Keep it short and sweet — remember, you are always selling.
Step 1 – Attract the Right Candidates
Rope them in! (Keep it short and sweet — remember, you are always selling.) Whether you are advertising or not, pre-create your job pitch and have everyone on the hiring team be able to generate it without referring to the written document. As you create it, speak to the perfect listener; sell Jill Brown through Jill Brown’s eyes. In the case of sales, if you want a high-dominant person, use dominant words (adventuresome, competitive, decisive). If you want a person who is a natural influencer, then use those types of words (charming, confident, convincing) and people will hear themselves and be attracted — as like attracts like.
Don’t underestimate how detrimental a mixed message can be. Salespeople won’t respond to an ad or a live pitch that says, “Bring your detail skills and let them shine.” Salespeople are cut from a certain mold. Speak to the mold.
Good resources for this type of learning are Go Put Your Strengths to Work, by Marcus Buckingham, and Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez.
Step 2 – Screen the Right Candidates In
Phone-screen using three to four deal-breakers (knockout factors: sales volume, cost of sale, sales cycle, quotas, attitude, goals).
Phone-screen for two non-negotiable sales behaviors like achiever (go-getter) or competitor or persuader or miner (prospector). Remember, a candidate who does not shine in this part of the process does not move on.
Find out where your candidate’s head is at. What are his deal-breakers? What opportunity is ideal? What really makes her tick?
Step 3 – Create Buy-In
After you have identified the candidates who are worth your time, pull out their passions and their buying signs and create vision for their future well beyond the job. Create a reason for them to choose your organization.
Complete a mini up-front contract, “enrolling” the candidates in the opportunity, the role itself, the company and the “Hiring Process,” and why it is in their best interest to pursue this.
*Keep in mind, if your opportunity is not something that is inspiring and worth your candidates’ time, this is the moment to say so. If you’re up-front, your company’s credibility will soar.
Great people want to know there is a selection process — just as athletes want to know they have to train to compete. Don’t listen to the story that great people are too great to test or follow an internal hiring process; that is an old, worn-out story. Times are tough in business, and if people cannot make it through a stringent selection process, they are doomed. Watch for their energy level after each phase, and remember — Always Be Selling the candidates who are worth it.”
Now it’s YOUR time to weed and seed. Save your voice