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The Great Mystery – Recruiting & hiring quality salespeople – Part I
Article Autor: Brad Huisken
By Brad Huisken
Have you ever hired someone that you thought was going to be great, only to find out later that they couldn’t close a door much less a sale? On the other hand, have you hired someone out of desperation that you thought would take up space until you found the right person, only to be pleasantly surprised that they ended up being an incredible salesperson? The answer to both of these questions, if you have been in retail for more than a New York minute, is probably yes. Thus the great mystery – recruiting and hiring salespeople! In my opinion a successful sales staff is: Completely trained, working toward objectives, held accountable for performance, and rewarded based on results. Toward that end, jewelry store owners and managers need to hire high quality sales professionals. In order to hire quality people you need to: 1. Have a large pool of people from which to make your decision. 2. Maintain a constant recruiting effort. 3. Be prepared for unforeseen staff changes. Recruiting/Finding Applicants There are numerous sources for a sales manager to find applicants to fill a sales position. Keep in mind that you are not looking for the so-called “qualified applicant.” There is no such thing as a qualified applicant unless they have worked for you in your organization in the past. The only thing that would pre-qualify one applicant over another is through him/her having some product knowledge within the jewelry industry. However, as you know, product knowledge can be learned in time just as sales techniques, operations, and customer service. The following are a few sources of applicants. Offer a recruiting bonus to your existing staff – I would suggest you offer a dollar amount of $250 or greater. Pay half upon hiring the candidate and the other half after they have been with you for six months. If a staff member recruits an applicant, you know that they have shared with them the truth about the position. Have a recruiting poster in your place of business or a bag stuffer. You never know when a customer, a friend, or a relative of your customer may be looking to make a career change. Print a recruiting statement on your business card – Quality people can be found at any number of places. I would suggest you carry your business cards with you and whenever you meet someone who is personable, confident, enthusiastic, etc. give them one of your cards and tell them you would love to talk to them about a career opportunity. Steal them – There are great people working in other industries or at other stores within the jewelry business. I would suggest that you look at waiters or waitresses, shoe store salespeople (where they put the shoes on the customer); high-end clothing stores (where they sell over the dressing room doors) or behind the cosmetic counter. High schools, junior college, college, or tech schools – Make an appointment with the career counselor at your local vocational schools or traditional schools. You may be able to find quality entry-level people where you won’t have to spend months breaking bad habits – they won’t have them yet. Help Wanted ads – Online and traditional – Don’t run a help wanted ad in the classified section. People that don’t have jobs read the help wanted ads. I would suggest that you spend a few extra dollars and place an ad in the fashion, business, or entertainment section of the newspaper. With on-line ads, you will know that people know how to operate a computer. I would suggest that both on-line ads and traditional ads have the applicants respond for an application via e-mail - have them complete the application and e-mail it back to you. You can then do a telephone interview or schedule and in-person interview to those that respond. Author, trainer, consultant and speaker Brad Huisken is President of IAS Training. Mr. Huisken has authored several books on sales, he developed the PMSA Relationship Selling Program, the PSMC Professional Sales Management Course, The Mystery Shoppers Kit, The Employee Handbook and Policy & Procedures Manual, The Weekly Sales Training Meeting video series along with Aptitude Tests and Proficiency Exams for new hires, current sales staff and sales managers, along with the new Weekly Internet Sales Training Series. In addition, he publishes a free weekly newsletter called “Sales Insight.” For a free subscription or more information contact IAS Training at 800-248-7703, info@iastraining.com, www.iastraining.com or fax 303-936-9581. | ||||||||||||||||||
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