Sales Management For Dummies

Part II

Building the Team

Top Five Places to Recruit Sales Talent

• Shop your competitors and see how their salespeople handle prospects and customers. Find out who’s the top salesperson for your competition, and if you can’t beat ’em, hire ’em!
• Industry conventions and meetings are a great place to network and meet other salespeople. Who stands out? Who impresses you? Seeing people outside their normal selling environment where they’re working or have to be on can tell you a lot about them.
• Check within your own company. Many people have tremendous sales talent within their own organizations but don’t realize it because those people aren’t in the sales department. Don’t overlook in-house talent — people who know your product and your company already.
• If you have to place an advertisement for a salesperson, radio advertising can be some of the best available to you. Generally people reading newspapers are already unemployed and that’s not good for a salesperson. On the other hand, someone listening in his car or who has the radio on in his office is a working salesperson. That’s generally a much better choice.
• Perhaps the greatest place to find sales talent is by asking your customers. Rarely are your customers only doing business with or buying from one person. Ask them who else they do business with that they think would be a fit for your company!

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