New Research Highlights Gaping Disconnect Between Sales Hiring Managers and Sales Recruiters over Quality and Quantity of Candidates

Open positions and bad hires are the death knell of any sales leader. They place important deals and accounts you need to make quota at risk while sapping the life out of your sales managers, who you need coaching deals to close this quarter. 

We realize that sales leaders are constantly under pressure to hire fast and hire well, and while some organizations seemingly have it all figured out, others do not. For this reason, Sciolytix recently partnered with SellingPower® on a survey to identify challenges and best practices in sales hiring. To gain the most comprehensive insight possible, we surveyed sales leaders, recruiters, and sales reps to better understand their unique — and at times opposing — perceptions, expectations, and preferences.

Today’s post is one in a series of articles to share what we’re learning.

Based on this graph, sales recruiters and sales hiring managers agree that the quality and quantity of candidates are a major challenge in recruiting top talent. However, recruiters feel the most pain from not having enough qualified candidates, while sales hiring managers struggle because they’re receiving too many unqualified candidates.

Perhaps you’ve seen this tug-of-war play out a time or two in your company? 

Recruiters face pressure to provide candidates in droves. As a result, they focus on volume more than quality and don’t adequately screen candidates that they pass along to sales hiring managers. This creates plenty of tension with sales hiring managers, who feel like the candidates they’re getting don’t measure up to the quality they expect.

So what’s the answer? 

Sales and talent acquisition leaders must work harder to be on the same page. This is especially true in situations where there is a dearth of candidates since recruiters have a “Fear of Missing Out” and tend to err on the side of screening in versus screening out candidates who are on the margin. 

Both departments must identify the minimum standard for candidates to make it through the initial vetting, communicate that to each other, and then follow through on it consistently.

Please check back with us as we share more about this insightful survey. Download the full survey report here!

What are you doing to improve your sales hiring process?

Sciolytix Sales Performance Predictor (S2P2) is an award-winning candidate assessment tool that utilizes 3D avatar-based simulations to measure and predict a candidate’s performance in an unbiased manner. Think of it as a video game — sales candidates play a video game that reflects the real-world selling situations they will face in their new sales role and, through artificial intelligence, predict their effectiveness. This groundbreaking technology helps sales leaders:

1. Hire top-performing reps quickly
2. Minimize the risk of bad hires
3. Position themselves as an employer of choice with applicants 

Bottom line, we are revolutionizing the way organizations hire, onboard, develop talent, and create a fair hiring process for all. Predictive simulations are the latest enhancement we’re adding to that arsenal of products.