The Secret Weapon to Hiring Sales Talent!

The Sales Hiring Dilemma

After many years of placing the most elite sales talent all across North America, I have heard the same complaints over and over. “Good sales pros are too hard to find” or “They interview great and then they get here and don’t work out” or (when entry-level), “I just don’t have time to train them in sales too.” The list goes on and on.

Furthermore, if you factor in looking for entry-level salespeople like account development reps who spend all their time doing demos and appointment-setting for the “big guns,” then it’s even worse because they have to be trained on the very basics before there’s any sort of productivity, let alone revenue being generated.

Well, I’ve decided to let you in on a little secret that may solve many of your issues. This is something I just discovered last quarter a practice that primarily only the major brands know about and implement but should be widespread. It’s called “Campus Recruiting.” But wait…there’s a twist. This is not just your everyday campus recruiting, but SALES campus recruiting.

Sales Degrees

Did you know there are over 100 top universities in this amazing country of ours that offer a degree in Sales? Or, at the very minimum, a Bachelor’s in Marketing with an emphasis in Sales? These are some of the freshest, most skilled, technically proficient sellers I have ever come in contact with. They come with a professional selling skillset including how to cold call and roadmap a prospect, how to manage a B2B relationship, how to negotiate and close, and much more. And the best part? Once they graduate with their Bachelor’s in Sales or similar, they come to you green and moldable, but with an arsenal full of techniques and tricks that they can now apply daily to real-life business situations and not just their sales internships. And oh boy, are they competitive.

National Sales Competitions

In Q4 of this past year, I had one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career. It started initially at Texas A&M with a presentation to their Sales Club on how to build a professional LinkedIn Profile but then morphed into exhibiting at several career fairs and also being invited to judge at two different sales competitions. These included schools like Texas A&M, University of Alabama, Bryant University, and Cal State Fullerton. But the Holy Grail was the International Collegiate Sales Competition (ICSC) I judged in Orlando this past November. These competitors are the most elite talent in the whole of the United States…and they haven’t even had their first real job yet!

What to Expect

From a recruiting perspective, I was so surprised to see how very competitive this nationwide competition was. There were brand-name companies everywhere and they were rivaling the best in athletic recruiting. There were VPs of Sales onsite and making offers. They were truly scouting but taking it to the next level on the spot. So be ready, but the prize at the end will be worth it!

What’s Next

I will be bringing you a series of articles on Sales Campus Recruiting and sharing insights from the leaders in the space as well as the students themselves. You will even be hearing about RNMKRS which is a nationwide sales competition held virtually through the use of sophisticated Machine Learning and AI tools.

Stay tuned for more!