good job due to lack of experience. They removed that barrier.
They said to apply in person. They only wanted to see individuals who would simply show up. You can believe that a lot of people didn’t trust that ad because it said “apply in person” and the company knew that. If I had the “guts” to show up in person, without an appointment, they figured I’d have the guts to make a “cold call.”
The ad said “$500 per month guaranteed.” Let’s put that in perspective. In 1966 you could purchase a new car for $1,500. I bought a three-bedroom brick home in 1969 for $17,000. $500 per month in 1966 was equivalent to $6,000 or more per month now. They knew the pay would be highly attractive to some, and unbelievable to others.
Those buzzwords were enough to motivate me to show up Monday morning.
Kirby knew they had to trick people to come in and hear their story. They also knew that a large percentage of the people who showed up at 8 am would leave before the presentation was over. They knew at the end of the day they would have, at best, two or three candidates left. And they knew that by the end of the week they would have, at best, one person who stuck to the plan.
Why not be up-front from the beginning? Because there are a lot of people who could be successful in sales but have never tried. Companies like Kirby know that, so they use double-blind ads to lure people and find the diamond in the rough.
So give a lot of thought to what kind of salesperson you want before you run your ad. Think about the buzzwords you saw in the newspaper when you performed the exercise I asked you to do. Consider running a couple of different ads at the same time to attract candidates with different motives. Run one focused on income, and another focused on management opportunities.
After running the ad, get the actual newspaper and look for it. Tear out the entire page and put it in a scrapbook for future reference. Make note of where on the page your ad falls. Is it near the beginning, middle, or end? When you were doing the exercise, you paid closer attention in the beginning and less at the end, so placement is important. Consider what you could do to move your ad closer to the front of the section.
Keep notes about the weather the day the ad runs. If it is a beautiful summer day, your ad may do worse because the distraction factor is higher. Some of your would-be candidates may have procrastinated and decided to go play instead of look for a job. It happens. Judging your ad on how many responses you receive may be unfair unless you consider all the factors affecting the response rate like weather, events in town that weekend, or a special sporting event.
Bearing these factors in mind, make a note of how many responses you get so you can compare the results from this ad against others you have run or will run.
As managers we have to face the fact that in sales, turnover is a pretty high. I read an article recently that said to expect upwards of 60 percent turnover in sales, higher if your program involves straight commission. Given those statistics, recruiting salespeople should be your company’s number-one priority. I have interviewed successful sales managers and general managers who told me that they are in the recruiting business, not the sales business, and they’re probably right. For their company to succeed, recruiting new salespeople needs to be a major part of their day-to-day routine.
Fielding Calls
Let’s suppose you run an ad on Sunday and include contact information. Assuming the calls start on Monday, what phone number will you use? If you post your company’s general number, you should think about who answers that phone. If it is always the same person, has he been briefed on the ad, and has he been told what to say to the candidate calling in?
I spoke to a manager who lost several response calls because, at the time the company ran an ad for sales positions, it was also running an ad for an installation tech. Further, he failed to brief his staff that both ads were running concurrently. Apparently when people said they were calling about the ad in the paper, the company employee answering the phone said, “You must be calling about our installation position.” Hearing that, a couple of the callers said, “Oh, I must have the wrong number,” and hung up.
Had the company employees been properly briefed, they would have known that there were two ads running and therefore would have asked the callers which ad they were calling about.
Better yet, when you place an ad for salespeople, use a phone number that rings at the desk of one person who has been trained to field salesperson inquiry calls and who will usually be at that desk when the calls come in. That way the response will be treated the way you want it treated.
If you cannot direct a call to a particular desk, the next best thing to do is add a contact person’s name to the want ad. For example, “For information about this position call 555-1234 and ask for Mr. Lewis (a “desk name”). Then tell all of the employees who might answer the phone that people asking for Mr. Lewis are very important sales applicant calls and should be directed to XYZ. Using the same “desk name” every time you run a sales want ad makes it easier for your employees to distinguish sales applicants from any other positions you may be advertising for. It tells your employees that this is a sales applicant, handle accordingly.
Recruit through the Internet
Today, another medium available to help you connect with salespeople is the World Wide Web. You can use Craig’s List, Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and other Internet search engines to find people who are looking for jobs online. As time goes on, more and more of these kinds of search sites will be available.
I have a lot of success in recent years and recruitment sessions using Craig’s List. However, I have learned how to use Craig’s List to make it work better. Here is some of what I have learned.
1.Place the advertisement you plan to run in the general, customer service, and marketing sections.
2.Place the advertisement at 10:00 am the same morning you want applicants to call. For example, if you plan to start interviews Monday, place the Ad at 10:00 am Monday or whatever time you want calls to start coming in. The Internet is instant, so you may see instant responses.
3.There are two type Craig’s List markets, “Paid & Free.” Paid are what you’d imagine, you have to pay for the Ad to be placed. Paid markets can be better because in those markets Craig’s List doesn’t limit the number of categories nor the number of times you can place your Ad. In free markets, like the term implies, there is no cost for the Ad placement, however, Craig’s List will limit placement. So you have to be clever in Ad design and frequency to get around the rule.
The Three-Foot Rule
You’ve probably heard “the three-foot rule” in reference to developing leads, but it also applies to finding sales talent. Anytime you are within three feet of a potential sales applicant, or someone who may know a person that could be a sales applicant, let that person know you are in the market for qualified sales talent. Make sure you always have a supply of business cards with you. Better yet, have special business cards that include an extra message on the reverse side. That message could say, “Ask me about an exciting career opportunity with my company.” Or, like the want-ad example, “Are you ready to start earning a 6-figure income?” Or, “Have you hit the ceiling where you work? Ask me about the opportunities for growth with my company.” Be creative; think of other catchy phrases that might spark interest.
When you meet someone who makes an impression on you at a social gathering, at a restaurant, or in an elevator, hand your card to him or her. That effort takes mere seconds and could prove extremely valuable.
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