Tagged: Facebook

4 Reasons Why You’re Not Attracting Top Sales Talent (And How To Fix It)

What is the most common challenge I hear from managers?  Hands down, it is that they have difficulty finding top sales talent.  And, when they do find a qualified candidate the person often opts for a different opportunity (many times a competitor).  Why?  Obviously there can be many factors for why you aren’t attracting top sales talent, but these are the ones I’ve found to often be at the root of the problem:

1.  Not looking for talent in the right places (and not looking continually).
2.  Using job ads/posts that are poorly written.
3.  Not addressing top talent’s hot buttons.
4.  Not setting expectations with the candidate about the hiring process.

The good news is that all 4 of these problems are easily fixed.  Here are the steps you can take to not only attract sales talent, but get them eager to come aboard.

Not looking for talent in the right places (and not looking continually).

The first rule of successful recruitment is you should ALWAYS be recruiting and ALWAYS be interviewing.  It serves two purposes; it sharpens your interview skills and increases your networking and scope of influence.  Like sales, you should never be without prospects in your funnel.  If you don’t currently have an opening then simply tell the prospective candidate the truth and add that you would like to meet to get to know the person better.  It’s flattering and I’ve never had a person say “no.”

woman dart boardAre you targeting your job ad in the right places?  Analyze where you are looking for talent.  Ask yourself how someone might reach you if you were not actively looking for a job, because most talented salespeople are NOT actively looking – they have a job.  But that doesn’t mean they don’t have one eye open at all times on potential greener pastures!  Think about your industry and what media those salespeople are consuming.  It’s likely that placing a job ad on industry specific websites or publications versus putting an ad on Monster.com, makes a lot more sense.

Where are some other places those potential candidates might be?  I’ve found that posting to the “Jobs” section of industry related “Groups” on LinkedIn yields much more qualified candidates than generic job boards and websites.  (See “6 Free Ways To Recruit Salespeople On LinkedIn.”)    And while you are on LinkedIn, make sure you do a status update about the position and ask your connections to forward it to those they think might be interested.  Ask your current top performers to do the same thing.  I’ve found that they tend to know other top performers and have very large networks of work acquaintances.

Another obvious social media choice is Facebook.  If your company has a Facebook page, do a post about the job opening.  People who are your company followers are fans or your company and likely to be interested.  It’s possible that your next great hire could be one of those fans.  Or, someone who knows them is, and forwards the info to them.

Get creative.  Maybe you make a quick video about the job opening and post the video to your website and YouTube.  Send the link out as an email blast to your contacts and ask them to forward it to anyone they know who might be interested.  Ask your current salespeople, “If I was a company who wanted to hire you, where would be the best place for me to put my job posting to reach you?”

Using job ads/posts that are poorly written.

Think of a job post as one big news headline.  Meaning, your focus should be how you are going to hook the person into reading it.  Unfortunately, most job posts/ads read like a laundry list of desired traits that are more like an online dating site request than an engaging and dynamic job overview.  The Harvard Business Review did a great article about this, “Your Job Ads Are Driving Away Talent.”

Too often they start off with a P.R. paragraph about the company…Here’s a recent one I saw (names deleted to protect the inept)

XYZ Holding Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based XYZ Inc. and is comprised of: ABC Company and WYZ Company.  We are the fastest-growing widget organization in the United States. Consisting of more than 570 retail stores in 39 states and the District of Columbia through 12 retail store names, we are the industry leaders in each of their respective markets.  Find a better career and A Better You!  We believe that our Associates are our most valuable resource and are, therefore, the key to our future growth, performance and success.   We offer opportunities to grow and develop your career while providing world class customer service for our customers!

Woman on mound of moneyWow – doesn’t that just grab you and reel you in?  Um…no.  It’s all about what the company wants you to know, not what you want to know.  The start of the job ad reads like a press release.  The opening paragraph needs to hit that salesperson’s hot buttons.  Where are the specifics?  Where is the mention of money, career advancement, challenges, selling tools, growth potential?  Those are the things that grab a top performer’s attention.

A good tip to writing a great first line for a job ad is to ask the candidate a question i.e., “Do you feel you have gone as far as you can with your current company?  Do you sometimes feel you spend more time selling your ideas internally than you do with your clients?  Do you get the support and the resources you need to be at the top of your game?”

Our ideal candidate signDon’t use third person language in the ad.  Things like, “The ideal candidate will have…” do not engage the reader.  Write the ad as if you were speaking directly to that talented salesperson you want to hire – because if you’re lucky, you are!  When you are listing the “Responsibilities” describe the key aspects of the job, not a list of every possible thing the person might encounter.  When listing the “Requirements” you should only list the things that are deal breakers.  For example, does the person really have to have a college degree?  Is it a must that the person has experience in your particular industry?  Keep in mind that the more things you list here, the more likely someone will self-select out.  Many people think that if they don’t have a stringent list of requirements they will be inundated with unqualified candidates.  But actually, research shows that isn’t the case.  Don’t describe your “ideal” candidate, because that person may not exist and you may be inadvertently turning away great candidates.

Not addressing top talent’s hot buttons.

man graph upThese “hot buttons” are the key things that highly talented salespeople want to know when considering a job.  These are the items that should be included in the job ad as well as in an interview.  What are those “hot buttons?”  The company Sales Benchmark Index  did research specifically on that question to find out.  I have summarized their findings as to what are the primary concerns that top performing sales people want to know about when considering a job:

• What opportunity (accounts, industry or geography) does the position offer?
• What is my earning potential?  Now and in the future?
• Does my new manager have the skills to coach me and hone my skills?
• Will I have a chance to advance my career?  In what ways?
• Does the new role offer unique challenges beyond just winning deals?
• What kind of training and professional development will I receive?
• Will I earn recognition for outstanding work?  In what ways?
• Will senior leadership listen to my ideas?
• What kinds of tools will I use? Will the infrastructure shackle me or help me win deals?
• What type of internal resources will I have to help me?
Group with sales sign• Does the brand and/or reputation of the company open doors? Are the products/services respected?
• Who are the customers? Do they give positive referrals? Are they irritated or delighted?
• How will I quickly ramp up during my onboarding period? Is there an adjusted quota or a guarantee?
• What is the culture like? Is this a winning team? Are the sales people respected?

You won’t be able to address all of these in a job ad but make sure you are hitting as many as you can in order to increase your chances of catching the eye of the right candidate for you.  And make sure you are covering these items in your interviews with top performers.

Not setting expectations with the candidate about the hiring process.

Man woman interviewMany times I’ve had managers tell me that when they have found a talented salesperson they lose him or her because the person gets irritated with the interview process.  This might be because it is taking too long or involves too many steps.  The solution to this is to clearly outline the process for the candidate from the beginning.

Man in a wheelMap out each step and explain the reason for each step.  It’s like how people feel about airline delays, the worst part is not knowing what is happening.  Even if you are aggravated by the delay, you definitely prefer knowing the reason for it versus feeling left in the dark or jerked around and not appreciated.  Stay in CONSTANT contact with the candidate through email and phone.  Don’t let more than two days go by without some kind of contact and/or update.  You want this person to feel that they are a top priority for you and your company.  After all, he or she might just be your next superstar.

Related Articles:

My 25 Favorite Salesperson Interview Questions

Looking To Hire? 10 Free Recruitment Websites

Why Do Job Candidates Do These Things??? (And If They Do…Run!)

Steve Jobs On Hiring And Managing Talented People

The DOs And DON’Ts Of Interviewing

What Is A Realistic Job Preview And Why You Should Care

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Here is an interesting infographic on the signs that your “rockstar” may be looking to hit the road!

7 signs your rockstar employee is looking for a new job

How To Get The Most Clicks When You Post To LinkedIn, Twitter, & Facebook

What time of day is best to Tweet?  What day is best to do a LinkedIn update?  Is there an ideal message length to increase clicks? (Yes!)  Can including a question mark or exclamation point impact the number of clicks you receive? (Yes!)  Should you use a hashtag in your Tweet if it is a Business To Consumer message? (maybe not).

The company Compendium did a study with more than 200 companies, to find out how companies can get the most effective Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter engagement when they post.    Their study looked at variables including number of words, punctuation marks, times of day, and days of the week to determine what worked best for business-to-business and business-to-consumer postings.
Some of the key findings were:

Best Days To Post:  Monday and Wednesday are best on Twitter if you are marketing to consumers, and LinkedIn is better on Monday. But if your company is targeting business-to-business services/products, post to LinkedIn on Sunday, and to Twitter on Wednesday.

Best Time Of Day:  The time of day you send out your social messages makes a huge difference in terms of getting maximum clicks. The best time to share on Twitter is between 10am-2pm.  Facebook content numbers spike in a more narrow window, between 11am-noon, and then again in late afternoon.  LinkedIn content is read (as you would expect)  in the morning and around lunch.

Ideal Length of Post:  There does seem to be an “ideal length” for messages in terms of engagement.  For B2B on LinkedIn ideal length is 16-25 words, and 11-25 on Twitter. For postings targeted to consumers on LinkedIn 21-25 words is ideal length, with 1-5 on Twitter.  So apparently getting that marketing Tweet down to five words is your next big task.

Using Question Marks:  Now here is a really surprising finding!  Messages on LinkedIn and Twitter can receive between 25 and 52% fewer clicks if they include a question mark.  This is odd because some research studies I’ve seen show that asking a question in your message increases engagement.  So, I guess the takeaway is ask the question but don’t put a questions mark on the end of the post!

Using Exclamation Points:  It’s a mixed bag of results for exclamation points (my personal favorite).  Using an exclamation mark can create about 25% more clicks on LinkedIn, but 8-15% fewer clicks on Twitter.

Using Hashtags:  Do you use hashtags on your Tweets?  We’ve all been told to do this to make it easier for people to search Tweets by keywords, right?  For business-to-business Tweets including # can cause 193% more clicks.  Wow!  However, if your message is to consumers it can cause 82% fewer clicks.  I’d love to know why consumers are so turned off by a hashtag.

Using Numbers:  Usually we use a number instead of spelling out the word for sake of brevity in postings.  Interestingly, using a number doesn’t change much in terms of clicks with one exception.  Business-to-business Tweets with numbers get 50% more clicks.

You can find all of the study’s findings below in this infographic:

Looking To Hire? 10 FREE Recruitment Websites

“If it’s free, it’s for me!” as the old saying goes.  Then again, you have to balance that with, “You get what you pay for!”  Recently, I have been helping clients with their sales recruitment efforts.  We all know that it is hard to find qualified, outside, commissioned, salespeople regardless of the industry you are in.  If you are a large company with a H.R. department that can spend $400 to place ads on CareerBuilder.com or Monster.com, that’s great.  But, I started to wonder,  ”Is there a better way?”  So, I began researching job websites, job boards, and aggregators.  I started trolling recruitment groups and websites to learn what works and what doesn’t.  I’m increasingly finding that spending big money on recruitment ads is only one option in the recruitment wheelhouse.  In fact, there are a number of $0 ways to find your next salesperson that can work even better than the high cost traditional route.

Most job sites are free for the job seeker, but of course can be quite costly for the employer to post a job.  But did you know that there are many “free-to-post” job websites, boards, and aggregators available?

Before we get to those, I’ll quickly review some of the basic social media things you should already be doing.  Taking advantage of all the free ways you can use social media for recruitment, is a quick and painless way to effectively get the word out about your open position.  At a minimum, you should post the job opening in the following ways:

1.  A status update on your personal and company LinkedIn Page.

2.  Asked your employees to do the same on their LinkedIn Profile Page.

3.  Posted the position on your company Facebook Page.

4.  Asked your employees to post about the position on their Facebook Pages.

5.  Posted the position on your company website.

6.  Tweeted the position to your company followers.

(Please see my blog posts; Recruit Top Sales Talent Using LinkedIn & Your Website, 6 Free Ways To Recruit Salespeople on LinkedIn and 6 Free Ways To Recruit Salespeople On Twitter for more info on these topics.)

After all these years, I’m still convinced that the number one way to find your next sales superstar is a referral from your current sales superstars.  This should always be your number one focus.  Involve your sellers in every way you can think of in order to find the right person.  And don’t forget, this should be an ongoing process – not just something you do when you have an opening.

Now, if you’ve done those steps, you are ready to post it to these free job websites.  All of these that I have listed are completely free to use, not a limited time trial free offer.  Several also have upgrade services that you can purchase, but I think the basic services are amazing for what you get.

FindAJobAlready.com

This job site features an easy-to-use interface.  (The founder tested it with his 92 year old grandmother!).  If you want to be proactive, it offers resume search and you can also have them email you resumes that match your keywords or browsing history.  However, I did not find many resumes that were current in the “sales” category.  Most were from 2010-2011.  You can post unlimited jobs for free and applicants can apply on-line.  The website says that they have over 4 million jobs in their search engine.

Gigajob.com

Gigajob claims 2,399,302 members with 265,753 jobs posted and 1,645 resumes.  The site confused me at first because it says, “Gigajob $1 is your free job site – for finding jobs and filling job vacancies.”  Huh?  But it is free.  The website is owned by a German company and I suspect the $1 might be a typo and is supposed to say #1.  Regardless, there are lots of great features here.  You can search resumes (which are current) or set up resume email alerts.  It provides you with a url link to the job you post and you can include that link on your website, Facebook page, email signature, etc.  This is great if you don’t have a way for people to apply online from your own website. You can simply redirect them with the link to your posting on Gigajob which DOES have an online application feature.  The applications will come directly to you.  Their site will show you how many people have viewed your job posts and a nice touch is that you can upload your logo and place it on the job posting.

Lots Of Jobs.net

This site is a bit confusing at first because it is ad supported (all of them are – which is why they are free!), but the ads are placed haphazardly around the pages.  It does have a resume search option but most of the ones I found were from 2010 or older.  However, LotsOfJobs claims 49,898 users registered and offers some great functions.  You can create a  company profile for applicants to view that includes your logo and company information.  When you post a job you can select for candidates to apply on-line, be redirected to your own website url, or specify an email address to reply to.  You also are able to see how many people have viewed your job posting(s) each day.

JobSpider.com

One of the big pluses to this site is that it is also indexed by SimplyHired.com which is one of the largest search engine aggregators.  JobSpider says that it is the #1 free internet job search engine and jobs board.  It features a resume search function and a quick review of it showed some dated resumes but also many current ones as well.  You can view how many people see your job posting each day and it also has the apply on line option.

Jobvertise.com

Jobvertise is well established in this area having been around for over 10 years on the net.  They claim over one million resumes and 250,000 jobs.  The basic service is free and there are upgrades that you can purchase.  Along with the resume search function you can receive relevant resumes emailed to you.  The resumes are very current although as a  basic customer (i.e., FREE) you do not see a resume in your search until it has been up for 21 days.  When you post a job you can create a customized “Jobs Page” for candidates to view which lists all the jobs you have available.  You can even add your own HTML to it or import it onto your own website.  Very cool!  It also has the online application feature which makes it easy for people to respond to your job posting.

ResumeBucket.com

Like JobSpider, this site is also indexed by SimplyHired.com, so that is a great bonus.  It boasts 1500 employers and 350,000 users.  It has a resume search, however, it does not list the date the resumes were posted so you have no way of knowing if they are current.  I like that it offers you a company profile page complete with logo and a specific url that   you can use to direct people to your job postings.  Also, each job posting that you post has a specific url that you can link to as well.  The job posting has an apply on line button.  ResumeBucket does not give you any analytics on your job postings so you do not know how many have viewed your listing.

ClassifiedAds.com

This site is the new kid on the block.  It is about a year old and is one of Inc. magazine’s fastest growing companies.  It is not a jobs only website.  It is more like a Craig’s List.  Just like newspaper classifieds, there are many different categories.  There is a very large Jobs section.  The site itself lists over 500,000 new listings per month so it is definitely getting good eyeball traffic.  In your job posting you can include click-able links (to your website, Facebook page, etc.).  It offers the apply on line function as well as a specific url address to view the ad that you can reference on your other social media sites.  ClassifiedAds also shows you how many times your job posting has been viewed.

AllStarJobs.com

The site claims 15,000 job postings.  You can browse resumes or set up the automated feature that emails you when resumes matching your keywords are posted.  All of the jobs are “human edited” which keeps the “work at home” offers from cluttering up the job postings.  It does offer a company profile page where allegedly you can upload a logo.  I did  not have any success in doing so.  AllStarJobs also is indexed by Simply Hired which gives you additional visibility.  It offers the online application button and tells you how many people have seen your posting.

TweetMyJobs.com

This is the “granddaddy” of all the job sites and job boards.  It has over 10,000 job channels on Twitter.  A listing on  TweetMyJobs automatically is distributed to Simply Hired, JuJu, Trovit and other job aggregators.  In addition, job seekers are instantaneously notified as soon as a relevant job is posted that matches what they are looking for.  This means that Twitter members who have indicated they are interested in sales positions in your area would be sent a text or email alert about your position.

Every job posted at TweetMyJobs is included on TweetMyJobs.com, where job seekers can search job listings according to the criteria they select.  TweetMyJobs has a Facebook app that facilitates referrals by showing interested candidates if any of their friends have inside connections with your company.  The site will also email you an analytics report that details your job posting views.  If you are not listing on TweetMyJobs you are missing out on a HUGE opportunity.

Facebook Marketplace by Oodles

With 950,000 monthly Facebook users, this is one of Facebook’s “power apps.”  (Log in to Facebook and search “Marketplace by Oodle”)  This is not exclusively a job posting site or job board.  It is more like classifieds (many liken it also to ebay).  While you can sell items on Marketplace, it is much more than that.  It has a very active and in-depth Jobs section.  Here you can post your open position(s) and then link it to your Company Facebook page as one of the “app boxes” below your timeline cover photo.  Then when interested parties click on it, they are taken directly to your job listings on Facebook Marketplace.  The one thing it is missing that I wish it had is that you do not know how many people view your listing.  However, if you connect it to an app box on your Company Facebook Page you WILL be able to see how many people have clicked the Marketplace app box on your page by looking under “Reach” in your site analytics.  This is a terrific free service and you should jump on it before Facebook appropriates it and starts charging!

A couple of things to remember about posting to these job sites….  Don’t forget to make a note of which ones you have posted to so that you can go in and either renew an ad when it is about to expire or cancel it when you have filled the position.  Some automatically expire after 30 days – some are open ended.  Also, keep track of where your applicants are coming from so that you will know which sites deliver you the best results.  And, if they are working for you – go back and give them some positive feedback and appreciation for the free services.

One last thought…The sites I list above are mass targeted job sites.  You should do an internet search to see if your particular industry has some free job boards or job websites too.

If you know of any additional free job posting sites that you would like to share, please hit the comment button and let us know!

For my media sales folks – I have found these industry specific free job posting sites:

www.RBR.com

www.AllAcess.com

www.TVandRadioJobs.com

www.RadioOnline.com

6 Free Ways To Recruit For Salespeople On Twitter

“A Twitter follower is almost 3 times more likely to apply to a job posting than a LinkedIn connection and 8 times more likely to apply than a Facebook friend.”  This is according to the 2012 Social Recruiting Activity Report done by Bullhorn.  They used data from over 35,000 recruiters to identify current trends and successes in social recruiting. Considering those statistics and that Twitter is the easiest to use of all the social media sites, it makes sense to use it for recruiting salespeople.

Twitter is also a great way to learn about a candidate who does apply for a sales position.  Go the person’s Twitter page profile and read through it.  It can give you insight on how they communicate and what they find interesting.  Is there a good balance between interesting information and just fun things?  How large is their network?  Does it include people within your industry?  Is the person respectful of others and engage in conversations?  Does it look like this is someone you would like to work with every day?

If your company does not have a Twitter account, you need to set one up first and get people to follow it.  It’s easy and quick to do.  There’s a great guide to doing this at  https://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics#topic_104.

1.  Add The Twitter Follow Button To Your Website

Hopefully, you have already done this, but in case you haven’t, add the Twitter Follow Button to your company website to build up your followers on Twitter and thus increase your potential audience when you Tweet about a job opening. The Follow Button allows users to sign up as a  follower of your Twitter account, directly from your website where the button is installed.

To add the Follow Button to your website, log in to your Twitter account and then go to: https://twitter.com/about/resources/buttons#follow

2.  Add The Tweet Button To Your Website’s  Job Posting

The Twitter Follow Button as described above, allows a person to become a follower of your Tweets.  But the Twitter Tweet Button is different.  The Tweet Button is placed next to specific things on your website like a job posting.

Placing the Tweet Button next to your job posting makes it easy for someone to “re-tweet” your job posting if they come across it on your website’s Jobs Page.  This allows a person to quickly share the website content with all of that person’s  Twitter followers.  By clicking the Tweet button a pre-populated Tweet box pops up containing a link to your  webpage, and the person can type in a message before sending out as a Tweet.  Ask your employees to do this.  By doing so, your job posting now gets “re-tweeted” to hundreds if not thousands of people – all at no cost.

To add the Tweet Button to your website, log in to your Twitter account and then go to: https://twitter.com/about/resources/buttons

3. Tweet To Your Followers

Twitter can be an effective way to get the word out quickly about your job opening.  Use your company’s Twitter account to Tweet a message to your followers and ask them to “re-tweet” it to their followers.

Use hash tags in your Tweet.  To make your job posting tweets standout you can also use hash tags which are the “pound sign” on your keyboard, (#). Hash tags are used as a way to filter and find information on Twitter. All you have to do is include the hash tag with a keyword in your tweet and it becomes instantly searchable. Here are a few examples of hash tags you might consider using: #radiojob, #jobpost, #employment, #recruiting, #hiring, #radio career, #staffing, #salesjob, #NAJ (that is Twitter lingo for ‘Need A Job?’)

You can use more than one hash tag in your tweet but remember you are limited to 140 characters so be strategic in which hash tags you use.  They are one of the best and easiest sources to find engaged users who are looking for jobs.  It also helps others who are not your followers to find your Tweet in searches.  For example if you had a Tweet along the lines of:

Love Radio? Come sell with us. Great commission. More info at www.ourstation.com/jobs.html #radio jobs

Anyone who does a search using the key words of “radio jobs” would see your Tweet.  You can try different hash tags with your Tweet and see what garners you the best response.  You can make anything a hash tag, including the name of your company.

4. Search For Candidates

You can also be proactive and search and source directly for job seekers, using keyword search.  Free sites like Search.Twitter.com allow you to search by hash tag (i.e., “radio sales”), keyword, and with their advanced search, even by zip code radius.  Enter keywords such as “media salesperson” or “commission sales”.  The more keyword combinations you try the more results you will get.  One benefit to using Twitter is that they allow you to contact members directly.  Once you have a name you can contact the person with information to see if he or she is interested.

5. Job Post On Social Media Job Boards

There are many social media job boards out there where you can post a job and have it aggregated to sites like Twitter and Facebook.  A great FREE resource to use is www.TweetMyJobs.com.  It is a social media job board.   It’s unlike the usual “job board” in that job seekers are instantaneously notified as soon as a relevant job is tweeted that matches what they are looking for.  This means that Twitter members who have indicated they are interested in media sales positions would be sent a text or email alert about your position (if it meets their other criteria such as location).

Every job posted at TweetMyJobs is included on TweetMyJobs.com, where job seekers can search job listings according to the criteria they select.  TweetMyJobs has a Facebook app that facilitates referrals by showing interested candidates if any of their friends have inside connections with your company.

Also, the job posting is included in the leading job search aggregator sites such as Simply Hired, Juju and Trovit automatically.  Another great aspect of this service is the opportunity to track where your results are coming from through the use of the “personal dashboard” at TweetMyJobs.  It provides you with an overview of how your jobs are performing in real time. You can see which distribution sources are sending you applications.

For a listing of other FREE to post job boards and websites click on Looking To Hire? 10 FREE Recruitment Websites.

6.  Link Your Tweets To Your Facebook Page

You can link your Twitter account to your Facebook account so that your Tweets will automatically post to your Facebook page’s wall.  This is a great way to cross promote and drive your Facebook followers to your Twitter page and vice versa.

Just log in to your Twitter account and go to your settings.  In settings, click on the “profile” tab on the right side of the page.  Scroll to the bottom and click “sign in to Facebook and connect your accounts.”  Click “log in with Facebook” and you will be prompted to enter your Facebook password.  Click “allow” to accept permissions.  That’s it!  now your tweets will post to your Facebook wall (re-tweets and replies will not post).

Check out this Infographic for more interesting information on how social recruiting is growing and being utilized.