When evaluating all of the elements that answer the perpetual question of how to increase sales, take a careful look at how recruiting could be affecting your company’s overall sales performance. Recruiting is an essential and ongoing process that ensures you have enough personnel, with the right skills, to keep your company working and thriving. Remember that both badly executed and exceptionally well done recruiting can have a substantial impact on your sales performance.

Negative Results from Recruiting

  • Lost revenue and reduced profits: The recruiting process can be lengthy, and the longer it takes to find and hire the sales professionals you need, the more the process is going to cost. If you make a bad hiring decision, all of that time and money will be lost. The financial losses stemming from a bad hire will not stop there, however. Some sources suggest that the monetary damage from a bad hire can rise into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Further, when recruiting resources are tied up or when losses occur, it will make it more difficult to move on to a different candidate who may work out better.
  • Lost time and schedule impacts: If you have hired personnel who aren’t willing or able to fully commit to the company’s projects, you are going to lose time on those projects. Schedules will slip and deadlines will be missed.
  • Resentment among sales staff: One of the most obvious answers to the question of how to increase sales is to keep your sales team happy. If you are recruiting and hiring individuals who are incompetent, poorly trained, or simply not a good fit for the company and its sales culture, you could create anger and resentment among your current sales staff. Resentment could also arise if you are seeking too many outside candidates and not promoting from within.
  • Damage to company reputation: All of these impacts can cause damage to your company’s reputation. Some clients may resist working with what they perceive as a badly recruited sales team. Others may take a more severe step and transfer all their purchases to one of your competitors.

Positive Results from Recruiting

  • Dramatically improved sales revenue: When you recruit talented new sales team members, you are more likely to see a significant increase in your sales revenue. New hires may be interested in advancing their own reputations and can be willing to work harder. Well-educated and thoroughly trained sales recruits will have what it takes to become productive quickly. Veterans of the sales process will have a depth of experience and knowledge that will allow them to become important members of the team.
  • Renewed commitment from existing sales force: By hiring new sales personnel with high levels of talent and ability, your current sales team members may feel a jolt of invigorating energy that causes them to renew their commitment to your company. This can boost the confidence of your sales staff. Improved results brought about by personable, efficient professionals will increase your company’s reputation where it matters the most.
  • Introducing new ideas and techniques: Newly recruited and hired sales professionals, no matter their length of service and depth of experience, can bring new ideas and the most recent techniques to your sales team.

Recruiting can affect sales performance in significant ways.