Sales Recruiting Blog

Building Your Recruiter Contacts

I imagine that sales recruiters are a lot like lawyers to most sales reps.  They are annoying and irrelevant until you really need one.  Trust me, if you just got laid-off from a job your attitude towards us takes a fast 180.  Same thing applies to Sales Managers when they have 2 sales reps resign on the same day.  Finding a truly great sales recruiter when time is of the essence can be more challenging than you might think.

Most sales reps will get calls from recruiters from time-to-time about a sales job that the recruiter is representing.  My suggestion is to hold onto the contact information of those few sales recruiters that truly impress you.  Build your rolodex just like you build your pipeline of potential sales clients.  The worst case scenario is that you never personally need a recruiter but I can assure you that at some point you’ll know another sales rep that does.

From my point of view I also cultivate future contacts of sales reps that I will call again when I get a new search.  If you weren’t interested in a particular sales job that I am representing but impressed with the caliber of the position you might want me to keep calling you with new opportunities.  If I get blown off by a sales rep and in any way get treated rudely I most likely won’t call you with the next opportunity.

In my opinion this rule is even more applicable to hiring managers.  In many cases, your current employer may not allow you to use external recruiters to fill your sales jobs.  Six months later you may find yourself in a new position with another company and have several sales openings.  Having a rolodex of strong sales recruiters to call at that moment could certainly save the day and possibly your job.

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Thank You Letters

After each interview it is important to follow up with each person that you interviewed with.  That means that you need to ask for a card during the interview so you have their e-mail to contact them later.  Occasionally, a hiring manager will tell you that they don’t have any cards or ask you to follow-up with them via your recruiter or hr.  Unless they specifically tell you to not contact them I would do some research and get their e-mail address.  You can ask your recruiter or perhaps you already have the e-mail address of someone in hr.  Find out the format that is used in their company for e-mail address firstname_lastname@companyname.com for example and send off an e-mail. 

In an e-mail thank you it is imporant to keep your message short and to the point.  I recommend a simple format for interview thank yous.  Thank the interviewer for their time.  Personalize it if you connected on a point and then express why you think you are a good fit and why you want the position.  Give three solid reasons for each point.  Let them know when you will follow-up with them and you are done.  Before hitting send make damn sure that there aren’t any spelling or grammatical errors.  If grammar or spelling aren’t your strong suit enlist the help of a friend that is strong in that area.  Send the e-mail before the day is over.  This is the one time you can show a hiring manager your follow-through skills.

With medical or pharmaceutical in-person interviews I would bring a professional looking thank you card.  99% of the time these interviews are conducted at a hotel.  After the interview pull out your card and write it out following the e-mail format above and leave it at the front desk for the interviewer.  As they leave for the day they will be presented with your card just at the moment that they are mulling over all of the sales candidates that they just interviewed.  I would also recommend an e-mail thank you that night in the off chance that they didn’t get your card.

It certainly doesn’t hurt to send out a hand-written thank you note with non-medical or pharmaceutical sales jobs in addition to the e-mail thank you.  Make sure that you send it out that night and only do this if your penmanship is acceptable.  Good luck!

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Stupid Resume Tricks

Resumes can be very deceiving as a way of evaluating talent.  I want to point out ways that sales candidates can lie or mislead you into thinking that they are better than they really are.

Stupid Resume trick #1 - When listing dates of employment sales reps will only put down years employed and leave off the month.  The reason is simple - they have a big gap that they are trying to cover.  Always verify the month the sales rep began and ended each position.  Another reason that they will do this is to cover up a sales job that they were employed in for a short period - say three months.  I don’t have a problem with sales reps making themselves appear better on paper but I do want to know about it.  Dig in when you interview the sales candidate.

Stupid Resume trick #2 - under education I often find sales reps putting down having attended a particular college on their resume.  When I question the rep I find out that they never graduated.  They aren’t technically lying as they don’t put down that they actually graduated.  Some sales reps will put down that they graduated when they are short of finishing their degree.  Once again, ask them straight up if they have graduated.

Stupid Resume trick #3 - under sales accomplishments I have seen sales reps put on their resume that they averaged say 102% of quota during their time in a particular sales job.  What they are hiding is the fact that they were 120% of quota 1 year and 79% of quota the next.  Ask how the sales rep did each and every year for each sales job listed.  Verify these sales accomplishments via their brag book.

I think I have given enough examples of how a resume can mislead you into thinking that a sales rep is better than they actually are.  When interviewing sales talent don’t assume anything, ask good questions and verify everything.  This might be obvious but it is a big step in reducing sales force turnover and hiring top performers.

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Resume Don’ts

Your resume should be a door and conversation opener.  Think of it as your way of getting noticed amongst the sea of resumes out there.  In the sales world nothing gets noticed more than results but then this isn’t a blog about Resume Dos.

Here are some definite don’ts that will hinder your ability to secure an interview let alone a sales job.  Don’t go into big detail on your resume - if the job you are applying is interesting and attractive the recruiter or hr manager or sales manager that is receiving resumes probably has too many resumes to begin with.  If I have to read through 2-3 pages to try and find out if you are any good there is a pretty good chance that I won’t.  Don’t have an accomplishments section.  Put all of your accomplishments down as bullet marks under each position.  Don’t put personal information on your resume such as “married, 3 kids” or “enjoy reading, hunting and bowling.”  Interviews and resumes need to be about your qualifications and ability to do a sales job.  Make it easy to find your accomplishments - don’t bury them in the middle of a paragraph. 

 In the sales resources section of our website you will find an excellent sample resume that has impact.  Here’s a final don’t - don’t expect to get an interview for a competitive sales job if you don’t have any solid sales accomplishments.

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Reducing Sales Force Turnover

I have a client that I started working with over 3 years that had 30% annual turnover with their new sales reps.  Since I started working with them we have placed 49 reps with them and 42 are still with their organization.  Their annual turnover is much less than 10% currently.  We put alot of work into uncovering what does and doesn’t work at that company but I am confident that one of the biggest reasons for the reduction comes down to expectations.

Simply put, when interviewing sales candidates I think it is imperative to spell out realistic expectations within a sales role.  We provide earnings expectations, annual quotas, average deal sizes, full outline of the compensation plan, activity levels, etc.  I make a point of outlining areas where a potential sales rep may struggle in this role and/or challenges that they will face when selling the product.  Of course, I sell the opportunity and show them the possibilities but at no time do we over sell.  I would rather not make a placement then have someone accept a sales job by misleading them. 

Occasionally I am sure that we don’t make a placement with our client because a sales candidates is being sold the moon at another sales job.  I am also just as confident that we occassionally have a sales rep accept our offer over a potentially more lucrative position because we are so upfront about everything.  Our motto is “no surprises.”  It’s like how Toyota sells a Million Camrys each year not because they are the most exciting cars out there but because you know what you are getting when you buy one - no surprises.

 If your sales organization is experiencing high turnover perhaps you can start by setting the right expectations for new hires.

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Why Bother With Brag Books

I am a huge fan of brag books.  In surveys by ADP that I have read 44% of resumes have overt lies and/or misrepresentations on them ranging from incorrect dates of employment to false degrees.  In the face of that, nothing brings you more credibility than being able to produce documentation of everything that is on your resume.  When you are asked during an interview how you did which position x or y or z just pull out your brag book and show them.

I take things a step further and have a copy made up for each person that I interview with to leave behind.  Should the hiring manager have a hard time deciding which rep he/she likes the most for the job they will definitley take the time to review your brag book.  In our sales resources section on our website you will find a document that outlines how to put together a brag book.

If you a hiring manager reading this and you don’t verify information you are making a potentially costly mistake.  After eleven years of placing sales professionals I have learned this lesson the hard way.

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Cover Letters - Why Bother?

Run a search on Google and you will plenty of information on cover letters - why to write them, how to write them, what to put in them, etc.  There is plenty of solid generic information out there on the subject.  Before I weigh in with my opinion on cover letters I want to point out what the world of hiring and recruiting looks like today.

Most hiring managers, recruiter or HR professionals that are tasked with receiving incoming resumes receive far, far too many each day and the majority of those submissions are not a fit for the job opening.  Because of that, we (recruiters, managers, hr, etc) try and eliminate those sales candidates that don’t fit the position as fast as possible so we go straight to the resume.  Speaking for myself, If I don’t see a basic fit between the sales rep’s resume and the sales job that I am recruiting for I am hitting delete as fast as possible.  If I love the resume I’m also calling that rep as fast as possible.  Where a modified cover letter can help is when there are things that I like about a resume but I have some questions.  For example, maybe you have the requirements for the job but you have a 1 year gap or you don’t live in the geography.  Without an explanation I may or may not call you depending on my mood.  What I suggest is a modified cover letter.

Instead of attaching a separate cover letter address those points in the body of the e-mail that you are sending.  I would point out how your background is a fit and then address the issue.  With the volume of information that most recruiters and hiring managers receive they will probably still go right to your resume.  If they are on the fence their next step will be to read the contents of your e-mail. 

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Phone Presence

One of my big pet peeves is corporate sales professionals that don’t have a good phone presence.  Some of them actually have pretty bad ones.  Yes, I know that some sales reps never sell via the phone but I really don’t care.  If you are having sales success with poor phone presence imagine what would happen to your sales if you overcame that.

Here are some quick tips on selling via the phone.  The main goal of a phone interview or selling over the phone is a transference of energy to the other person.  With that said, smile, stand up straight, project your voice and inject some energy and personality into the conversation.  Yes, have some fun on the phone.  It is quite often that hiring managers give me the feedback that a candidate lacked warmth and/or enthusiasm on the phone.  I call people that sound like this sub dudes because they are subdued.

 If you are ever interviewing with me for one of my clients, for Sales Talent itself or you are trying to sell me one of your services you had better bring it on the phone.

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Why Won’t You Call Me Back Chris? (I applied online and left you three voicemails!!)

When you as a job seeker applies for a position that Sales Talent represents we appreciate the interest and time that you spent trying to get on our radar.  I wish that we could personally respond to every job seeker and provide meaningful feedback as to why you are not qualified for a job and how you could build your resume to be so in the future.  The simple matter of how many job seekers apply to each sales job makes that impossible.

This is definitely an area where we are open to your feedback as to how we can better communicate.  The first piece that we have done is to build a system that automatically responds to every applicant acknowledging their submission.  Each submission is forwarded to the recruiter representing each sales job and they can select accept or reject to communicate back to the job seeker whether there is a fit or not.  We try and accomplish this within 72 hours.  I want to point out that this only works if you apply via the job board on our own website.  If you apply via Careerbuilder or another online resource there isn’t the capability built in yet to respond to each job seeker.  Yes, we are working on that.

As for leaving a voicemail and not hearing back I will give you some advice on how to get a response from me (or another sales recruiter).  If you leave a generic my name is ____ please call me back I am interested in your Major Account sales job in Indy message I will never call you back.  I simply don’t have the time.  Sell yourself to me - compell me to call you back.  Briefly outline your accomplishments and why I would be excited to call you back about the sales job.  Something like, “Chris, my name is _____ and I have 5 years of b2b sales experience and won Pres Club each of those 5 years.  I would like to speak with you personally about this position and send you over my resume.”  I’m going to call you back on that message especially if you have a strong phone presence.  Don’t ramble, don’t sound soft.  Basically, impress quickly, let me know how to contact you and hang up.  This really isn’t any different than cold-calling to set up a 1st appointment with a new client.

p.s. Please read the requirements and make sure that there is a potential fit before applying for the sales opening.

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Building Your Resume

Having looked at hundreds of thousands of resumes and having interviewed thousands of sales reps I feel pretty confident talking about how to build your sales resume.  Let’s start with the ways not to build your sales resume.  The biggest kiss of death is to have too many jobs on your resume.  I question the sanity of hiring managers who would hire a sales rep that has a track record of spending 1-2 years at each sales job, especially if we are talking about a sales rep that is 10 years out of college.  Another great way to stall your upward progression is to leave your current employer and join their competitor in the same role just to pick up a slightly higher base salary.  Both of these situations go back to the same root usually - boredom or believing that your lack of success as a sales rep is due to the company that you work for.  Here is what I look for when I am trying to find the next star for one of my clients…

Upward progressions are the single best way to build your resume and what I wake up in the morning to find in a sales rep for my client companies.  These can occur while working for the same company such as, raises, promotions, higher earnings, calling on larger clients, etc..  They can also occur by taking a step up with another sales organization.  A wise sales rep will plot out their career path and progress towards higher responsibility, higher earnings and/or bigger challenges.  The path to bigger challenges and higher pay and consequently, a more impressive resume is rather straight-forward.  The goal is to sell bigger ticket items to larger companies and to higher level decision makers.  All other things being equal, you make more money selling to CEOs than HR Managers, for example.  When interviewing with a company ask the recruiter or Sales Manager how this new sales job will advance your career.  Find out what the career possibilities are in the future.  There is nothing wrong with staying in the same role within a company for 10 years if that makes you happy and the wise sales rep will consider this.  This is especially true if your sales territory is set up so that you have the opportunity to call upon larger clients or your company is releasing more expensive services and/or products.  If your sales role does not have that type of opportunity you are probably stalling your sales career.  When it comes time to interview you will find yourself qualified for the same sales jobs after 10 years that you could have won after 5.

Getting back to planning out your career use this litmus test to determine whether or not you want to accept that sales job offer that you just received.  Will this position offer you an upward career track within the company or the experience to win a better position within another company? Speaking from my own experience, I have stayed fresh and enjoyed sales recruiting for over 11 years because I have moved up market and now work on higher level sales positions and I have the experience to bring higher value to my clients.  It would take an incredible opportunity for me to want to give up the strategic partnerships that I have built with my clients.  Good luck building your sales career.

Posted in Building your Sales Career | 1 Comment »