Hiring in construction is difficult because you need a presentable sales rep who knows the business and can talk shop. They also have to be great at building relationships and unafraid of rejection.
It’s time-consuming to identify such niche industry experience. Hiring the wrong salesperson can be a huge waste of money, time, and opportunity.
The right sales team can increase your revenue quickly and establish strong client relationships that you will have for a lifetime if you play your cards right. But how do you recruit top-tier sales talent?
1. Define the Ideal Candidate Profile:
Before starting the recruitment process, it's important to clearly define the skills and qualifications you're looking for.
What is a must-have vs. a nice-to-have? Prioritize what’s important to your team and company culture.
A few things I look for are industry knowledge, communication skills, the ability to learn, negotiation abilities, work ethic, and a proven track record in sales.
They need to be willing to build new connections. This means doing cold outreach, mainly over the phone. If your sales rep isn't comfortable making cold calls, their results will be limited.
They should be passionate about networking, making connections and hungry to win deals. They should be natural born peoples-people so that they enjoy their job and connecting with people on a personal level comes naturally.
We tend to prioritize soft-skills over experience. I rather someone who works hard and is willing to learn rather than someone with tons of experience but doesn't have drive.
2. Leverage Networks:
Tap into industry-specific networks like construction facebook groups and platforms like Upwork and Linkedin to find potential candidates.
Attend construction conferences, join online community groups, and engage with professionals in the field and in your network. Ask them if they know who does sales for construction or related fields.
Utilize social media platforms like LinkedIn to research and connect with individuals with a construction sales background.
Networking can help you access a consistent pool of qualified candidates who are seasoned professionals.
3. Create an Attractive Job Description:
Be clear and concise in your job description. Outline the responsibilities, qualifications, and benefits.
Highlight the unique culture of your company and any opportunities for career growth.
Be specific about the challenges and rewards that come with your team.
4. Partner with Recruiting Experts:
Consider partnering with recruiting experts to save yourself time and head-hunt the best talent.
Hiring can take up a lot of your time, from sourcing prospects to weeding through piles of resumes to find high-quality candidates.
On top of that, if you only rely on who applies to your job ad, you will have a small pool of candidates to choose from.
Our construction recruiters actively reach out to candidates who are of high quality and fit your criteria.
These can be freelance recruiters, agencies, or fractional leaders who often have a strong network and recruiting strategy.
They can streamline the hiring process and ensure quality; you only have to interview pre-screened candidates who match your criteria.
You can hire construction sales reps who we manage for you directly through Ideal Rev. We handle everything from creating marketing material to generating leads, closing deals and forecasting sales.
5. Conduct Thorough Interviews:
During the interview process, assess the candidate's knowledge of the construction industry, understanding of the sales process, work ethic and problem-solving abilities.
Conduct between 2 - 3 interviews. In each interview assess different parts of the criteria for the role. Write down all of the questions you want to ask in a spreadsheet or word document.
Don't wing your interviews, map out a process that you can also articulate to the candidate. Have the team who is conducting the interview take notes.
Be sure to walk through their work history and learn about what they accomplished in each role.
Ask situational questions to gauge how they handle challenges and to dig in on the details of their experience. Ask behavioral questions to see if they fit your company culture and values.
Take notes on each interview and share your notes with your team. At the end of the process, write down the pros and cons for each candidate and make a selection.
6. Identify tools and sales strategy
Before hiring a sales rep, you want to make sure you have a plan for utilizing them.
Ideally you have a set strategy, sales email copy, cold calling scripts, lists of potential customers for them to reach out to, tools like a CRM and sales engagement tool, and some goals to track.
We put together a business development guide that outlines all of the information that sales reps need to be successful at their job, from follow-up templates to cold calling scripts and a list of all of our services, ideal customer profiles, and more.
You also want to ensure you arm them with the right marketing materials for the construction industry.
If you’re unsure how to create a sales strategy or manage a salesperson, you can work with a company like Ideal Rev that provides fractional sales leadership. We manage your entire sales process so you can focus on what you're good at.
7. Provide Ongoing Training and Development
Once you've recruited top sales talent, invest in their continuous development. Offer training programs that encourage continuous learning and professional development.
Providing ongoing leadership support and resources will empower your sales team to stay ahead in a competitive, evolving industry.
At your sales meetings, you can discuss different skills to practice and how to improve your sales efforts, move deals through the pipeline, get new clients, etc.
Ideal Rev offers a free construction sales training course here.
Conclusion
Hiring strong sales professionals is vital to your business’ success. It can be challenging and seem less important than day-to-day operations, but your sales team can be your key to growing to a seven-figure or eight-figure business.
Spending time defining your team's ideal candidate profile, strategically mapping out your recruiting process, and putting effort into hiring the best and setting them up for success will increase sales.
Or instead of hiring full-time sales reps, you can hire our turn key construction sales rep services, where we do all of the heavy lifting for you to get a sales rep who will increase your sales.
Understanding Your Market
The success of any startup relies heavily on understanding the market it operates in and identifying the ideal customers within that market. Understanding your customer and becoming a subject matter expert is key, especially at the formidable stages.
By having insight into potential customers, you know what problems you should be solving with your product and how to communicate in a way that appeals to them.
The market is the broader industry that you serve. The ideal customer dives deeper into who your product is the best fit to serve. It's a way to segment your customers.
You might not know who your product best serves yet, and that is okay, but it's important to hypothesize and test who is.
Make some assumptions about what would make a customer a good fit for your product and test those assumptions otherwise, use your current customer base and data to guide you.
Here are some of the key steps to understanding your market and identifying your ideal customers:
Understanding Your Market
1. Research industry trends and news: Stay updated on current and emerging trends in your industry. Search Google news, read articles and follow the right people on social media to gain insights into customer preferences and potential opportunities.
