I can be absolutely 100% certain about one thing with respect to all top salespeople across every industry. They all had a first job in sales. They were all hired without ANY previous sales experience whatsoever. I cannot count the number of times I’ve been told by a sales recruiting manager that they are only interested in candidates who have previous sales or industry experience. Why they would want to limit their potential candidate pool by eliminating a bunch of people destined to be top sales performers at some point in their career? Most industries, with some good product knowledge training and some basic sales skills training, can bring on a new person who has the mind and guts of a seller. And that’s where the world of sales recruiting and college recruiting become a great match.
It is remarkable how different the job outlook is today for college graduates as opposed to how it looked just a couple months ago. Exiting school, graduates now face the highest unemployment rate in generations.
Let’s talk for a minute about a philosophy that might be foreign or even a little scary to you. It is entirely possible that your next top seller served you lunch yesterday at that business lunch yesterday. You should look EVERYWHERE for candidates. Disregard your previous belief that only an experienced seller can sell your product. A great seller can sell any product. And presented with a solid compensation strategy, you can make it so they’ll stay with you forever.
Let’s finish up going back to college. There is a tremendous number of bright young candidates coming out of school and looking to begin their career. They’ll be hungry to learn and to earn. And, using a good online recruitment strategy, they can be reached in huge numbers very quickly. To conclude, some well planned sales training from you or one of the many online sales training options, you should be able to find some really solid candidates coming out of college who can develop from a great waiter into your top seller before you know it.
