Friday, March 14, 2008

A President's Perspective--Finding Passive Sales Candidates

I asked Jeffrey Paunicka, President of Insight3, Inc., how his company looks for top passive sales candidates.

Jeff's company is Insight3, Inc. and it serves the Lottery, Gaming, Airline and Manufacturing industries around the globe. Insight3 offers bar code equipment, data collection systems, cleaning card products, thermal printers, labels and ribbons.

"Combing through both active and passive candidates is a must when looking for the right person. I agree that they must have a passion for what they are going to sell, if its not ingrained to their professional fabric it might be someone you want to pass on.

With that in mind, I always make a point in building new contacts with reps of my competitors and other companies offering tangent products in the industry, you never know when you may want to call on them. Besides looking for the right person with the primary skill sets, I also take into consideration 3 other factors in finding the right person. These are motivational characteristics I have found to be essential in placing the right person to any job.

1. Do they see the job as a challenge to their capabilites to excel in the position?

2. Do the future opportunities to move in their career path with what I am offering them exist?

3. Is the compensation relative to the risks they are undertaking to do the job correct and market competitive?

If these motivational characteristics are not met, expect their duration to be short or their attitude to be mediocre at best.

No comments: