The Significance of Sales Recruitment Speed

Today is a candidate market, they are in demand and they are dictating speed. Speed to find them, speed throughout the interview process and speed to offer a job.

With candidates applying and interviewing to multiple jobs, the longer you deliberate, the more likely you are to lose a top candidate to a competitor.  As a result, you will need to be more aggressive and increase your speed to hire.

When you hire faster you will increase offer acceptance rates, managers will love it because they are not losing productivity and revenue due to vacant positions for an extended period of time. Have you thought about speeding up your process but you are not sure how? Here are 7 quick tips to speed up your hiring process:

1. Educate yourself and your hiring team on the costs associated with slow hiring

Missed revenue – Your team needs to understand the costs associated with missing a hire and how it affects the bottom line of the company. Missed opportunity on top candidates – A report shows that the national average is about 25 days to fill a role in the US but the best candidates are off the market in 10 days!

2. Sourcing Candidates – both internally and partnering with an outside firm

Sourcing candidates by posting your job on your website and job boards is not enough. You need to work to build an internal referral program and even think about partnering with an outside firm to source additional candidates.

3. Have a pipeline of talent

The result of sourcing candidates will be a pipeline of top sales talent. The important thing with this step is that you can’t just have a pipeline of qualified candidates and not work them accordingly. You have to keep up a relationship with them, keep them engaged and understand every candidate’s search is different.

4. Streamline the interview process 

An interview and onboarding process is so critical and simple but most companies do not have one in place. When a qualified candidate comes across your desk, you need to know the exact process and stay on top of it. Is it a phone screen? A couple in person interviews? A background check and offer? What is the process? Understand your process and exactly where you are in that process. If other people are involved, get their buy in to speed up and stay on top of every single person and step. 

5. Eliminate steps

How many interviews work well for your company and sales team? It might be time to review every step in the process and evaluate the need for it; just because it is in the current process doesn’t mean it needs to be there. Can any of the steps be consolidated into one step? 

6. Reference checks while in interview process

If you find a great candidate and start them through your interview process, ask them for their references earlier. Calling their references while you are still in the interview process will speed everything up. You know enough to know if someone has potential. If you call their references while you are on interview 2 or 3, you will be able to move them to the offer stage quicker.

7. Same day interviews

When you email or call a candidate to schedule that initial screening or first interview, do you ever think to schedule it that same day? Most clients do not want to even suggest that, they think it sends the wrong message. I would challenge you to think the opposite. The message it sends to top tier salespeople is a sense of urgency and commitment to the role. This will also kick-start the interview process and immediately shorten your schedule by days. 

Summary

These 7 tactics are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ways you can speed up your interview process. Every company and sales team is different. The two most important parts when looking to hire a salesperson are getting in front of qualified, interested and available candidates asap and moving them through a swift interview process. If you can master this, you can find and hire top sales talent which will ultimately get you to your revenue goals quicker! 

If you need additional help to build your sales team, you can always reach out for help. Treeline exclusively works with companies to fill sales roles and clients usually start to see candidates within just 3 days! We know the market, have a pipeline of qualified candidates and can help you move through your interview process at record speed. Happy hiring!