Startups, Take Note: Candidate Experience IS a Key Factor in Sales Recruiting
The kinds of sales leaders and salespeople who will directly impact the growth of your startup have options. They know your business can’t succeed without a killer sales team. These powerhouse people hold a great deal of power.
That said, not all of the power is theirs.
For you to attract and hire the kinds of game-changing sales talent your startup needs to properly scale, it’s critical that you regularly play one of the most important recruitment “aces” in your hand — candidate experience. We need to bring the principles we translate to our buyers and apply those same principles to our own recruiting processes.
Often overlooked and unused, it might be the very thing your startup needs to distance itself from the rest of its competitors when waging a heated battle to win the sales recruiting war.
Below, plus other juicy pieces of startup sales hiring wisdom, you’ll learn why candidate experience is germane to the sales recruiting process and how to go about enhancing it.
Sales Candidates Are Customers Too
Generally speaking, when we think of big brands like Apple and Slack, our minds are instantly drawn to the products and services they offer. In our heads, each is a household name because of what they regularly do for their customers.
It’s the same thought process that, should the opportunity ever arise, would have us intrigued with the idea of working for one of those companies.
Oddly enough, though most startups aren’t even remotely close to joining the likes of the world’s biggest, most booming brands, they feel that the bulk of their sales recruiting efforts should come down to the exact same thing — reputation.
Don’t get me wrong, reputation certainly plays a massive part in the recruiting process, but for game-changing sales talent to join your dynamic team, you’ll need to focus on something you might not have expected — treating them like customers, too.
This is where customer experience comes into the picture.
Similar to a customer, they are attracted to who you are, what you do and most importantly, how you do it. In short, prospective salespeople are customers in their own right — it’s time you treat them as such.
Why Startups Should Care About Sales Candidate Experience
Regardless of whether or not a hire is ultimately made, sales candidates of all backgrounds and abilities deserve a positive experience with your business.
Yes, this might require a bit more from your end, but putting forth the effort to ensure this happens is worth your time, energy and attention. Remember: these salespeople your company is trying to hire will be putting their blood, sweat and tears into representing you. They’re not emotionless robots, disguised as mere words on a résumé. One of these candidates will be showing up every day to to work with you a couple of weeks from now.
Furthermore, we’re living out loud in this digital age… they’re part of a large, tight-knit community that likes to talk…and not only about the good stuff, but the bad stuff, as well. Studies show that negative experiences are far more likely to be remembered (let alone shared) than positive ones.
Thanks to our friends like Google, Glassdoor and Indeed, if your brand makes a name for itself as one that creates a less than stellar interview process, word will travel fast, ultimately working against you.
Additionally, buyers are doing more research than ever before and including your employment brand in their decision criteria. If you have a revolving door of people at your company, what does that mean for their customer experience?
Talented sales people with options will look beyond compensation: they’ll expect to be taking care of that themselves by blowing quotas out of the water. Instead, when considering a new job they’re looking for a day-to-day that isn’t a nightmare, leadership they can get behind, a product they believe in, and a genuine opportunity to further their career.
In that sense, they’re the most important customers you’ll ever have. They’re on the same subreddits, social media groups, Slack communities and Quora threads as the people you’re craving to do business with: word will spread, and if you treat prospective hires like they’re not worth much, pretty soon you’ll be right: the great ones won’t even call you.
I’ve seen it before, and I’ll see it again — proceed with caution.
And remember, like attracts like. So, what you put into this is what you’ll get back from it.
Ensuring A Positive Experience During The 3 Phases The Hiring Process
Modern sales organizations do a huge amount of their recruiting and research online. While that gives fast access to a wealth of information that was unimaginable 20 years ago, it has had a not-so-stellar impact on startup recruiting by encouraging negligence.
The biggest problem? It’s without question effective, but not everything can or should be automated. Remember, we’re dealing with people here.
I’m serious about all of this — check out what IBM Smarter Workforce Institute has to say on the topic:
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People who are satisfied with their candidate experience are 38% more likely to accept a job offer.
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Candidates who did not receive a job offer are 80% more likely to apply again to the same company if they had a positive experience throughout the hiring process.
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Here’s the deal: in each of the three phases of a hire, A+ sales talent is all too often met head-on with experiences that turn them completely off to potential employers.
Some of them are automated; some of them aren’t.
Still, for your startup to see the kind of growth it needs in an increasingly competitive sales landscape, there’s no longer an option — you must provide an impressive interaction for candidates, regardless of the employment outcome. The “Golden Rule” is top of mind when I think about candidate experience and the hiring process.
Based on the above numbers, they could be the difference between you and a rival employer.
But enough talk — below, you’ll find real, actionable tips for giving sales prospects the kind of interaction they crave when entertaining their next sales gig:
Phase #1: The Application
Do you recall the last time you had to fill out an application online?
If it’s been a good while, allow me to share with you the words of an anonymous job seeker in a survey conducted by Software Advice, an applicant tracking system consulting firm — they are as follows:
“The application had a questionnaire section that took almost 45 minutes. I had to upload a résumé, then fill in all of the information on that résumé, then fill in each part on individual pages.”
The worst part?
The above candidate wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
In fact, the study’s findings reported that 55% of candidates felt that the application process was a key player in them having had a negative experience with a potential employer.
So, if your startup is set on giving talented sales prospects the uplifting experiences they deserve, start by creating a short, simple, user-friendly application that’s not repetitive with the information it solicits. Remember, technology is here to streamline the process, not replace human interaction.
Personal inquiries and skill tests? Maybe at a later date, but not here.
And last thing — a quick word about the job descriptions that attract candidates in the first place. To further solidify early-stage experiences, forego language that’s confusing, not inclusive, irrelevant or boring — you do want them to take action after all.
Some of my favorite tools to make job descriptions sing while keeping them inclusive:
Phase #2: The Interview Process
During a sales interview, please keep in mind that you’re speaking with a real person… even over video! As such, keep your conversations as authentic as possible. Being genuine doesn’t mean you’re ineffective — it’s a great way to test a candidate’s emotional intelligence (EQ).
Seems simple enough, right?
Almost — there are two parts to a candidate interview.
There’s the interview itself — nobody forgets about this. But as far as candidate experience is concerned, it’s the second stage that’s most important — providing helpful, timely feedback.
Let me make myself abundantly clear with this one — no matter the phase in which you’re interacting with a sales person (at any level mind you), communication is without a doubt going to be your biggest ally for providing a positive experience.
And while simply checking the post-interview feedback box might put you favorably ahead of most businesses, it’s by no means going to guarantee a positive experience for your candidate.
On average, corporate jobs attract upwards of 250 résumés. Of that group, between four and six applicants will be brought in for an interview. Spoiler alert — only one person gets hired.
Though open roles at startups startup might not get the same kind of attention, the process is an arduous one.
Because of this, for those who’ve survived the first round of cuts and invested the time to learn more about your opportunity, don’t toss them aside to “read the tea leaves.” Instead, embrace the idea that you may want to hire them in the future (or ask for referrals), provide specific, concrete takeaways as to what you liked about them, and what conclusively led you in another direction. This is a tremendous opportunity to provide insight on what they could’ve done differently to help them in the future.
Employers can see this as giving something to those failed candidates for free. Why spend the time and effort on that, especially with a new hire to onboard?
This is a major driver of candidate experience perception. Candidates ask for feedback all the time. Everyone who ever got turned down for anything by anyone wanted to know, “why?” This is an emotional need; neglect it and candidates will supply their own answers. And yet, 70% of employers do neglect it.
Nobody likes to have this conversation, but it will be greatly appreciated and pays dividends in the long run. This is where your employee experience starts. These same candidates could be great in other positions, or they might come back a year from now, with the requisite experience, ready to make it rain — for someone else. (And who knows? The tables could be turned in the future and they’ll be looking to hire you!)
Note: Time kills deals as they say. A healthy interview process (complete with feedback) shouldn’t last more than 30–45 days MAX. Should your interviews drag on any longer, applicants will either lose interest in the chance to work with you, or will assume they’ve been passed over for employment, putting a bad taste in their mouths.
Phase #3: The Hire
You’d think that making a hire would be enough of a positive experience for a candidate, right? That’s true — but you can still fudge the process and create a bad feeling.
To avoid this, keep most “cooks” out of the kitchen.
Naturally, you’ll want to speak with other in-house employees to get their take on what’s needed to elevate your business, but as the decision maker, yours is the opinion that matters most.
Simply put, make a decision.
There’s no need to settle, but paralysis by analysis not only keeps the growth of your sales team and business at a standstill, it kills interest in working with you. Do your due diligence, be confident in your thorough, efficient process and take action to make a decision.
More importantly, don’t make your coveted, potential sales hire jump through hoops to appease a broken process that merely turns them off while satisfying your convoluted “process”.
For me, though, the process of making a great hire doesn’t end here. It’s critical to “Wow!” a hire with the offer you send their way.
To do this, you’ll want to have an open and honest conversation about realistic compensation, goals, incentives, room to grow, and employee perks. Place special emphasis on the enthusiasm with which you speak to your newfound hire.
To increase the likelihood of them accepting, sticking around for a while and making a big impact, do the following: use a hiring scorecard to make it easy to make a decision, be swift with the making of your offer, solidify realistic performance expectations in the process, be honest about the stage you’re setting, be accessible to answer any questions, keep in regular (proactive) contact, roll out the red carpet, welcome them with a well-executed onboarding plan and an incredible first week that screams personalization.
True story, I recently talked to a client that was 6 weeks in with the VP of Sales we placed. We were talking about the lessons learned from their onboarding strategy and had talked to the VP of Sales ahead of time to get his perspective. Both parties were beaming. They delivered a flawless experience, proactive communication, clear agendas, mutually agreed upon expectations, visibility and reach across the business, and a bouquet of flowers sent to the VP of Sales wife to thank her for being so supportive throughout the process. Talk about the little touches packing a serious punch to make an indelible impression!
Conclusion
New research states loyalty is lost to Millennials and 66% of them think of leaving their organization. With tried-and-true salespeople forming the backbone of any startup, you can’t afford to have them jumping ship while trying to sustainably grow your business.
The best way to keep in-demand sales talent a weight-bearing part of your startup? You guessed it — building loyalty right from the get-go through an incredible candidate experience.
The more consciously you look to implement the above strategies through each phase of the hiring process, the more likely you are to do just that.
