Sonja Hastings
How to Ensure You'll Recruit the Best Sales ...

Because we help recruit the heart of any company—it’s people— recruiting remains one of the most challenging and rewarding positions inside any organization.

Companies grow and die based on the people they hire. It’s the people who develop innovative ideas. They create new solutions to solve problems. It’s the PEOPLE who build partnerships, develop relationships, and help each other learn new skills.

How to Ensure You'll Recruit the Best Sales Talent for Your Growing SaaS Company
Sonja Hastings
What's the Best Blueprint for Sales Growth?

I know from speaking with sales reps and VP’s of Sales across the country that following someone else’s blueprint for success can be a dangerous time-waster. Sales formulas, processes, and strategies can seem like the flavor of the season.

Changing things up and moving on when something doesn’t work makes sense. But chasing your tail in circles with information is a real career-killer.

One day it’s all about the Challenger Sales Model and next year it’s MEDDIC.  Eat, sleep, breath the MEDDIC checklist. Until of course, we need more answers and then Scientific Selling comes along.

What's the Best Blueprint for Sales Growth?
Sales Recruiting, Thoughts, What Candidates Want
Sonja Hastings
Sales Recruiting in 2019: 4 Key Insights to ...

As of December 2018, 129.14 million people in the US are employed on a full-time basis. 

Now let’s look at unemployment. During the Great Recession, unemployment peaked in 2010 to 14.83 Million. Unemployment incrementally dropped over the next few years, and in 2016 fell to 7.75M, and 2017 dropped to 6.98 million.

The current US population in 2017 was 325.7 million and today sits at 328,254,391 million according to The US and World Population Clock provided by the United States Census Bureau.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, (BLS) calculates the Civilian Labor Force at 49% of the US population, or 164M people. This gives us a 4.25% unemployment rate for the civilian workforce.

We can also calculate that 78% of the eligible civilian workforce is working on a full-time basis. The rest are working on a part-time basis or are unemployed.

So what does this mean for your sales team?

Sales Recruiting in 2019: 4 Key Insights to Getting it Right
Recruiting Strategy, Sales Hiring, Sales Recruiting
Sonja Hastings
Recruiting for Your Sales Team? 5 Rules for ...

It’s no secret that recruiting sales talent is a is a challenge.

If you’ve gone through the interview process with multiple candidates and have finally winnowed it down to one final choice, it’s painful when your finalist turns down your job offer.

If you’re working hard to recruit the top 20%, this will happen.

It’s not only acceptable but inevitable. Part of recruiting the best is getting turned down.

Recruiting top sales talent is always competitive. They have lots of choices. But it shouldn’t happen too often because it burns through too many resources and takes too much time.

Recruiting for Your Sales Team? 5 Rules for Preventing Job Offer Turn Downs
Sales Leadership, Sales Team Management, Thoughts, Turnover
Sonja Hastings
What to Do When Your Number One Sales Rep ...

Every top salesperson will eventually quit. What’s even more painful is the best leave when they are on top, so if you’re not careful, you may not even see it coming. As the job market tightens, sales professionals have more and more lucrative and exciting job opportunities vying for their attention.

What to Do When Your Number One Sales Rep Resigns

Sales Hiring

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Recruiting for Your Sales Team? 5 Rules for Preventing Job Offer Turn Downs

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Recruiting for Your Sales Team? 5 Rules for Preventing Job Offer Turn Downs

It’s no secret that recruiting sales talent is a is a challenge.

If you’ve gone through the interview process with multiple candidates and have finally winnowed it down to one final choice, it’s painful when your finalist turns down your job offer.

If you’re working hard to recruit the top 20%, this will happen.

It’s not only acceptable but inevitable. Part of recruiting the best is getting turned down.

Recruiting top sales talent is always competitive. They have lots of choices. But it shouldn’t happen too often because it burns through too many resources and takes too much time.

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Improve Your Sales Recruiting Results with 8 Actionable Ideas

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Improve Your Sales Recruiting Results with 8 Actionable Ideas

Are you still recruiting salespeople like it’s 2009? One might argue that 2018 is the hottest job market since the year 2000. Consider this:

In 1999 the Labor Department reported the real median household income at $58,665.

As of July 2018 the Labor Department reported the real median household income at $62,175.

Family income has risen by 5% in the first half of 2018 and by 17% since 2012.

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5 Things Every Hiring Manager Needs to Know About Getting Better Sales Candidates from Your Recruiters

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5 Things Every Hiring Manager Needs to Know About Getting Better Sales Candidates from Your Recruiters

Have you ever found working with a recruiter a frustrating experience? If you have, you are not alone. Hiring managers can become frustrated with their recruiters and let’s face it, the entire recruitment process, when they don’t see the level of sales talent they need to be successful.

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Stop Making These 3 Simple Sales Recruiting Mistakes

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Stop Making These 3 Simple Sales Recruiting Mistakes

I was on the phone with one of my candidates yesterday. A true talent with an amazing track record of sales success hunting and winning new business. Probably not another person like him in the entire region --he is that good. 

He went for an interview and was expecting to discuss an offer

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The Implications of Missing Scheduled Interviews for Hiring Managers

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The Implications of Missing Scheduled Interviews for Hiring Managers

Sometimes an executives busy schedule is not his or her own. Let’s face it, “things happen.” Unfortunately, this happens to some busy hiring managers or recruiters more than others. When you are unable to consistently keep your calendared appointments, arrive late, or constantly reschedule there are both direct and indirect costs.

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Finding Top Sales Talent is Difficult for Everyone

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Finding Top Sales Talent is Difficult for Everyone

In good economies and bad, finding top talent is difficult. Think it's any easier for Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, or Google? Sure, they have distinct competitive advantages, but it still takes teams of recruiters interviewing around the clock to recruit and hire staff even for well branded growing organizations.

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The Importance of Making Sales Recruiting a Top Priority

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The Importance of Making Sales Recruiting a Top Priority

If you’re a sales leader, the fastest way to success is to recruit the right team members. Without the talent you need to succeed, you’ll find yourself with a whole new set of problems. Recruiting is hard work, and requires a top slot on your priority list. Now is the time to start looking for the talent you need to achieve your goals.

Independent Sales Recruitment Firm

 Since 2004 Optimal Sales Search has been helping companies accelerate growth by hiring high-performance sales and sales leadership.

Hiring Manager's Cheat Sheet

Running into an interview? Grab our best 14 sales interview questions and walk out of the interview with all the right information.