Are UK&I firms doing enough to “sell” their sales roles?

Quarterly Sales Index

According to the latest BMS Quarterly Sales Insight Report, six out of ten companies are losing money because they can’t fill vacant sales roles. It’s a problem that’s got worse over time. The question is “why?” And more particularly, what can companies do to reverse the rise in unfilled roles and plug the significant revenue holes that appear as a result? The answer may lie in correcting an apparent disconnect between employer and candidate. For the first time, BMS surveyed both candidates and recruiting companies. The results clearly illustrate the difficult position in which employers now find themselves.

What’s the secret to filling UK&I’s vacant sales roles?

Chart One: % firms losing money due to unfilled vacancies.

First, employers say they now have to try harder than ever to “sell” their roles to candidates. Compare this to five years ago, and we can be in no doubt the power has shifted from employer to candidate. Actively addressing candidate needs and wants, and developing an attractive package based on these, is now crucial.

Second, when considering a new opportunity, the most important criteria for candidates is company culture, as we see in chart two: is this a place they can see themselves working, does the culture of the organisation reflect their own attitudes and beliefs?

Here the challenge for employers is in defining the indefinable. Each organisation will have its own culture, but effectively articulating this at interview is no easy task. More challenging still is being able to find the right match – to avoid a potentially high-cost clash of cultures.

And because candidates now have more power to choose, they’re choosing to leave the process if it “just doesn’t feel right”. While this has always been the case, in more straightened economic times candidates tend to focus on salary and job security. Ultimately, they would take ‘second best’ if employment was offered. Today candidates can afford to be more selective.

BMS Quarterly Sales Index

The need to respond at interview Candidate power puts employers in a difficult position. They want to find the best people, and according to index data, the majority want to employ people for a minimum of three years. At the same time, we know they’re struggling to fill vacancies, and that failing to do so is costing money.

This places a huge amount of pressure on the interview process, and the interviewers themselves.

Chart Two: What factors influence your decision to join a company?

Knowing this is important because it changes the dynamic of the interview. While salary, training and career progression are all significant, employers are competing first and foremost with one another on culture.

The report findings also point to something of a disconnect. Employers believe they lose candidates during the interview process because of a strong counter-offer from an existing employer. The reality is very different. The number one reason for candidates leaving an interview process is again cultural: they simply don’t see a ‘fit’.

The role of culture at interview

66%64%

40%

34%31%

28%24% 23%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Companyculture

Careerprogression

Training anddevelopmentopportunities

Higher salary Benefitspackage

Increasedresponsibility

Strong brand Bonus structure

The number one reason candidates leave the interview process is because they don’t see the cultural fit. This means companies are

competing for talent on culture!

There’s a disconnect between what candidates want from a sales role and

what companies think they want.

On the one hand processes need to be streamlined and designed around the candidate. Interviewers need to maximise the attractiveness of the opportunity (and their company) – because, like it or not, firms are in the business of having to impress candidates. They need to tailor their “pitch” to the individual. And they need to stress the benefits of a positive culture, working environment and relationships within their organisation.

Despite all this, interviewers also need to find the “right” person – who’s going to fit in and add value. The question is whether they’re going about it in the right way. While the data doesn’t provide this kind of nuanced insight, it does offer us some clues.

Going into an interview not knowing these things makes it incredibly difficult for the interviewer to position the opportunity in a way that will appeal to the candidate – particularly in light of this focus on culture.

Chart Three: % of interviewers who received interview training in the last 18 months.

Companies told us that the vast majority of people (59%) who conduct interviews did not have any formal interview training in the last 18 months.

The time period is significant because the recruitment market has shifted hugely over the last 18-24 months. Just 12 months ago 28% of companies were losing money to unfilled vacancies. As we’ve seen, that number is up to 60% today. Similarly, 24 months ago sales vacancy numbers were growing by 2.4%. In Q2 2015 that number had risen to 5.7%.

As a result, demand for salespeople is now much higher, and the cost of vacant roles is greater. Therefore candidates are in control.

Yes41%

No59%

In this market, like it or not, firms are having to impress candidates and need to

tailor their ‘pitch’ to the individual.

The market has shifted hugely in favour of the candidate in the past 18 months.

Companies that don’t re-train their staff to ‘sell’ the opportunity more in interviews could be

missing out on talent.

That doesn’t mean firms take just anyone, but knowing the wider market context allows interviewers to consider more carefully whether or not to compromise on certain candidate attributes or be flexible with the criteria of the role

BMS Quarterly Sales Index

For example, one respondent to the BMS employer survey complained of operating in a specialist market with a limited talent pool. Knowing this, looking outside that market for talented people, would seem to be sensible.

Indeed, the Index points to a growing realisation that flexibility is necessary. Some 54% of employers believe they focus too heavily on searching for people in their own sectors.

From the candidate survey, the BMS Index points to “employer brand” as being significant in attracting the right candidates. From the employer perspective, nine out of ten sales leaders agreed that a strong brand is crucial in attracting the best candidates.

There is, of course, two sides to every story. Another respondent was frustrated by what he described as “talented sales professionals who are uncomfortable to take a ‘lifelong learning’ approach and develop their skills”. So flexibility and the need to compromise should work both ways.

The role of brand

Chart Four: % of companies who believe their brand is strong enough to attract the best people

However, as we see below, almost a quarter of respondents to the survey felt their brand didn’t have sufficient pulling power to secure the top candidates.

Yes76%

No24%

Interestingly, although 42% of candidates felt brand was important, it didn’t make it into the top three criteria for accepting a role. And it wasn’t important to the majority of candidates – for whom culture, career progression and training were the top three influencing factors.

Understanding the wider market context allows interviewers to consider more

carefully whether or not to compromise on certain candidate attributes or be flexible

with the criteria of the role.

But in what can be seen as good news for the 24% of companies who felt they had weaker brands, if they get the culture question right, offer career progression and the training to develop, they stand a good chance of getting the best people interested – perhaps even despite the brand.

Candidates are moving, there’s no doubt about that. And looking at the counter offer statistic from existing employers it’s clear they’re not going back to their original companies. They’re leaving to join other, presumably more attractive, companies.

It is also interesting to note that candidates will leave interview processes if they are too long. This is at least as significant a factor as a lack of career progression, and not far behind the failure to match salary demands. And it’s another clear warning to companies that insist on drawn-out, multiple interview processes: they will lose the best people.

We’ve already touched on the main reason candidates leave the interview process – no cultural fit. But it’s worth highlighting the other key reasons to give employers as much insight as possible when developing their interview strategies.

As we see in chart five, an offer from another employer, followed by the inability to meet salary expectations, tops the list after the culture element. These rather unsurprising BMS Index findings further underline the competitive environment in which today’s recruiting organisations now operate.

Chart Five: What factors influence your decision not to join a company?

What turns candidates off?

23%

21%

18%

16%15%

6%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

Cultural fit didn'tseem right

Offer from anotheremployer

Unable to meet mysalary expectations

Unable to meet mycareer aspirations

Recruitmentprocess was too

long

Counter offer froman existingemployer

A surprising number of candidates will leave a recruitment process if it’s too

long. If faced with multiple opportunities, simply from a time management

perspective, candidates will be drawn to those with shorter processes.

BMS Quarterly Sales Index

This quarter’s Index reaffirms the challenge recruiting organisations have in the face of a more powerful candidate base. It highlights the need to “sell” roles at interview. With so many unfilled vacancies being reported, it suggests companies could be doing a better job.

The best approach is a collaborative one – with sales and HR working even more closely together. And not just to agree suitable (and realistic) candidate criteria, but to address potential stumbling blocks in the process.

Interestingly, while the search for higher salaries was the second most popular reason for leaving, employers clearly perceive salary to be a larger issue than their employees.

The survey also explored the reasons why candidates leave their current roles. Here the data overwhelmingly pointed towards career progression as the number one issue for employees. Employers too recognised the challenge, as we see in chart six.

The key issues in retention

This highlights the problems with focusing on one or two key areas – as the vast majority of decisions to seek pastures new will be made based on a wide range of factors. That said, the data clearly suggests that if employers want their salespeople to stay around longer, the focus of any retention strategy should begin with developing additional career pathways, and keeping up with salary demands.

Chart Six: What reasons do people give for leaving your company?

Hold up a mirror

69%

48%

21% 19%

11%

0%

58%

27%

17%20%

15%

10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

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50%

60%

70%

80%

Career progression Salary level Cultural fit Work / life balance Manager relationship Moving locations

ClientCandidate

The data shows that in order to retain your best sales people keeping additional career options open and keeping up with salary demands will be a key part of any

retention strategy.

But it also offers some encouragement to employers – particularly smaller and less well known brands, and those unable to offer the highest salaries. With candidate feedback so positively in favour of company culture, these organisations have an opportunity to compete on a more level playing field than perhaps they may have had in the past.

That there’s something of a crisis in the sales recruitment sector is quite clear – certainly if 60% of organisations are losing money because they can’t fill vacant sales roles.

Offer a great working environment, a culture that matches that of the candidate and the opportunity for advancement and the potential to compete for the best candidates is there.

But there’s still the problem of illustrating or articulating culture.

Here social innovations can help. We’re seeing online communities developing where employees review their own company – and people interested in a role can browse these reviews and find out about things like culture and progression, salary reports and lots of other resources.

This ‘social sharing’ of experience offers real opportunities for firms to showcase their ‘cultural capital’. It seems likely that this kind of community will develop.

Crisis? What Crisis?

As always, we’ll continue to watch the sales recruitment market and report back in the autumn in our Q3 BMS Sales Index Report.

What we have seen in this quarter’s BMS Index is that candidates are attracted by culture. That gives us all something to work on. Cultures don’t change overnight, and nor should they. Finding the right candidate that fits your culture is key – rather than the other way around. But once you think you’ve found them, if you fail to “sell” the opportunity at interview, chances are you’ll fail to secure your next employee.

What to do about it is a tough question, and not necessarily one for this report. However, listening to what candidates really want is a very good place to start. Understanding why people join, and why employees leave, can help define recruitment and retention strategies.

Show a candidate that you can offer a great working environment, a positive culture

and career progression and the potential to compete for the best candidates is there.

About the Index

This report is compiled from a variety of sources including vacancy data, candidate salaries, client and candidate survey information and specific sector reports. As a business, we interview over 500 sales candidates per week, speak to 2,000 decision makers and have a national presence with 7 offices throughout the UK. This gives us access to a wealth of regional and national data, information on candidate salaries and job expectations, and insight into the challenges facing decision makers. The Index is produced quarterly and provides organisations with a good barometer of trends in the UK sales recruitment market.

About Us

We specialise in recruiting and training high-calibre people across the UK, Ireland and Australia. Our network of offices gives us strong local presence and allows us to support a long list of blue-chip clients who view us as partners they can trust.

We have grown to become a leading force in our field, placing more people than ever before. But we haven’t let our standards slip. We take the time to get to know you, your business and the type of people you need. We tailor our services to ensure the right recruitment solution for your business. In short, we make things run smoothly and produce results.

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Talk to usTalk to us to discuss how you can adapt your recruitment, retention and training strategies in this changing market.

0800 279 26 02

index@bms-uk.com

www.bms-uk.com

Quarterly Sales Index