As a Tech Sales leader, you know hiring high-quality salespeople is not easy. You probably try to minimize your risk of making bad hires by avoiding candidates who are low performers in their current positions. After all, if they aren’t performing well at company B, why will they succeed at your company?
You also know that poor performers are far more likely to be actively searching and answering job ads. Top performers are less likely to be actively looking since they are usually doing well and lack the motivation to look for a new role.
These facts make hiring passive candidates considerably more difficult than actively searching ones. This means you must approach active and passive candidates differently in both the recruiting and offer process. Let’s delve into some specific issues you face in attracting and hiring passively looking salespeople.
The Motivation Issue
As mentioned earlier, actively searching candidates are more motivated to seek a new opportunity. The most common motivations are fear and frustration. This means they’re moving away from something rather than towards something. People in this mode are less selective about fit and compensation.
Since passive candidates are less motivated to leave, you must provide them with something to move toward. How do you do that? You start by understanding their key motivators. The best way to do this is to ask the right questions. For example:
- What is the most important thing you’re looking for in an opportunity?
- What exactly does that mean to you?
- Why is that important to you?
Do this for the second and third most important motivators to capture a solid understanding of their drivers and values.
The next step is for you to talk about how your opportunity aligns with their key motivators. For example, if a key motivator is to work on larger deals, you would talk about the deal size in your company versus their current employers’ deal size. If your average deal size is not larger, you should emphasize other advantages your company provides that are important to them.
The takeaway is that passive candidates leave because they perceive a better opportunity rather than to address a fear or frustration.
The Compensation Issue
Passive candidates are rarely paid below the market. If they were, they’d be active candidates. Since they’re not motivated to leave, they usually require an increase in compensation to justify the risk and discomfort involved in changing jobs. Let’s be real. If you’re doing well and someone contacted you about a job that paid at or below your current position, how would you respond?
Why would they respond differently? A common problem is that many companies base their compensation on what they currently pay their salespeople or what they believe the market is paying. Let’s think this through. If you’re offering OTE of $300k, why would passive candidates already at 300k take the job? Would you?
Companies that are the most successful in hiring top-performing tech sales talent understand that they may need to hire new people at a higher comp than their current performers earn. The same holds with other purchases. To buy a house today, you may pay more than if you purchased the same house only 6-9 months ago. Why would the employment market be different?
Also, if you drag your search out in hopes of finding a quality salesperson at your intended comp, how much revenue would you lose by taking 2 months longer? How about 4 months longer? Any way you evaluate this dilemma, you’re usually better off paying a little more to hire top talent now than waiting and hoping for a better deal in the future.
Conclusion
If you want to hire top-performing tech sales talent, it’s wise to look for passively looking candidates. This requires a different mindset and approach than hiring actively searching, highly motivated candidates. If you’re recruiting and offer strategies that prioritize addressing their motivations while usually offering a pay increase, you’ll set yourself up for success.
