How can CEOs consistently hire top-tier sales talent? Kristie Jones, a sales leadership expert with over 20 years of experience, shares her strategies for attracting, hiring, and onboarding the best sales professionals in the latest episode of Sales Talk for CEOs. Kristie dives into the hiring process, the importance of structured onboarding, and ensuring long-term success for your sales team.

Creating an Ideal Candidate Profile

Kristie emphasizes creating an ideal candidate profile over a generic job description. “We need to start by building out an ideal candidate profile, just like we would build out an ideal customer profile,” Kristie explains. This involves analyzing the traits of past successful hires and defining the necessary skills and experience.

Your Blueprint to Hiring Effectively:

Kristie shares her approach to sourcing and screening candidates, ensuring a smooth and efficient hiring process:

• Effective Candidate Sourcing: Kristie promotes job postings on LinkedIn, uses paid LinkedIn ads, and leverages Slack channels. “I ask my client to post it on their company page on LinkedIn and promote it,” she says. This multi-channel strategy helps gather a substantial number of qualified applicants.
• Streamlined Screening Process: The initial screening process is critical to filter out unsuitable candidates. Kristie’s assistant conducts phone screens to ask about compensation structure, contributions to past organizations, and reasons for leaving previous jobs. They each get a grade. “If they're a nine or ten, they move forward,” Kristie explains.
• Behavioral-Based Interviews and Assessments: Candidates undergo a formal interview and an assessment to validate their skills. “We do an assessment review,” Kristie says, involving the prospective manager in the process. This helps ensure that the candidate is a good fit for the role and the company culture.

The Verbal Offer 

Before extending a written offer, Kristie makes a verbal offer and tells them that once the written offer is received it requires a decision within 24 hours. This ensures candidates are committed and ready to join the team promptly.

Smooth Onboarding Process

Kristie highlights the importance of an effective onboarding process. “I stay on and support the first two weeks of the onboarding process,” she says. A structured onboarding plan is essential to ensure new hires receive the necessary support and start contributing quickly.

Action Steps for CEOs:

1. Develop an Ideal Candidate Profile: Define traits of your best sales performers to guide your hiring process.
2. Leverage Multiple Sourcing Channels: Promote job openings widely to gather a substantial number of qualified applicants.
3. Implement a Structured Screening Process: Use consistent, competency-based interviews and assessments to filter candidates.
4. Ensure Effective Onboarding: Develop a detailed onboarding plan to support new hires and integrate them into the team quickly.

Kristie Jones’ insights provide a clear roadmap for CEOs and sales leaders looking to build a high-performing sales team. Her experience underscores the importance of a structured hiring process and a supportive onboarding program. 

To gain deeper insights into Kristie's strategies and how they can transform your hiring process, listen to the full episode below. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or an established CEO, this episode provides practical advice and inspiration for building your dream sales team.

Episode Details

Chapters

03:25 Initial Steps in the Hiring Process

04:56 Building Ideal Candidate Profiles

06:46 Gender Decoder for Job Descriptions

09:29 Promoting Job Openings Strategically

12:38 Handling Large Numbers of Applications

14:50 Initial Screening Process

18:16 Behavioral-Based Interview Questions

23:11 Asse