By Priscilla Kohl| HRTools.com Business Writer
The thought of having to establish rapport with HR might send even the most passive vice president of sales into hide- and retreat-mode.
However, if you want to start the New Year out with a sales-force recruiting bang, consider this: You have everything to gain, if you do not hide from HR!
Valid or not, some people may perceive HR as the organizational police or dictators—people who are in the business of mandating non-negotiable, hard and fast rules, policies and procedures. So when it’s time to recruit, hire and train a sales team, many HR professionals might welcome the opportunity to clarify or correct some unproductive misperceptions.
Besides that, HR and the sales management teams all ride the business merry-go-round together, so they might as well establish rapport with one another in order to make the ride more enjoyable and profitable.
In short, sales team managers and organizational stakeholders will want to establish relationships of reciprocity, because:
- Businesses, including the HR department, need successful sales people to succeed; and
- Sales people need support, understanding and buy-in from the organization, especially from those in HR.
As any sales professional will tell you, it’s all about closing the deal.
When sales managers want to close the deal in terms of finding the most suitable candidates for adding to their sales force, their best partner and resource is an HR professional.
While there are no guarantees in the hiring and selection process, professional HR recruiters know how to help sales managers (1) avoid making consistently poor hiring decisions; and, (2) reduce their legal-exposure risks.
Consistently poor hiring decisions can result in costly turnover rates, decreased morale levels and constantly being in a training mode.
Instead, when you delegate this process to an HR recruiting professional, you will find yourself more likely closing the deal. This deal is a definite win-win, as everyone is happier when candidates are well suited to the sales positions and to the organization.
To help illustrate how and why to partner with an HR recruiting professional, here are just a few of many examples that can help give you an idea:
- HR can help sales/hiring managers with the due diligence required for selecting the best candidate. Most applicants applying for sales positions are in the selling business. They may have a compelling, near-perfect resume and, for sure, they will not include any previous failures or shortcomings. For instance, resiliency is usually an important trait for successful sales people to have. An HR recruiting professional can help develop questions that will provide an insight into such traits. “Tell me about a time that you failed and how did you handle it?”
- HR can provide interviewing tools, such as an interviewing checklist. A tailored or customized checklist helps sales managers stay on message and allows for a consistent format while interviewing each candidate. Interviewing aids such as a checklist will also help interviewers remember to ask those important questions.
- HR can recommend or apply specific applicant-screening tests and/or personality assessments, those that can be specifically developed or adapted for most sales positions.. Research reveals that position incompatibility is a major cause for discontentment and high turnover.
- HR can help sales managers formulate proper and relevant job descriptions. Job descriptions play a significant role throughout an employee’s entire employment cycle with an organization. Not only that, job descriptions and the personality assessment analysis (referenced above) go hand-in-hand. For instance, if a sales position requires a highly organized and disciplined individual; and, the personality assessment results paint an entirely different picture, everyone involved can be in for a disappointing experience.
- HR can help develop benchmark or standardized questions to help identify, weigh and measure various candidate responses. For example, “What was your first job? Do you remember how you spent your first paycheck?” If the candidate explains that his or her first job was a year after college graduation, such answers might provide clues into their work ethic.
More than ever, today’s companies need top sellers to help generate revenue and grow profits. Furthermore, no one has the time, resources or unlimited patience to withstand consistently poor hiring decisions that can result in canceling out all the revenues generated by the top sellers.
By establishing rapport with your HR professionals, you will be taking important steps to greater peace of mind and greater profits!
Legal Disclaimer
The information contained in this document is for general, informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. This information is not a substitute for the guidance of a professional and should not be relied upon in reference to any specific situation without first seeking the advice of a qualified HR professional and/or legal counsel regarding applicable federal, state or local laws. HRTools, Insperity and their respective employees make no warranties, express or implied, and make no judgments regarding the accuracy of this content and/or its applicability to a specific situation. A reference or link to another website is not an endorsement of that site or service.