Why Can't I Find Good Sales Reps?
This is one of the most common questions we hear from hiring managers.
The conversation usually begins with concerns about the candidate market. There is a belief that good salespeople have become harder to find, harder to attract, or less interested in changing jobs than they were a few years ago. There is some truth to that. Strong sales professionals are typically employed, earning income, managing existing relationships, and evaluating opportunities carefully before making a move.
At the same time, every week we see companies successfully hire experienced salespeople into new roles.
Because of that, we usually start by looking at the opportunity itself.
A principle that has always resonated with me comes from Jocko Willink's concept of Extreme Ownership. The basic idea is that progress usually begins when we focus our attention on the factors we can control rather than the factors we cannot.
Sales hiring is no different. When a company struggles to attract strong candidates, there are often several variables worth examining before concluding that the talent simply does not exist.
Compensation And Expectations
Many sales hiring challenges begin with a gap between the profile a company wants and the compensation they are offering.
Companies often want candidates with industry experience, a history of quota attainment, strong tenure, leadership potential, and an established network within a target market. When candidate quality falls short of expectations, compensation is one of the first areas we review because it directly influences the size and quality of the available talent pool.
The Opportunity Itself
Experienced salespeople spend a great deal of time evaluating whether they can be successful in a role.
They want to understand the product, the market, the sales process, the leadership team, the quota structure, and the level of support available to them.
And we teach our candidates to be less concerned with maximizing compensation than they are with understanding whether they have a realistic path to success.
When candidates repeatedly disengage from a process, the opportunity itself is what deserves closer examination.
The Hiring Process
Candidates evaluate companies in the same way companies evaluate candidates.
Interview timelines, communication habits, feedback cycles, and decision-making processes all influence how a role is perceived. A company may believe it is conducting a thorough evaluation. A candidate may experience the same process as uncertainty or lack of urgency. Strong candidates typically have options, which means delays tend to have consequences.
The Role Definition
Some searches become difficult because the organization has not fully aligned around what success looks like. Different stakeholders may be looking for different things. Expectations may change throughout the process. Requirements may continue to grow as new candidates enter the conversation.
None of these situations are unusual, but they do make it harder for candidates and recruiters to understand what the company ultimately wants.
Why Recruiters Push Back
We’ve always felt here at SalesFirst Recruiting, that a recruiting firm's responsibility is not limited to finding candidates. Part of the job is helping clients understand how the market is responding to the opportunity. Those conversations are not always comfortable, but they are often where the greatest progress occurs. Side note… we’ve also lost clients here! But we are ok with that becausec most sales hiring problems can be improved once they are clearly identified.
That is one reason we tend to spend more time discussing the role, the compensation, the process, and the candidate profile than discussing the candidate market itself.
Those are the areas where companies have the greatest ability to make adjustments, and over time those adjustments tend to have a meaningful impact on hiring outcomes.
