 11, 2008 at 6:23pm

I am going to add some stuff about sales recruiters using validation tools, brace yourself. BTW I spent today in our secret list. it was good. BUT there were lots of sales recruiters in there that SAY that they already use assessments and behavioral interviewing to validate their hires. It is time to get Target on board. Why not get certified in retention so we can spend a couple extra days learning ??? Then we can hit universal. DO you want to see my post before I post or should I go 4 it ???

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Permalink Reply by Tony Petrucci on September 11, 2008 at 11:10pm

Peter,

Great thoughts! When I think of the steps of successfully managing the sales management recruiting process they are:

1. Being in bed with your client...or more politically correct...knowing your client's business as well as you know your own (no easy task) so you can identify the perfect candidate profile.

2. Sourcing - Cold Calling, Internet Mining, Networking, Advertising etc...all the normal stuff.

3. **** Screening - This is where most recruiters fail when it comes to sales management. While there are many things to screen for...the most difficult and most important is to determine how they "virtually coach". How do they, through asking great questions, put themselves on sales calls with their team when they weren't really there. Then based on that, how do they add practical value to their team through enabling self-discovery, sales process improvement and technique improvement by being able to re-create a sales call in which they weren't present.

4. Candidate Process Management - Getting candidates as efficiently as possible throug the process and pre-closing on both sides.

So with sales management, the differentiation, all lies in the screen.

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Permalink Reply by Margaret Graziano on September 11, 2008 at 11:30pm

Tony, and Peter and who ever is out there listening.

I think Tony has it right. The question is 'HOW DO YOU DISCERN THAT QUALITY IN AN INTERVIEW?"

There are several things / elements /traits that go in to the Coach /Virtual Coach competency...they are things or traits like 'developer', 'inspirer', 'tactician', 'visionary' ‘results oriented’ ...let me explain. A developer is someone who takes time to coach and develop people based on where they are at and what they are capable of...a developer does not micro manage the person who is a self starter yet they innately know when to step in and take the reigns and when to coach from afar. An inspirer, is someone who bring outs the light in their team, they know what makes someone tick and they have a clever knack to bring out those motivators when they are needed most in the team as a whole and in each individual. A tactician (of course these are keen describers) is someone who has the ability to match situations or accounts with the right person to close the deal or manage the account, this trait allows managers, specifically sales managers to leverage the power of the team for the benefit of the company and the customer. A visionary is someone who knows the next step to take and is one step ahead of the game and has his or her people one step ahead as well. Lastly a results oriented leader is always aware of the game, how it is being played and how it needs to be played, what move ought to be next and who ought to make the move. The results oriented Sales Manager is never a person who gives an excuse for lack of performance, he is the one who is right there with the solution and the plan to have it not happen again.