OUR RECRUITMENT FIRM SPECIALISES IN HEADHUNTING FOR SALES REPRESENTATIVE
ProEvolution, and its Optimal-RH brand, is specialised in the recruitment of sales profiles, including sales representative, for the whole of France and German-speaking countries.
We help you define the right profile, look for and find the salesperson or manager that matches your requirements.
We validate this applicant with appropriate tests, specifically designed for recruiting sales representatives.
Indeed, the recruitment of a salesperson or a Sales Manager is difficult and requires some expertise.
Moreover, the profiles are very varied. Depending on the structure, the size of the sector for sales prospection, the hierarchical structure, the type of product to be sold, etc. you will not have the same particularities to take into account in your recruitment.
In particular, we have noted a real lack of profiles with a technical basis and experience as a salesperson. These trades are often the subject of enquiries from our customers and require personalised support to find them.
In most cases, headhunting is necessary to find the right sales profile. Also, specific situation tests and sales readiness tests that are adapted to the trade are essential.
WHAT SALES FUNCTIONS ARE BEING HIRED?
Although all companies need sales representatives to develop their turnover, each can have very different needs.
Our recruitment firm is well equipped to assist you in finding the sales talent you are seeking:
- Business Manager / Business Engineer
- Network Manager
- Business Developer
- A Sales Engineer who specialises in your products
- Sedentary Sales Engineer
- Sales Assistant
- Sales Manager
- Prescriber
- Growth Hacker
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF UNSUCCESSFUL SALES STAFF RECRUITMENT?
Be careful not to underestimate the direct and indirect costs associated with unsuccessful recruitment. Especially when it comes to a sales role, the potential cost and loss of profits can be high.
Also, a poorly qualified recruit can have a negative impact on your other employees. And it can also impact your customers, suppliers, and even productivity.
That is why, according to our own studies (based on our customer feedback before consultation), we estimate the cost at between 12 and 18 months of lost wages. So to limit the risks of a “casting” error, we offer a specific validation process for recruiting sales staff.
OUR METHODOLOGY FOR RECRUITING YOUR SALES REPRESENTATIVES
Firstly, it is necessary to create a repository with your teams in-house. Indeed, this starting point of our relationship will help us better understand your expectations for a sales representative. It is also at this stage that we can bring offer you our vision with more than 30 years of experience to assess the feasibility of your research. Indeed, some recruitment projects are doomed to failure, and it is our mission to know how to list priorities and consider compromises. It should not be forgotten that “five-legged sheep” do not always exist!
Prior to recruitment, we identify the behaviours that the salesperson will have to adopt in a series of situations to create a grid of key skills. We also look at the overall context of your sales staff recruitment.
To do this, we need to define with you:
- the company and your sales strategy (development policy, customer types, channels, sales cycles, market positioning, history, future development, etc.),
- the outline of the position and the team (team composition, management style, sector, existing portfolio, turnover, travel, challenges, difficulties, manager’s expectations, etc.),
- The definition of a “sales representative” benchmark in a successful position in your company (objective criteria, training, experience, languages, technical skills, level of negotiation, knowledge of the customer, the environment, hunter or breeder profile, subjective criteria, etc.)
- drafting an interview check-list.
A combination of several tests is needed to recruit a good sales profile.
The aim is then to organise an Assessment Centre consisting of:
- the personality inventory,
- role playing
- the fact-finding interview.
Indeed, each of these phases provides an analysis and understanding of the applicant. Moreover, summarising these steps will be key to a successful sales representative recruitment.
Then we will have the traditional interview with this appropriate check-list and the role playing for this sales recruitment.
WHAT IS ASSESSED IN A SALESPERSON PROFILE?
A ‘sales style’ refers to how the salesperson understands the business of selling. Typically are they a “hunter” or “breeder”? This type of behaviour is essential to assess to ensure that the sales representative typology matches your search and complements your team.
Secondly, we assess their abilities in the different stages of the business relationship:
- the client file: we are looking at whether the applicant already benefits from an established network. Also, we assess their ability to build a file of sales leads.
- canvassing: is the candidate able to approach people they do not know?
- investigation: here we evaluate their ability to delve into the customer’s specific issues. It is essential that the candidate has an ability to identify the key points
- demonstration: the ability to meet the customer’s needs and to win them over
- closing: the ability to lead to the effective completion of the sale, in short to get a signature
In the context of our sales recruitment contracts, we assess all of these stages. We also have different personality and emotional intelligence tests. The latter help to detect points to support the application, or, conversely, reasons to stop.
In conclusion, you need deep and proven expertise to achieve “successful salesperson recruitment” and we can effectively support you in this process.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RECRUIT A SALESPERSON?
The remuneration of a salesperson usually includes a fixed and a variable portion.
For recruitment contracts, depending on firms, different formulas may be proposed. In the recruitment of rare and sought-after business profiles, ProEvolution favours a global approach on a flat-rate basis. The cost of the service is based on a percentage of the target gross annual salary.
Do you want more information for your salesperson recruitment project? Please contact us! You will be able to discuss this project with us and we will be able to present our solutions and our approach.