Land The Best Tech Sales Professionals With These Hiring Strategies

A Guide To Finding The Best Sales Talent

Right now, tech sales professionals are in high demand. As a result, better sales professionals are getting calls daily from recruiters and businesses. To get the best tech sales professionals for your company, you must apply your recruiting process correctly. 

Here are some practical hiring tips to help you land the best of the best.

Be Effective In Selling the Position

When contacting a potential sales representative, try to make your message personal. Experienced professionals will recognize generic templates and will be less likely to reply. 

Include details about the corporate culture and any unique benefits you offer. Remember that people often change jobs because of toxic workplaces and poor management. Highlight your company’s strengths in positive workplace culture and supportive management. 

You can include salary information, but remember that you need to offer competitive rates as talented sales staff are likely already well compensated. 

Clearly Define the Position Offered

Be forthright about the qualities you seek in a tech sales professional, and highlight any essential qualifications. Start by outlining the knowledge, abilities, and character attributes required for the position. This is not only for the prospective employee but also for the hiring manager. 

This allows you and your potential recruit to be on the same page about what the position requires and what will be expected.

Defining the position more clearly will also make keyword searches for candidates easier if you’re looking for candidates on sales databases or LinkedIn. For example, If you’re looking for those with experience in hardware, communication, or SaaS technology, use those terms when searching. That will help you find the right candidates to approach.

Keep An Eye Open For Quality Traits

Talented technology salespeople require unique skills to sell more difficult products and services. Therefore, look for these key attributes when reviewing candidates.

Proactive Sales Mentality

Look for candidates who have proven to be self-starters and highly motivated. This will give them an advantage in prospecting, cold calling, pitching, and selling your products or services. 

Proactive salespeople tend to find making new sales exhilarating. As a result, they are more likely to go for closing big deals and then quickly move on to the next one. 

Persuasiveness

Look for persuasion and conversational sales reps. Even though your products or services may be complicated, a talented sales rep must be enthusiastic and be able to transmit that enthusiasm to the customer. They should also be well-informed about what you’re selling and prepared to respond to any questions or hesitation from the customer without coming on too hard. 

Flexible Thinking

Complex modern technologies and solutions require a comprehensive knowledge of the industry and an ability to find creative solutions to customer issues. You don’t want salespeople who get stuck thinking or doing things only one way. 

Look for salespeople who can address challenges from several angles and be able to accommodate or change their approach as needed. When holding mock sales sessions, look for sales professionals willing to ask questions and work with the client to solve their problems.

Making the Best Offer

Many salespeople in tech earn well into the six figures annually, with a base income between $40,000 and $100,000 plus and incentives and commissions from hundreds to thousands of dollars. If you can’t pay competitively, your candidate will go elsewhere. Consider consulting a compensation consultant or salary guide to see what competitive pay is in your area and industry.

Also, consider what other incentives you can offer to help draw a potential star candidate further into the hiring stage. These days, flexible schedules, remote work, and sign-on bonuses are popular with employees. 

Don’t Wait

When you get a response from an ideal candidate, act quickly.

From opening interviews to making the official job offer, you’ll want the process to be smooth, efficient, and with little delay. So stay in touch with your candidates during the entire hiring period and keep them informed on the timeframe for recruiting decisions. Remember, they probably have other options and recruiters reaching out to them. So the sooner you can make an offer, the better.

Common Hiring Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Sometimes, businesses get so focused on selling their products and services that they don’t spend an appropriate amount of effort finding the right salespeople. Here are some mistakes some businesses make and how they can be avoided.

Failure To Plan

When hiring a sales rep, skipping the planning stage can frequently lead to problems. 

Plan out every step of the hiring process, from promoting sales positions to selecting and interviewing prospects, hiring top talent, onboarding, and considering how long it will take to train and prepare new sales hires for the workplace.

Hiring Sales Reps Who Frequently Change Jobs 

At first glance, someone with a varied job history may seem appealing due to extensive experience working for various businesses and industries. 

The truth is that people who switch employers frequently may have a poor aptitude to work as a tech sales rep. In addition, job-hopping can indicate they need help sticking with one employer for an extended period or have trouble working with sales teams and customers.

Not Taking Advantage Of a First Phone Call

Conventionally, hiring managers prefer to meet with candidates in person. Doing so, however, misses an excellent candidate review opportunity.

Tech sales representatives frequently speak with prospects and customers via phone. For that reason, you want to be sure they have good phone skills. By making your first contact with a potential sales rep by phone, you’re in a great position to evaluate how they might come across to clients. 

This first call also gives you a chance to get the candidate excited about the opportunity. This will make them that much more interested in moving their schedule around to accommodate the rest of the interview process. 

Having a Chaotic Onboarding Process

You want new tech sales representatives to hit the ground running. Unfortunately, many businesses have an onboarding process that has either slowly become bloated over the years or needs more clarity in organization and communication. 

Review your current onboarding process for new employees and ensure it’s up to date, lists responsibilities clearly, notes the chain of communication, and how the sales team functions. The less confusion at the start, the more likely you will retain your new tech sales rep.

Working With Rainmakers

A talented tech sales representative is essential to how well a business succeeds. Consider consulting with an experienced tech sales recruiting agency to help advance your business.

Connect with Rainmakers today and start finding top sales talent.