Hiring Software Sales Managers

    We have an average IT company, we sell software. One of the tasks that we solve every month is the hiring of sales managers. The article is not in the spirit of IT - but I'm sure someone will find it useful to find out.

    I’ll tell you how we recruit managers for the sales department. We will consider hiring as a complex task that needs to be solved. It is easiest to break it down into stages; at each stage its own local problem is solved. Obviously, the global task of hiring a sales person is to recruit the necessary number of employees who will professionally perform their task - to sell.

    So, let's go:

    Stage 1. Vacancy placement. The
    task at this stage: as many people as possible “respond” to our vacancy.

    We place a vacancy on all free resources such as rabota.ru, zarplata.ru, vshtate.ru. If there is money we pay superjob.ru.

    Stage 2. Inviting candidates for an interview.
    The task at this stage: to invite as many people as possible for an interview without screening them.

    We make it very simple. We take everyone who responded and call them. In a telephone conversation, we simply indicate:
    "Your resume suited us, we invite you to an interview tomorrow at 17-00." By e-mail we send him travel and once again a description of the vacancy.

    Do not waste your time reading resumes - 25% of people will come anyway.

    Stage 3. Interview
    The task at this stage: to sell a vacancy to a candidate and “persuade” him to come to study

    At the interview, we filter out only the very poor - those whose study schedule does not suit us or who have problems with speech or appearance. For everything else (a crookedly completed questionnaire, vocational school, no work experience, etc.) we do not pay attention at all. At the interview, it is important to talk about your vacancy so that the candidate is on fire and wants to come to study. Naturally, it’s important not to overwhelm yourself by praising yourself, as the candidate may think that this is some kind of pyramid and will be afraid that he will be deceived.

    Stage 4. Training. The
    task at this stage: to weed out the wretched, to leave capable.

    Only in the fourth stage we begin to weed out.

    Training with us lasts 5 days (from 9-00 to 18-00). Lecture in the morning - offset in the evening. Who passed - stayed, who did not - went home. Training ends with an exam. If the candidate has passed the exam, we are applying for a job.

    Stage 5. Getting started
    The task at this stage: not to lose a new employee.

    It is important to understand that a newly arrived employee may be frightened of something, upset if he cannot sell, or something else. It is important in the first 2-3 months to be very careful about the new employee in your team.

    Here are the numbers we have:
    responded to a vacancy - 300 people
    promised to come for an interview - 250 people
    came for an interview - 60 people
    promised to come for training - 55 people
    came to study - 30 people
    passed the exam and began to work - 5-6 people
    stayed to work (did not quit after 2-3 months) - 3 people

    We get 1% (3 people out of 300 respondents).

    PS I don’t know, maybe well-known companies a la Yandex or Microsoft have no such problems, maybe very responsible people come to work for them, who are not late for an interview, who can answer the question “what are your strengths and weaknesses” who do not make mistakes when writing their name and date of birth, but we (small companies) have such problems with employees.

    It is important to remember that there are no ideal (and even similar to ideal) employees in nature. You need to select three out of 300 people and educate those you need.

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