Salesperson Recruiting Expert Steve Suggs Shows How to Hire the Best Salespeople

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., April 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Why do sales managers struggle to coach their sales teams to beyond-quota production?

"Most struggling sales managers have the necessary coaching skills to get their sales teams to high levels of production. Lack of coaching skills is usually not the reason sales teams aren't hitting sales targets. It's mostly lack of recruiting skills," says recruiting expert Steve Suggs, partner at Sales Manage Solutions, who trains sales managers of both large and small companies on a best-practice recruiting system. 

"You didn't leave sales and become a sales manager to go home every day frustrated. You wanted to make a difference in the lives of the people you lead and bring value to your customers," says Suggs, author of Can They Sell, a new book to help battle-weary sales managers learn to recruit the best salespeople. "The quality of the team you recruit will determine your level of success as a coach. Sales managers will learn to recruit and select the best from the rest."

Suggs, who speaks and trains sales managers from a wide range of industries, says, "Sales managers struggle with three main questions - Where do I find enough great salespeople to interview? What are the traits and competencies of the best salespeople? What tools and questionnaires do I use to measure traits and skills during the selection process?"

"I have found that managers have a strong desire to recruit the best salespeople. They simply do not know where to get the human behavior knowledge and access to a best-practice recruiting system," says Suggs. This lack of recruiting knowledge and resources motivated Suggs to invest eight months compiling his 28 years of sales, sales management, recruiting and consulting experience into this book and companion Field Manual.

Suggs says that there are more than 30 places to find great salesperson candidates other than the traditional sources of newspaper and Internet ads. Sales managers should always be in recruiting mode and building a network of referral sources.

When it comes to knowing what to look for, the best salespeople have a balance of these five dimensions: attitudes, motivations, character traits, personality traits and sales skills.

The steps to follow and tools to use while looking for these dimensions are found in a best-practice system that Suggs calls "The Recruit the BEST System." The system contains steps and tools to measure the levels of the five dimensions in each candidate.

Stage 1 - Screening - by phone, email, in-person, by checking references.

Stage 2 - Profiling - Suggs uses and recommends the Craft Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) found at http://www.CraftProfiles.com. 

Stage 3 - In-Depth Interviewing - Having all the right questions helps managers see through the spin during the interview process.

Suggs promises many benefits of mastering recruiting skills. Sales managers who use the "Recruit the Best System" have reported these changes:

• They realize that they can't change people. They can only create an environment in which people, who have an abundance of the five dimensions, can grow.
• They love coming to work and going home energized with leftover energy for their personal interests and/or families.
• It is easier to attract strong players onto a strong team.
• Retention of salespeople and products sold are higher when you recruit the best salespeople.
• The skills learned for recruiting increase coaching effectiveness.
• Overall profits are higher with fewer salespeople when you hire the best.

To purchase the Can They Sell book and Field Manual with all the tools, go to http://www.SalesManage.com/CanTheySell.

Suggs offers phone coaching sessions while you use the recruiting system taught in this great resource.

About Steve Suggs

As a salesperson, sales manager, author, speaker, trainer and consultant, Steve Suggs has been in the sales trenches for 29 years. Immediately after completing his business degree at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN, he had a 15-year sales and sales management career with Northwestern Mutual. He has spent the last 12 years as a partner with Sales Manage Solutions.

On a daily basis, Steve uses all the tools and processes mentioned in this article providing hands-on recruiting training and coaching to clients on specific next-step actions to take with candidates in their recruiting funnel.

Find Steve Suggs on the Web at: http://www.SalesManage.com/Recruiting, http://www.CanTheySell.com, http://www.CraftProfiles.com, http://www.SalesActivities.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, @Steve_Suggs

SOURCE Steve Suggs