Where ambition meets alignment

Recruiting sales positions is, now more than ever, the cornerstone of the growth and development of businesses in any sector and of any size. Since the health crisis and the rebound of the economy in 2022, the availability of the best salespeople has been declining in the face of renewed interest from companies in these professions.

To help you attract the best talent that creates value to your organization, we share our tips for optimizing the recruitment process for your business functions.

Understanding this tense market

Before embarking on a recruitment process, it is important to understand the workings and challenges of this tense market. In the line of sight since the decline of the epidemic, the number of ads posted on job boards increased by more than 43% in 2021 and currently represents 16% of active ads on platforms. Good news for candidates? This trend seems to continue in 2022.

This massive enthusiasm is justified by the importance of commercial functions for businesses. True ambassadors of the added value of companies once in office, salespeople present on the market sometimes lack skills in the fundamentals of sales.

The main reason for this phenomenon? A devaluation of these professions by higher schools and a pedagogy mainly focused on management, finance and team management.

Recruiting good salespeople has become a time-consuming and tedious process. Knowing how to perceive and feel human qualities, in addition to job skills, is an exercise that recruiters must master to identify the rare pearl that will meet your expectations.

Optimizing the recruitment process, the differentiating element for your business

The time is the difference! The market has become largely competitive, but especially in favor of candidates. A reversal of steam that pushes companies to review their methods and question their attractiveness more widely. La employer brand is therefore on the verge of becoming an essential element of business strategy to attract value-creating talent.

In this article, we are going to look at the recruitment process from reflection to onboarding. A comprehensive guide to best support you in your search for strategic business functions.

Preparation, the first step towards the ideal candidate

Before you start distributing your job offer, it is essential to ask yourself the question: is my offer in line with the market?

So it's interesting to think about:

• at the required level of experience
• to the required knowledge of the sector
• to the type of commercial profile and to human qualities
• to missions and to the perimeter of the post
• to the expected objectives
• to remuneration and benefits
• to the recruitment process.

To optimize this stage, it is important to highlight the challenges of this recruitment. This can be the launch of a new offer, the opening up to a new region, but also developing business in a complicated sector. The “why” will be your guideline for setting up your research brief.

Once the thinking about the position is over, it is now possible to start writing the offer that will be broadcast. During this stage, it is important to keep in mind that sales representatives represent 30% of executive recruitments in France and are in the 2nd position of the most volatile and scarce function. You must therefore make your offer attractive without falling into false promises.

Broadcast, broadcast and broadcast

The job market for salespeople is facing numerous difficulties, including an overabundance of offers and the reluctance to change jobs on the part of employees already in place. This observation highlights a reality: it is necessary to maximize distribution to find the ideal candidate. If the Job boards are the most common way to broadcast a job offer, it is no longer enough.

It is important to multiply the actions put in place and to combine traditional dissemination with a direct approach, hunting and profile search in candidate databases.

Chez Job2bedone, it is by combining these different levers that our teams manage to identify talent that creates value for each of the missions entrusted. To find the best profile, hunting remains the preferred way for our recruiters who use the same tools as those of salespeople.

Prequalify for an optimized process

This sometimes repetitive and time-consuming step is nevertheless one of the most important in your recruitment. A good prequalification will allow you not to miss out on the rare pearl while avoiding unnecessary interviews. Here are some tips to make this step a success for sure:

• precisely define the points to be checked (remuneration, availability, geographical mobility, motivation, managed portfolio, current objectives, etc.)
• establish a matrix of keywords to search for in applications and profiles concerning the sector, missions or human skills
• prepare the pitch of the position and the specificities to arouse the interest of the candidate and ensure a good understanding of the issues
• convey the values and vision of the company to ensure a fit culture and the good integration of the future employee.

After this stage, you should get a qualified and qualitative shortlist of candidates who are suitable to continue your recruitment process.

Interviews: job skills and the aspiration to meet

As mentioned above, job skills are not always the strong point of salespeople looking for a new job. To ensure that you recruit the talent that meets your needs, it is important to ensure your expertise during the interview phases.

To do this, it is time to let the candidate talk about his previous experiences in order to highlight his mode of operation and the techniques used. To make the time more enjoyable for you and the candidate, consider using open-ended questions. It will also allow you to analyze his ability to argue and synthesize information while moving away from the interview format that is sometimes a bit anxiety-provoking.

For a successful interview, it is also important to remember to mention the aspirations of the candidate. This will make it possible to understand how it is planned in your company, on the position and the missions.

Candidate follow-up, the key to success

By using a specialized recruitment firm, you will be able to discover a fundamental step before integration: monitoring the candidate throughout their career.

Thanks to the points made after each interview, this will allow the recruiter to detect during the conversation the weak signals of questions or doubts that the candidate or the company may still have. In the same way, it can also probe the level of motivation and culture fit on both sides. A key step that makes it possible to highlight the ideal candidate among all the talents offered.

Integration: the springboard for performance

Often overlooked in the recruitment process, integration is a fundamental step in ensuring the future performance of your new employee. The time between the promise of employment and integration should be a moment of exchange and to begin the transmission of your corporate culture.

Physical or virtual coffee with the team to break the ice, lunch, office visits, the possibilities are diverse and varied. It's the start of a new adventure for your new collaborator, give them a memorable first impression.

Here is a small summary from more than 15 years of experience in the recruitment of sales, marketing and digital middle top management profiles. We hope this will help you find the perfect candidate to grow your business.

Whether after school or after a long period in the same company, going through a job interview is sometimes a stressful ordeal. With the health crisis and the change in communication methods, some codes have become obsolete or even forgotten. However, that period seems to be behind us and interviews in physics are gradually coming back. To put all the chances on your side, here is a collection of codes, tips and tricks inspired by our 15 years of experience working alongside candidates.

1- The dress

The rise of start-ups has changed the world of work to bring a more relaxed and lighter vision. It is not uncommon to see CEOs of certain unicorns in basketball jeans and their teams wearing clothes that are less conventional than before. It is therefore legitimate to ask the question: what should I wear to go to my interview?

The first piece of advice we could give is that it's better to be overdressed than underdressed. Not familiar with company dress codes? Opt for a professional, simple and elegant outfit. It is a safe bet for which you will never be penalized.

You've noticed on business photos that the trend was pretty casual, but that doesn't mean they'll be tolerant during interviews.

The dress reflects your personality, but also your seriousness and professionalism. Don't miss out on this opportunity to make a good first impression.

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2- The non-verbal

Non-verbal communication is an important element in communication and especially during job interviews. Less subject to the conscious than the verbal, the non-verbal allows you to learn more about a person. With the significant democratization of video conferences, it has become easier to disguise this non-verbal language as parasitic gestures, tics and even facial expressions thanks to the feedback of the camera. During physical interviews, it becomes more difficult to mask stress, which means planning some strategies beforehand.

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Do you tend not to stay in place? Take a small notebook and pen with you. You'll be able to take notes and focus your attention more easily.

Do you play with your hair in times of stress? Tie your hair up so you don't get tempted.

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3- The posture

In non-verbal communication, posture plays a decisive role. From your arrival on site to your departure, many actions can convey a message that is not the one you want to express.

Here are the actions to avoid:

• Crossing your arms: While this may be caused by stress and lack of trust, crossing your arms generally reflects a negative feeling. Lying, closing, defending or even disagreeing are often associated with this gesture.
• Avoid sight: the look is a reflection of your thought. By looking the other way regularly, you will create the image of someone who is intimidating, unconfident, and even dishonest. If you have trouble looking someone in the eye, you can look at nose level at eye level.
• Touching your mouth: Passing your hand over your mouth during a discussion can evoke a contradiction between your words and your thoughts. This gesture can be interpreted as if you were subconsciously trying to erase these words. Once again, taking notes is the best way to prevent these parasitic behaviors.
• Put your elbows on the table: In France, putting your elbows on the table is a frowned upon gesture in many contexts. In interviews, this refers to an excess of self-confidence and subconsciously evokes the fact that you are encroaching on the space of others. Keep your elbows close to your body and limit your forearm support.

To convey a positive image, we recommend that you:

• stand up straight even when sitting
• Have a candid but not pushy look
• smile without forcing yourself
• keep your arms next to your body when standing
• Give a handshake that is neither too firm nor too soft without turning the other person's hand
• keep your legs crossed when sitting

It is important that your attitude seems as natural as possible, do not fall into the trap of overplaying!

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4- The language

While it may seem obvious that language is important, we still want to highlight a few important points:

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1- An adapted vocabulary:

With the arrival of many anglicisms in professional language, take the time to make sure that your interlocutor has understood you well or vice versa. It is entirely possible to ask for more details about a name if you know the subject under another name. We therefore recommend that you use clear and intelligible language to avoid any misunderstandings.

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2- Talk about the positive:

Avoid the use of words with negative connotations. In everyday speech, we regularly use negative phrases like “I don't have a problem with that” or “no problem”. However, the ear will hear the words “worries” and “problem” which will unconsciously induce negative resentment even if the meaning of the sentence is quite different. It is therefore recommended to use positive turns of phrase “that suits me”, “I agree with that”.

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3 - Maintain your posture:

The start of the interview is going well, your language is appropriate, and the discussion is easy, that's a good sign. Towards the end of the interview, does the recruiter start to become friendlier to you and allows himself to use more familiar vocabulary? Don't fall into the trap! Maintain your expert posture throughout the interview. This short test is commonplace for recruiters in order to break the masks. You must be able to maintain your professionalism in all circumstances.

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The first part of our series of articles dedicated to preparing for your interview is over. To sum up, be confident in yourself and in your added value throughout the interview.
We hope you find all of these tips helpful in getting your next job!

Recruiting is the fundamental element in ensuring the development and growth of a business. But now, many strategic profiles have become scarce and talent is more and more volatile. This trend seems to be getting stronger among the new generations who are more mobile and adept at change.

Faced with these new recruitment problems, organizations must adapt and implement new methods to find the rare pearl that creates value. Hunting specialists for more than 15 years, discover our feedback on the importance of hunting in recruitment.

What does headhunting consist of?

To find the ideal profile, there are various techniques used by HR functions and recruitment firms.

First of all, we find the publication of ads on the various job boards, which makes it possible to generate a certain number of applications. The disadvantages of this method lie in the inadequacy of candidates and the decrease in the volume of incoming applications. However, this is still an easy to access and useful method on lower-impact workstations.

Then, there is the sourcing method, which consists in identifying candidates who listen to the market and who correspond to the desired profile. To do this, CV libraries and social networks represent interesting talent pools that must be exploited. This method still requires a certain knowledge of the profession and a precise research technique to improve the quality of sourcing.

Finally, headhunting. This approach remains the most interesting for the search for rare and strategic profiles, but it requires a certain degree of mastery to derive all the benefits. This consists in canvassing candidates who are still working and who do not, on the surface, show any real interest in changing positions.

The benefits of hunting

Hunting is a more complex and sometimes more expensive method than other recruitment techniques, but for good reason. Indeed, hunting has many benefits that explain its importance in recruitment.

Business expertise

When you call on a headhunter, you are primarily using a recruitment expert in certain profiles or sectors. He is therefore in a position to understand the specificities, expectations and points of vigilance to be aware of in the qualification of candidates. He is able to identify weak signals from the first exchanges with talent and to quickly detect if a profile is relevant for the position.

He also knows how to be very discreet about the challenges of the company in research and will be vigilant not to put the candidate who is still in position at odds with his company. It's a real balancing act to arouse interest without revealing too much and can't be improvised.

Access a talent pool that was previously inaccessible

Approaching profiles who are still working and have no obvious interest in changing jobs is not easy, especially for rare and scarce profiles such as sales and IT functions.

Very often upon request, the headhunter has been able to develop approach techniques to manage to communicate with these strategic profiles. It also has a network and tools that allow it to offer you a panel of profiles that are difficult to access by more traditional recruitment methods.

Accelerate your recruitments

As we mentioned earlier, the distribution of job offers does not always make it possible to generate profiles in line with the position. So it often happens that recruitments get bogged down and that this weighs on the rest of the team. Profile hunting is a more proactive method with an initial selection filter in advance. The direct approach therefore makes it possible to speed up recruitment considerably.

At Job2bedone, our recruitments for strategic commercial, marketing and digital functions last an average of 40 days compared to more than 3 months using traditional distribution. A real gain in time and performance for your business.

Support from A to Z

For the company as for the candidate, talking with a headhunter gives access to qualitative and professional support. For the company, this makes it possible to establish a candidate background and experience that will reflect your employer brand. Optimization of interviews, transmission of values, job description, onboarding, the headhunter is a real recruitment partner at the service of your organization.

On the candidate side, this allows you to talk to a recruiter who really understands your job and who will be able to guide you towards the offer that best suits you. The right profile for the right offer and not a profile for all customers, that is the vision of a good headhunter.

How do you choose your recruitment partner?

Sourcing, hunting, recruiting, success, installments, or even three thirds, it is sometimes difficult to sort through the multitude of recruitment agencies on the market. First of all, everything depends on your needs and the importance of your recruitments.

If you are looking for a profile with high added value, we advise you to go to a firm specialized in the function or sector of your search. This will allow for greater expertise and to reassure candidates about the professionalism of the recruiter.

When it comes to settlement, successful payment can present a risk. Indeed, successful firms sometimes tend to massively disseminate profiles among all their clients to increase the chances of investment. This can therefore create interference and slow down your recruitments. A firm that pays down payments or three thirds will prefer to create a relationship of trust and will take the time to understand the needs and challenges of client companies in order to offer relevant and personalized profiles.

As you will have understood, the importance of hunting in recruitment, especially for strategic functions, is well established. Discretion, responsiveness and performance are often the key words of a good headhunter to help you successfully carry out your most complex recruitments.

If you want to know more, talk to our experts now!

In our article on optimizing the recruitment process, we talked about the difficulties of recruiting commercial functions. Faced with volatility and the shortage of commercial profiles, the interview is an important step for you as well as for the candidate.

Since the health crisis, some salespeople have become reluctant to change jobs and expect the new company to prove itself. The interview therefore has a double objective: to detect the best profile according to your needs and to motivate the candidate to join your teams!

In this article, we share with you all our tips based on more than 15 years in recruiting sales positions.

The scorecard

A good job interview starts with good preparation and in particular the development of your scorecard. The scorecard is an essential tool to ensure that you recruit the best talent. The success of your business depends above all on the quality of your employees, it is important to put all the chances on your side.

What is a scorecard?

The scorecard is a document that allows you to align your various expectations according to the main mission of the position. It should guide you in preparing for your interview and allow you to objectify your final decision based on criteria established beforehand. It will also allow you to communicate more easily internally and to standardize the candidate framework with the various stakeholders in your company.

To be effective and actionable, the scorecard should consist of:

• of the mission: this consists in summarizing in a clear and factual manner the objective of this recruitment, its context and the main need.

• objectives and expected results: to improve the accuracy of your scorecard, you can use the SMART method as inspiration for setting your goals. They must be Specific (precise and clear), Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. This will allow you to quickly detect if your candidate is right for this position based on their previous experiences. Example: Increase the market share of new offers by 15% in sales results within 2 years.

• skills: the human and behavioral skills necessary to achieve the results previously defined are one of the essential elements of your scorecard. To do this, you can list 6 to 7 skills that you think are essential to carry out the main mission of this position and to ensure a good integration into the company.

Our advice for building your commercial scorecard:

To support you in your commercial recruitment, here are our tips for building an effective scorecard.

To define the mission : Ask yourself a few questions about why this recruitment was made. Is it a job creation or a replacement? Are we in a growth phase? A fundraiser? Are we looking for a breeder profile? Hunter? For a long cycle? Short cycle? What are our targets? What are the needs of the current sales team?

Some key skills to find in salespeople : while there is no ideal profile, certain technical and behavioral skills are still essential for sales functions. When it comes to hard skills, we recommend that you pay attention to:

• motivation, determination, tenacity and ambition
• empathy and active listening
• reliability and autonomy
• the ability to work in a team

Download your commercial scorecard here

The right questions for a successful interview

Asking the right questions is a crucial element in ensuring the relevance of an interview. The choice of questions should allow you to validate various points in the candidate such as:

• The candidate's thinking logic
• personality and relationships
• Level of interest in the position
• the ability to argue clearly
• operational skills
• Aspirations and ambitions

Conducting a commercial job interview using questions is one of the bases of recruitment. However, it is important not to turn the interview into an interview. The objective of these questions is to open the discussion on specific topics to be addressed. This will serve as a guideline and support for your exchanges.

To establish and guide a dialogue, there are 4 different types of questions to answer a particular objective:

• closed: accurate, brief and informative answer
• open: opinion, argument, reflection...
• hypothetical: problem solving, forecasting, ambition
• atypical: personality, organization...

Useful questions for conducting your commercial job interview:

• How many customers did you manage simultaneously? How much in full autonomy?
• How long was the sales cycle? Did you intervene throughout the sales cycle?
• What were your types of customers? Have you already worked with key account customers?
• What type of interlocutors did you communicate with?
• Why do you want to enter our market?
• What was your customer portfolio? The average basket amount?
• How many appointments did you have per week?

During your various questions, take the time to analyze the answers and ensure consistency between them. The objective is to understand what the candidate is able to achieve independently, with the support of the manager, and what he does not know how to do. It is important to carry out the various checks now to avoid unpleasant surprises for you as well as for the candidate once the recruitment has taken place.

The sales test

To support you in the search for the ideal salesperson, the sales test remains your essential ally. This will allow you to see the strengths and areas for improvement of the various candidates in order to build a complementary team. At Job2bedone, we have developed a unique test on the market to quickly identify everyone's sales preferences. The objective? Take stock of the current strengths of your teams and ensure the complementarity of talents.

To access the test, click here.

We hope that these tips, based on more than 15 years of experience in consulting in the recruitment of commercial functions, will be useful to you. Today, many companies are still struggling to recruit the best salespeople. Is that your case? Talk to our experts now to find out how we can support you.

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