COMMENTS
Now that your readership has a process, it is time for them to use it. It is proven to work, it has been proven to help hire great salespeople and with half the year gone it is time for those who have had enough of mediocrity from their sale organization to find the best, keep the best and grow the business with the best. If you don't someone out there will pick off the cream of the crop before you and if they are a competitor, guess what.... you will lose market share because you did nothing.
pls send me template of 3-5 minute screening call. What questions to ask, what to screen for, what responses reflect what, etc.
Many thanks.
Hi Dave,
Your comments are right on from points 2 to 5.
Your point number 1 about a salesperson responding more than 1 week after a job posting I believe is incorrect. As hiring is a continual process, today I am interviewing for a client, two ideal candidates from the express screen. This job posting was posted over 1 month ago. The reason being for the candidates not responding earlier, was that only in the last week did their status with their old employers change. You never know when a good salesperson will become available. He may have had a fight with his sales manager, or he didn't receive the right compensation as promised, or the company could have just announced it is moving, or being taken over by another company and their sales strategy for the existing salespeople will no longer be needed. He/she may just well wake up one morning and say they had enough at their company and start looking to see what else is available out there.
You really cannot state with fact that candidates who apply after 1 week of job posting are not recommended.I just checked a current express screen that my client is using, and he has received 15 Hireable assessments after the first week of the job posting.
On the other hand, I do agree that employers after two weeks should repost the ad to make it look as if the position is a new one, as some candidates may think the job is already taken or that no one wants to work for the employer.
Your commments are as always very insightful, no more so than the importance of the 3 minute phone screen. A major part of our work comes from recruiting for our clients and in the three years since we started using the phone screen of hireable candidates, our success rate in placing salespeople and sales managers has markedly improved.
By intentionally not building rapport or even displaying a level of hostility during this phone call, we have been able to detect the level of resiliance of the candidates and how effective they are at bonding in a hostile environment. It takes some practice to get this phone screen technique right but it is well worth it.
In agreeing with Dave's comments and acknowledging Howard's view the biggest challenge in all this is, yes you guessed it, our 'friends' in HR who invaribly are a key part of the process.In this part of the world Asia/Singapore HR is still in a personnel manager mentality. The STAR process is pretty much above them because they do not see any difference hiring sales personnel from other functions generally.I find myself having to educate HR people in 'business'.Another example of needing to beat a path to the CEO's door without being seen to shove HR to one side however much we might like to do that. At some stage you have to work with them.