There may not be a better time to invest in your sales team than now. In a highlighted article in Sales Pro Central on July 31, 2020, Christopher Croner was quoted as saying, this is “The greatest opportunity in 70 years to hire high-performance salespeople.” Whether you’re in a position to hire talent that’s currently available; or, you want to motivate and retain your existing team, understanding what makes your value proposition unique and the competencies needed to sell to your target customers is key.

If you have an existing team with strong sales reps, benchmarking your team is a great investment. The key to getting the right people into the right position is being able to scientifically measure the degree to which they have the right behaviors and an understanding of how they will do the job. Equally important is understanding job motivations and do they support being happy and motivated doing and staying with the job. This essentially answers: Are they right for the job?

Creating a benchmark or template of what the job requires starts with getting the input of subject-matter-experts to identify the traits of the position. JESSI Search uses a tested and validated Job Report Questionnaire tied to job accountabilities to obtain this information. Once your benchmark is complete, future candidates can be compared against the benchmark and each other to facilitate choosing the best potential candidate.

Christopher also recognized that, “Salespeople are essential to businesses. A major challenge has always been that there are simply not enough great salespeople to go around.” The unique opportunity in today’s market, is that there are more of the best performing salespeople on the market than there have been in decades. Just remember, it’s not as simple as going out and getting one. You must ensure that you have specifically defined what you need your sales reps to do and then find one who has the right competencies and is a culture-fit, so they will soar within your company.

Benchmarking what the job requires, coupled with a strong interview process using behavior-based questions, helps hiring managers to get away from their “happy ears” where they are hearing what they want to hear from the candidate and making a hiring decision based on those perceptions!

We at JESSI Search have examples of how our clients have elevated their sales team’s efforts and results through the use of benchmarking and assessment. Let’s have a conversation.

“Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip.” ~Eminem, American Rapper

Hiring right, onboarding effectively, motivating and leading your team to stay productive in today’s remote hiring and work environment takes effort and expertise. Who better to assist you with your remote hiring needs than JESSI Search, a leading recruiting firm that has thrived in a remote work environment for more than a decade?

In a segment on July 28, 2020 of Good Morning America, surveyed executives indicated they are struggling with hiring and training new hires. Laszlo Bock, CEO of Humu, shared that “it’s all of the little, tiny moments that are badly missed and essential.” In the same segment, Sara Sutton, CEO of FlexJobs, indicated that, “remote work hasn’t truly been adapted into most company’s cultures.”

We’ve all become familiar with Zoom, GoToMeeting and/or other popular video conferencing apps. They make our lives easier and more connected during these stay-at-home and work-from-home times. If you’re hiring now and that means shifting to a virtual hiring model, here are a few points to make a more positive impact on your candidate’s experience:

• Prepare – Set the candidate up for success and demonstrate your competency by sending all relevant info, including links, meeting numbers and instructions on how the interview will take place, ahead of time.
• Personalize – Include a personal note when you transmit info. Remember, their impression of you starts with your first contact. To keep your candidate engaged, take the opportunity to follow up with them quickly after the session and mention something you noticed. As Laszlo points out, it is so important to not lose those little, tiny connections.
• Get Creative – Show your culture and brand. If you’re a company that starts its day with a quick stand-up team meeting each morning, start your interview standing for a moment and explain why! Or, use your company coffee mug and let them know that there are coffee connoisseurs on the team and that a new mug is part of the new hire package. Be thoughtful in weaving remote work into your culture.
• Observe – However you interview, take in as much data as possible. Notice if the candidate seems prepared, were they savvy with their video presence, and were they able to flex to this interview style. You may want to record the interview to refer back to.
• Remember it’s a 2–way street – Make a good impression on the candidate by maintaining eye contact, giving them your full attention and having the right environment for a video session; especially if you’re including others on the team. Keep participants to a small group so that the conversation is smoother and the candidate can see everyone.
• Accelerate – It’s easier to coordinate schedules for a video interview vs. meeting in person. Use this to your advantage to shorten your hiring process. While you don’t want to jump to the wrong hire, you do want to move the process so that you can make an offer as soon as you’ve moved the right candidate through the process.

If you are frustrated with the amount of work and time you are putting into your hiring and onboarding practices, we can help. We’re experts at designing and expediting the process and taking it through to great hires. We’ve helped many clients hire excellent remote workers. Let’s have a conversation about your hiring goals.

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others but far enough ahead to motivate them.” ~John C. Maxwell, Author

We’re living through an unprecedented time. Organizations are learning to be resilient, resourceful and how to cope with a new reality. Organizational and individual competencies, strengths and weaknesses, are more visible than in normal times.

As you consider what to put on hold and what to move forward with, you should consider that this a great time to hire the team you’ve envisioned. We are finding the talent market to be more accessible and responsive than in previous months and years. Rather than putting your hiring on hold to preserve cash, consider how your talent investment will pay off by giving the advantages of getting the right people on your team to propel you forward as business begins to return to normal.

If you have a hiring need, this is the time to connect with the talent market. Here’s how:

• Show your Company Brand – This is always important. Here is an opportunity to demonstrate strong leadership during a crisis and that’s something future employees won’t forget.
• Approach the Market – If you have the bandwidth and expertise, reach out to potential candidates who fit your business needs and culture. If you don’t, partner with a talent expert who understands how to bring the best candidates for consideration.
• Demonstrate Open Communication – Great candidates are lost during the process as much by what you don’t say or how slow you are saying it, then by anything you do say. Pay attention to what you are communicating and don’t commit the error of leaving your candidate dangling without communicating for long periods of time. If your feedback steps are dragging on for two to three days, you are taking too long!
• Use Video Conferencing – This is becoming the norm. Companies are now managing the entire interview and onboarding processes very well via video conferencing and remote work options.
• Do Not forget the Assessment – Those of you who know me know that I’m a strong proponent for using an effective assessment tool as part of the interview process. Your goal is to select the best individual for your current role, company culture and future growth. There is no better way to do so than using an assessment to validate the candidate’s competencies, strengths, how they behave (or how they will perform on the job) and what motivates them. If you’re learning that resourcefulness and resiliency are in short supply on your team, now’s your chance to focus on hiring for these key competencies!
• Set a Path to Success with Onboarding – This process should always be well thought out and customized to fit the role and individual. Here is your chance to be more creative to attain faster returns! If you need assistance with developing an onboarding process, JESSI Search can help.

The JESSI Search team is here for you, not only to assist you with your hiring needs, we can also help define and execute the right individual steps to use in the hiring process. We’re also happy to serve as a resource for talent questions that you have during this unprecedented time and knowledge sharing as we have conversations with many hiring managers responding to this current state of business. Let JESSI Search partner with your business today to set your business on the right path for your future needs.

“You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove to be the greatest investment that you will ever make.” ~Gordon B. Hinkley

Just as August is the top buying month in Real Estate, January is known as the top hiring month. Each New Year prompts new goals and leaders identify gaps in their talent pool that need to be filled to reach those goals.

Unemployment has dropped nationwide. In some locations, like Denver, there’s a talent market where there are not enough skilled workers to fill certain positions. This can make hiring the right people to achieve your goals a daunting experience. You may be asking yourself: “When should I start the process?”, “How do I start?”, “How do I stand out against so many other organizations who are targeting the same candidates?”

Let’s break it down for you. 

1. When should you start? In the recruiting world, it is common to measure placements against a time-to-fill metric. This tracks how long it takes from the day the position is open/candidate attraction begins to the day of an accepted offer. Many factors impact the time-to-fill metric. The recognized average time-to-fill at the beginning of 2019 was 37 days. Despite the fact that many companies have condensed their hiring process, data now shows time-to-fill at 42 days. Why is there an increase? Talent is tight and it’s harder to attract the ideal talent and keep them in your hiring process through to accepted offer. 
   
   Good advice is to start your search early and at least forty-two (42) days before you want your ideal candidate to start. Not only do you need to allow time for them to give notice and finish out their current position, you also need to give time for things that might influence your time-to-fill for the position. 


2. How should you start? You’ve heard this before; your hiring process should start with three things: (1) a compelling candidate attraction campaign, (2) a realistic candidate profile, and (3) a motivating comp package. Having these three components in place positions you to launch an effective hiring campaign.


3. How do you stand out? An effective way to gain advantage against competing organizations that are targeting the same talent is to work with a talent acquisition expert. Hiring today is truly complex. A trusted talent partner who knows you and your goals, and knows how to hire well, is worth the initial investment. They can also boost your hiring brand by sharing positive examples of working with you. Our clients consistently report that they could not have accomplished making the quality hires without us. In the long run they’re saving money because with the right team in place, they’re much more effective.

To accelerate success, define a strong hiring process, work with urgency, and start the process early enough to get the right person hired. The ultimate results will be that you’re looking back having met or exceeded your goals at year end!

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“You made a task that we were dreading a wonderful experience with an outcome that brought us a shining diamond!” 

New Client for JESSI Search in 2019

“100% couldn’t be happier. Exactly the type of company and people I want to work for. A dream come true.” 

Candidate placed for the above company