(By James Bahm) Consider this report last week from the Center for Sales Strategy: 65% of sales managers said the hardest part of their job is finding new talent, while 73% and 72% of managers respectively felt they didn’t have enough sellers and that their staff needed to increase.
Recruiting and hiring talent is not as hard as many think it is. Yes, the sales landscape changed when the pandemic showed that adults can do their job from home and still be productive – I worked from home for almost three years and was consistently among the top performers in the nation for my company. This means that managers and companies need to change with the times and be flexible.
If you want to recruit and hire top talent, there are a few changes you need to make, if you haven’t already made them. In random order:
The days of micromanaging your team and forcing them to report to the office are over.
My first sales manager, call him Mr. Slate, said that if we weren’t in the office or at a client’s door at 8 am we weren’t doing our job. He also believed that unless he saw us in the station at some point every day, he wouldn’t believe we were working.
This is not the same as having your team be in the office for your weekly staff meeting. Meetings are a part of the gig. However, mandating that they be at the office at a certain time every day is not something you should do.
If you have someone who checks email from home at 7 am, inputs that new order their client sent, takes their kids to school, and meets a client for coffee at 8:30 a.m. to do backflips, you found a rock star.
You hired an adult to do a job only an adult can do. Let them do it. Talent always performs regardless of where they’re working.
Respond to candidates quickly and constructively.
When you receive resumes, be sure to communicate with the candidate as frequently as you would you best client. If someone doesn’t make the cut for an interview, send them a brief note letting them know why.
For those with whom you meet and interview, follow up quickly with an email to either move to the next step, or thank them for meeting and let them know why they didn’t make the cut.
Be honest in your reasons. You met with an adult, and you should be truthful and concise. Imagine the talent you’d have if you took 30 seconds to send this:
Thanks for meeting with me. I interviewed five candidates, and I’m moving forward with two of them who I felt were a better fit at this time. I know John Doe at XYZ and if you’d like, I’m happy to contact him on your behalf because I think you’d be a great fit there.
You should not need more than two interviews before you’re ready to make an offer. No one has time for three or four interviews where they need to create a proposal and sell you. If you liked the candidate enough to interview them, you can bet your competition is interviewing them as well, and if you take too long to make a hiring decision, you risk losing them to someone else.
What type of environment have you created?
Let me compare two managers I worked for, Ms. Prevaricator, and Ms. Wings. The former said her door was always open, and she’d be there to help no matter what, though nothing was further from the truth. The only truthful thing she ever told me was, “You’re hired.”
The latter cared only about being the wind beneath my wings, and she did everything to help me excel. She gave me new accounts every month, asked me to lead meetings, introduced me to leaders with various chambers of commerce, asked me to represent our company at their events and pushed me to new heights.
Both types of managers, and all types in between, are found in stations across the country. The more you’re like the latter than the former, the easier it’ll be for you to keep the talent you have and recruit new talent.
A good way to gauge the environment you’ve created is to ask your staff if they know anyone looking for work. If they don’t bring you any resumes, look at yourself, and realize you may be the reason you can’t find talent and grow your team.
“When people feel safe enough to raise their hands and say, ‘I made a mistake’ or ‘I need some help,’ the leader has created an environment where people feel safe to be themselves.” – Simon Sinek.
The opportunity to grow your team is up to you. How you lead is more important than how you manage. I don’t know who said this, though its truth is applicable to recruiting and hiring: A manager gets people to do something they don’t want to; whereas a leader gets people to do things they never thought possible.
Make your focus leadership, not management. Management is only a title; leadership is something that’s a part of you, your culture, environment, and recruiting and hiring.
Candidates can see through the managerial style you project because what they’re looking for is to join a leader who will bring things out of them, they never thought possible.
Bottom Line: Recruiting and Hiring needs to be about the candidate you’re pursuing, not your stations, your ratings, or you.
James Bahm has over 30 years’ experience in broadcasting, sales and marketing, and recruiting and hiring. He is the author of Don’t Yuck My Yum – a Professional Development and Sales & Marketing book – which is available on amazon.com. He can be reached via email: [email protected].
