In the past few months, I have been asked several times how it’s possible that we have grown so rapidly during the last year, and specifically how we found such wonderful people.
A great compliment to our people but also completely true. Last year we hired 24 new people with different levels of experience (0 turnover): junior, medior and senior sales roles. As we pay a lot of attention to the recruitment process, we hire two people per month on average.
Practice what you preach: Outbound sales strategy
The same strategy we use for our clients to make sure they get in touch with their ideal prospects (outbound sales strategy), we also apply it for our recruitment strategy. We create different contact moments through different channels with relevant content. By sharing knowledge, inspiring people, and showing something of ourselves, we try to get in touch with the right individuals.
We pay a lot of attention to building the right strategies for our clients in order to appear on the radar of their potential customers. This same attention should also be given to finding and recruiting new people. Working solely with an external recruiter and creating ads occasionally is not enough. So, if you want to stand out from the crowd and hire skillful employees, be personal, and relevant, and at the same time try to get on their radar.
How we help our clients find the right candidates is not for us to share here, but we can tell you something about our approach.
Outbound recruitment strategy – Saleslift Studio
Initially, we define the ideal candidate profile and then we proceed very systematically to ensure that we get in touch with these people. Usually, we prefer to get in touch with SDRs who have a certain level of experience, around 1 to 2 years. We do not (only) look for candidates who have already mastered their sales skills 100%. Our supportive and inclusive environment combined with our deep knowledge about sales enables them to become better in their daily activities. Furthermore, we look for candidates of different nationalities, as our company’s culture embraces diversity. Based on these criteria, we create candidate lists in Sales Navigator.
The second step is to define how we can approach them. There are multiple ways to approach candidates such as email, LinkedIn message, etc. However, a creative and engaging way to approach these people could be with relevant content for them; a webinar for example. In this way, you make a connection with potential candidates and at the same time, you add value to the first contact moment smoothly and discreetly.
Webinar approach
An indicative example is the case of a webinar. We organize an event on LinkedIn: “Special edition of how to build a modern sales machine for SDRs only”. We invite the people we are considering to sign up. Sign-ups are pouring in, you can share information on your event page, and then you have a list of people interested in the topic. This is a good sign about their willingness to learn.
After the event, you immediately have a reason to contact them personally. You can also share the recording, thank them for being there, or to share the recording in case they missed it.
Following this process creates automatically conversations about the topic or questions that come out of it. It is an opportunity to tell a bit more about Saleslift Studio, but also to show a little bit of our culture. The goal is to give them a positive impression of our organization. We don’t dive right into job openings; after all, we come to bring value first.
A week later, you can follow up with a personal message via email, Linkedin connection request, or in-mail. After all, something of a relationship has now been established. From this moment, you can easily indicate in an accessible way that they have an interesting profile and ask them if they are open to a further acquaintance since there are open vacancies.
Additionally, all of these contact moments come from me or my colleagues, Terry and Daniëlle, and not from an external recruiter or the HR manager. In this way, communication is more personal and people are more likely to respond positively.
(Get to know more about building modern sales development machines and you find yourself a new challenge)
We create these recruitment campaigns in Salesloft, the tool we also use for our sales campaigns. We also use metrics to accurately map the process, measure if candidates meet the requirements, and have a holistic perspective of each candidate. This is also the way we build our community for the future.
The right fit
Although this strategy has been proven really valuable and effective, it works because there is a match between the content and the profile. We are a sales organization, and we are looking for sales professionals. So, we have the relevant knowledge to share with people in this sector. Thus, if you are looking for people who specialize out of the field of your expertise, your approach should be slightly different. For example, if we are searching for a CFO, we couldn’t apply the above strategy, because we don’t have enough expertise in that.
Below there are some examples where the outbound recruitment strategy applies:
- The Big 4 looking for accountants
- Advertising agencies looking for creatives
- IT managed services providers looking for developers
- Design agencies looking for designers
- Sports Clubs looking for trainers
- Banks looking for finance experts
So, if you happen to work at one of the Big Four or have trouble finding the right candidates, please let me know.
