Recruiting, Retaining & Engaging a High Performing Sales Organization

Recrui'ng, Retaining & Engaging a High Performing Sales Organiza'on

Opportunity Costs of Open Posi'ons and Turnover

ü Revenue Costs ü Personnel/Team Costs

ü Management Costs

ü Customer Costs

ü Compe''ve Advantage Costs

ü Recrui'ng Costs

Building your people assets. 1.

We are no longer in the posi/on of “HIRING” good people.

We should have a “RECRUITING” mindset.


Begin building a brand for our organiza/on as an employer.

§  Tac/cally decide which plaCorms and the messaging you will use to recruit.

§  Determine your outbound recrui/ng strategy.

§  Develop a marke/ng and messaging plan to convey your company’s workplace.


Determine your outbound recrui'ng strategy As part of your annual strategic planning, iden/fy 3-‐5 outbound recrui/ng efforts the organiza/on will conduct.

Determine who owns this. Is it front-‐line managers, department directors or Human Resources?

Evaluate where you have wasted /me in the past? Have open-‐call job fairs (community or your own) yielded the talent you were looking for?

Is it worth the investment to think about hiring an outside recruiter? (do an audit on the opportunity cost of the /me you have spent on the process)


Consider an outbound “millennial” recrui'ng strategy

Do a survey of the colleges/universi/es in your region to determine if any of them have Adver/sing , Marke/ng or Sales programs.

•  Get to know the advisors of the department. •  AVend/sponsor their specialty career fairs •  Volunteer to speak to their students or industry clubs •  Develop an internship program •  Offer mentors or job shadowing opportuni/es

The Case for Millennials

§  Genera'on born 1980-‐2000 §  Most “technologically savvy” genera'on yet §  Future leaders §  Being proac'vely sought aVer §  Respected voice in the organiza'on

Embracing the Genera'on

Chally Group Report: Making the Most of Millennial Talent: Best prac/ces for developing the next genera/on of employees and leaders

The Case for Millennials

§  Clear development path §  Meaningful work §  Abundant feedback §  Opportunity for rapid career progress §  Respected voice in the organiza'on

Goals and Concerns of This Genera'on


The Case for Millennials Large organiza'ons are doing it…Case Study


Deloi[e: Top private company – “Best Companies for Leaders” §  Taps senior partners, principals and directors to work with nearly 40 universi/es.

§  Recruit more than 7,000 graduates each year.


Develop a marke/ng and messaging plan to convey your company’s workplace brand Candidates will do research on you and your company before accep/ng an invita/on for an interview.

•  Do you have an “About Us” or “Careers” sec/on on your company website?

•  Do you have a LinkedIn Company Page?

•  Does your social media exude a personality or the culture of your company or just used to push content?

Building your people assets. 1. In today’s market, companies with this persona are compe//on for the employees you want. Do What They Do!

Add photos and video that illustrate your environment. Host videos of your employees and leadership with “Why I Love My Job” interviews and customer tes/monials. Make sure your employees are following your page.

Building your people assets. 1. Begin building a brand for our organiza/on as an employer.


Create a strategy for where you will post your careers

Instead of leading the job pos/ng with the first line of the job descrip/on….look for ways to make it compelling and fun!

In addi/on to tradi/onal means of pos/ng in your print edi/on, use social plaCorms to post posi/ons and consider boos/ng or sponsoring the post.

The aggregate network of your employees is huge…encourage them to share your job pos/ng social posts.

Source candidates yourself on plaCorms such as LinkedIn and recruite “passive” job seekers.


Post Jobs on Niche Sites and Job Boards

Building your talent brand. 1.


Formalize a strategy for what you’re trying to accomplish

§  Engage HR –make sure they are aligned with the roles, talent required and culture of the department.

§  Know who you want to hire.

§  Structure your interview and selec/on process so that is provides a posi/ve candidate experience.


Engage Human Resources

§  Invite your HR generalist to shadow you and one of the employees you’d like to replicate.

§  Give an open invita/on to aVend sales mee/ngs.

§  If they are sejng up interviews and doing first screens, shadow them. Provide them with a script.


Formalize the interview and selec/on process

§  Reply to candidates in a /mely fashion.

§  Have a template “look forward to mee/ng” email with links to company informa/on/direc/ons/etc.

§  Instead of just mee/ng with leadership, have a few key performers meet with the top candidates.

§  Offer to let candidates shadow a top performer for the day.

Building your people assets. 1. Formalize the interview and selec/on process

§  Be prepared to answer ques/ons about Culture and Work/Life Balance. These are factors, especially to passive seekers. Have a sincere but thought out reply.

§  Let the candidate talk – Use General, Focused and Specific ques/oning techniques.

§  Exude your passion. Recrui/ng is Selling. Selling is a “transfer of enthusiasm”. Be prepared to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the industry, company and job.

Building your people assets. 1. Formalize the interview and selec/on process

Consider using “Personality Profile” Tools

•  Understand insights to the driving needs of the candidate. •  Reason to have a second conversa/on with them. •  Don’t try to fit every hire into the same profile – use it to determine where

they might fit in and how to mo/vate. •  Use the profile to iden/fy how to mo/vate and communicate aker the hire.

Free versions of Myers-‐Briggs online.

PDPWorks Job Modeling Report

Focus on Retaining the Talent You Get and Already Have.

2.

Create mo'va'ng compensa'on plans Provide training systema'cally…not haphazardly. Focus on employee engagement and people development Recognize performance

Create mo'va'ng compensa'on plans 2.

Compensa/on plans should be a part of driving the ac/vity and behavior that is important to the organiza/on.

“If you try to manage by compensa9on you’re probably not managing by management. The best system to me would be a bonus system where the incen9ve and focus came from the culture and the management of the company”. Rackham: Challenges Sales Leaders of the Future Will Face Chally Group Blog June 2014


Commission or bonus plans should be commensurate with the job to be done. Not a cookie cuVer approach. Consider your job descrip/ons and who is accountable for which func/on of your organiza/on’s revenue.

§  Reten/on vs Business Development Teams Reten'on: Iden/fy the churn rate at your organiza/on and determine the impact of reducing that by 10 or 20%. Is that worth providing the stability of a higher base salary to employees who are good at that job. Retaining and growing.

Business Development or Acquisi'on: Find talent that loves the “hunt” and be willing to pay higher commissions for securing that business.


What are your metrics for a[aining a bonus or commissions? Can you /e part of an employees pay to Standards of Performance, some that are subjec/ve?

§  CRM Usage (or other tools you want used) §  # of sales calls/leads generated/proposals developed §  Mentoring or Training other team members §  Referrals or Tes/monials

§  The sales process is longer and longer. §  Not all work is immediately reflected in this month’s behavior. §  Mo'vate today’s behavior for long-‐term gains.


Compensa'on doesn’t have to be all about $$$$

•  Time off

•  Flexibility

•  Autonomy

•  Addi'onal training or professional development opportuni'es

Training & Development 3.

80-‐90% of training is undone aker one month.

Con'nuous investments in training and reinforcement result in over 50% higher net sales per employee, nearly 40% higher gross

profits per employee. A study of 540 companies conducted by the American Society for Training and Development


Crea'ng a Habit • Training • Reinforcement • Coaching • Feedback • Discipline • Ajtude

Training & Development 3. •  Consider budge/ng for formalized training

•  Give high performers a “training” budget for professional development

•  Set expecta/ons for managers and leaders to conduct certain quan/ty of training

•  Look for online webinars and training opportuni/es

•  Encourage employees to use resources like LI for professional development

•  Share ar/cles/videos to show you are doing the same

•  Start a “book club” – lots of great sales/digital/marke/ng books out there


Formalized Mentor Programs

Connect employees with mentors and formalize expecta/ons “Reverse Mentoring”

Accountability Partners Introduce this concept and encourage it to organically happen

Retain Engaged Employees. 4.

Retain Engaged Employees. 3. Involve them in new product development and ways to grow the organiza'on.

Retain Engaged Employees. 3. Be considerate of “Work/Life” Balance.

Can you have flexibility in work hours?

Can you allow any func/ons to start or end out of the office?

Are 4-‐day work weeks a possibility?

What’s your PTO policy? Is it manageable for parents to manage sick children and school func/ons?

Work/Life Balance means different things to different people, can you be flexible to adjust without fearing loss of

produc'vity?

Retain Engaged Employees. 3. Be considerate of “Work/Life” Balance.

Recognize what your employees are doing….but first be aware enough to know!

360-‐Degree Leadership (John Maxwell)

“Reality is that 99 percent of all leadership occurs not from the top but from the middle of an organiza9on.

Punng you in the center of your organiza'on is the only way to lead from all over.

YOU People You Work With

Those You Report To

People Who Work for You (and them)

Lead Up

Lead Across

Lead Down

360-‐Degree Leadership

•  Be VISIBLE – Consider workspace (and how much you’re in it) •  Transparency is a MUST •  Model the behavior you expect

•  Be willing to do what other’s won’t or uncomfortable doing

•  Ac/vely work on personal development of yourself and those around you

Gemba is a Japanese term meaning "the real place

“In lean principles, the idea of genba is that the problems are visible, and the best improvement ideas will come from going to the genba. The genba walk, much like Management By Walking Around (MBWA), is an ac9vity that takes management to the front lines to look for waste and opportuni9es to prac9ce genba kaizen, or prac9cal improvement.”

In business, gemba refers to the place where value is created.

It can be any "site" such as a construc/on site, sales floor or wherever the service provider interacts directly with the

customer.

Annual Reviews and Anniversary Recogni'on….

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

These are ac'vi'es typically driven by Human Resources…and employees know that!

Performance Management

•  If you don’t have them, create “Standards of Performance” for each posi/on, not just a job descrip/on.

•  Use some method to evaluate SOPs on a rou/ne or consistent basis. Monthly reviews at minimum.

•  Let SOPs guide one-‐on-‐one mee/ngs – be consistent and show they are a priority

•  Reward and acknowledge high-‐performance metrics and set goals where they fall short.

Recogni'on & Acknowledgement

•  Simply make a point to verbally (in-‐person/phone) big and small accomplishments, behavior, leadership, or ac/vity.

•  Doesn’t HAVE to be material items. Knowing something was seen is oken as important.

•  Go “old fashioned” and write a note. Even an email is a tangible token.

•  Acknowledge people in front of others.

•  Use social plaCorms to let the community know about great things your employees/co-‐workers are doing.

Q & A

Thank You! Amie Stein

Director of Training & Development Local Media Associa/on

[email protected] 901-‐361-‐3642

Recruiting, Retaining & Engaging a High Performing Sales Organization

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