The sales hiring process is notoriously time-consuming, especially when it involves reviewing a large volume of resumes and conducting multiple rounds of interviews. On average, recruiters spend 6-8 seconds on the initial scan of each resume, focusing on key details like job titles and major achievements. However, in a more thorough review, this can extend to around 15 minutes per resume when considering the specific skills and experience necessary for sales roles. For a typical recruitment process involving 100 candidates, this adds up to 25 hours just for initial resume screening

Now, imagine narrowing that down to only 25 candidates who have already demonstrated strong sales potential through a structured assessment. By implementing a tool like Sales Excellence, you can significantly reduce the time spent on the screening process while enhancing the quality of your shortlist.

The Traditional Process

In the traditional sales recruitment process, hiring managers typically post a job ad, receive resumes, and then manually screen each one to decide who moves forward to the interview stage. After an initial scan, the recruiter may decide to dig deeper into some resumes, but even with quick elimination, the entire process can take weeks. After resumes, candidates go through interviews, and only after multiple rounds is there a real understanding of their sales capabilities. Often, subjective biases during interviews influence decisions rather than hard data on how well a candidate can actually sell.

A Smarter Process: Sales Excellence

Sales Excellence changes this entirely by starting with an objective assessment of each candidate’s sales capabilities. Before a resume is even reviewed, candidates complete an assessment that evaluates their ability to close deals, build relationships, and navigate negotiations. This data-driven approach eliminates unqualified candidates before the resume review, cutting the total number of resumes you need to evaluate to around 25, a far more manageable pool. Instead of spending 25 hours, you only spend 6.25 hours, saving nearly 19 hours per hire.

Deeper Insights, Faster

Not only do you save time, but the Sales Excellence assessment gives you deeper insights into each candidate’s potential. While a resume might highlight experience, it doesn’t tell you much about how well a person can sell or their ability to hit targets. Sales Excellence ensures you’re choosing from a pool of candidates who have already proven their competence in key sales skills like closing, qualifying leads, and relationship-building.
This method helps you bypass common challenges in traditional hiring processes, such as relying on resumes that may exaggerate experience or failing to assess soft skills crucial for success in sales roles. Moreover, since many candidates (around 80%) don’t make it past the initial screen in traditional methods, starting with an assessment ensures you’re not wasting time on unqualified applicants.

Improved Hiring Outcomes

The benefits extend beyond just time savings. By focusing on sales skills early in the process, you ensure that only candidates who have the potential to succeed in your sales environment make it to the interview stage. This reduces the risk of hiring candidates who may look good on paper but lack the necessary skills to perform. Moreover, by making data-driven hiring decisions, you improve the overall quality of your sales team, resulting in better performance and higher revenue growth.

A Competitive Advantage

Reducing the time it takes to identify top sales talent not only accelerates the hiring process but also ensures that you secure top candidates before they are snapped up by competitors. Implementing Sales Excellence allows you to streamline your process, focus on the most qualified candidates, and ensure you’re hiring people who can drive results from day one. By integrating Sales Excellence into your recruitment process, you can save around 19 hours per hire while significantly improving the quality of candidates entering your sales team. This means not only a faster hiring process but also a more effective, capable sales force—one that is poised to meet your business goals.

Contact Jake Colonas for a no-obligation chat about how Sales Excellence could save you time, money and help lead to better sales outcomes by calling 0481 115 591 or emailing at jake.colonas@execgroup.com.au.