Sales People Should Live By Numbers

Sales hiring....Its the scourge of many!

Recruitment companies find it hard, there are too many variables to consider, when recruiting Sales people, such as personality, cultural fit, drive, motivation, are they a team player, can they do admin, how much have they sold, how do they sell it, who do they sell it to...

Companies find it difficult, their Psychometric assessments keep stating that all candidates are lunatics or narcissists.

So, ok...Yes, that is all absolutely true! Sales recruitment is not for the faint of heart and yes, you need to be a certain type of person to be able to navigate through the bullshit and also ensure you are being sold to!

But, I bloody love it and I have done it for many years and I regard myself as one of the best....actually, hang on, I am the best Technology Sales recruiter in the industry, I don't care what anyone says (Gauntlet firmly thrown down) Paul Stevens

Recruiting Sales people is amazing, its fun, its a rollercoaster of emotions, dealing with people that can be energetic, erratic, controlling, moody, dismissive, arrogant, selfish, greedy, humble, kind, caring and companionate! You get the full spectrum when dealing with Sales people.

I have done this for years and I have placed some sales people again and again, the most I have placed one person, is probably 4 or 5 times across a 20 years period.

I have built Sales teams all over the world, for VC backed start-ups, to global Systems Integrators and industry leading vendors.

So, how do I do it, how have I don't it for so long and what are the secrets to successful Sales hiring?

Ok, here goes....

First and foremost, let me and the Sales hiring manager get on with it! Don't over complicate the process, by involving Applicant Tracking Systems and Psychometric Assessments and Internal Recruiter interviews, with an Internal Recruiter that has 12 months experience and 1 week of that was in Sales hiring.

Leave us alone and let us implement a 2-3 stage process, where I qualify the candidates, send them across, fully qualified, they then speak with the hiring manager, then the hiring managers boss, ideally VP or CRO, then possibly an HR final stage.

We do all of this in maximum of two weeks! Done, signed, sealed and delivered,

So why do we do it this way? Well, Sales people are money makers and if they are any good, someone else will want them making money for them, so we need to move quickly, show them love, make them feel wanted and get the job done, before someone else comes along, with a big shiny toy and turns their head.

So how do we determine who is a good sales person?

You live by the numbers!

Sales is numbers, is targets, deal sizes, monthly reoccurring revenue, ACV, TCV, MRR, ARR, its P60's and OTE'S.

You qualify simply by numbers:

Whats your target? What did you achieve against target? Average deal sizes? What's your OTE? What does your P60 say?

All of this for the last three years.

What percentage of your deals come from self generation and net new logo, compared to existing accounts and marketing/lead generation?

Yes, you need to look for consistency, no one wants a sales person that changes jobs every year or 18 months, as it indicates they aren't successful, if they were, they wouldn't be leaving.

Equally, sales people should KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

If they don't, they are not sales people, or, they are lieing and dont want to admit the truth.

Good Sales people will bring their stats, league tables, awards, payslips, p60's etc with them, they will show them off.

Sales people are proud, they love to show what they have done and what they have achieved, if they don't want to do this, or cant do this, you have to question if they are actually a sales person, or, if they are being genuine.

Ok, yes, we do not want an axe murderer in the team, but Sales people are a specific breed and they aren't necessarily going to tick every HR box, but, they make you a lot of money and that is ultimately their job and as long as they don't annoy everyone else in the business and they show good tenure, alongside good results, BLOODY HIRE THEM.

Businesses that are too scared, or nervous, or want to elongate the process, or complicate it with various unnecessary steps, will ultimately fail and wont get the top Sales people and will miss quota and will ultimately look to blame someone and it will probably be the hiring manager and/or the recruiter.

So look, don't over complicate it, hire an expert...if you hadn't yet guessed, that's Tom Wood and let me sort this headache for you.

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