subject: Working With A Sales Recruitment Agency Is An Investment In The Future [print this page] It doesn't matter whether economic times are good or bad, you need good sales people. Even if you have an established sales force that you are happy with you need to have a good succession plan. If you are just building your sales team or are considering expanding your staff, well, you get the point. But how do you go about making sure that the people you hire are the right fit for the job? The best solution is to find a sales recruiting agency you can trust.
If working with sales recruiting agency sounds like you will be adding an unnecessary expense you need to really think about it. Anyone company who has posted a job listing recently will tell you that even the most simple hiring ad will yield hundreds of resumes. How do you screen those? Even if you do get them screened do you know the right questions to ask or the proper interviewing techniques to use in order to ensure that you hire the right person?
Luckily you can find a sales recruitment agency to help you narrow your pool of candidates to a manageable size of qualified candidates. The key work is qualified. Without some kind of tested and measurable screening process you are leaving it to chance. Omitting good and accurate screening can cost you thousands of dollars since one bad hire can eat up significant time and resources.
So how do you go about finding a sales recruitment agency you can trust? While your temptation will be to first look at pricing you should leave that for later. Hiring sales people is a long term decision. Looking at the price of the sales recruitment agency won't tell the whole story. First you need to narrow down your choices.
Your first step should be to ask around. Chances are very good that someone within your professional network has worked with a sales recruitment agency in the past. Ask them about their experiences. What were the plusses and minuses of the company they worked with? Would they recommend them? You can also consult with trade associations and other business groups for referrals.
As you begin to analyse specific firms consider whether or not they are specialised. Most people who have used a sales recruitment agency to find sales professionals have found that working with an agency the focuses on placing sales people is a more successful approach that using a general recruiting firm.
Now you can look at specific features that are offered by the sales recruitment agency. What kind of training do they offer, will you be assigned a dedicated professional agent, what type of guarantee do they offer, and what is there screening process. Pay particular attention to the screening and training. These are areas that can truly differentiate a sales recruitment agency.
Once you are comfortable that you have found firms that might work for you, then you can look to price. Remember, it costs you real money to bring in a new employee only to have them leave or be let go quickly. The object is to make an investment in the future, not save a few dollars on the front end.
