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