Recruiting and retaining good sales people is part and parcel of driving revenue. Managing and motivating them takes experience, dedication and energy. Even when your sales team is happy it’s inevitable some of them will want to move on. More money, different products, a management position. Changes to the status quo can also makesales people review their positions. Either way, at some point, you’re going to need to replace them and recruitment mistakes can be very costly
The Average Cost of Recruiting the Wrong Person? £30k+
Sales Professionals interview well. They’re used to pitching, doing client research and asking the right questions. Businesses looking to recruit Sales people are often eager to get someone in, with targets and missed opportunities creating pressure. Sales people are always in demand, they represent a steady commission stream for large, generalist recruitment agencies. Trying to recognise genuine talent across lots of different verticals without any practical knowledge or experience of the roles is a challenge.
Unsurprisingly, when you rely on general recruiters, there are issues.
A new report carried out by Oxford Economics reveals replacing staff incurs costs of around £30k for employers. Two main cost factors businesses need to consider when it comes to recruiting. Cost of lost Output and Logistical costs.
Cost of lost output £25k
You thought it was recruitment fees, salary and time?? ‘Lost Output’ is the dominant cost factor of replacing an employee. Even if you have been lucky and managed to recruit the perfect fit for your company and team while they’re getting settled in they aren’t effective. The findings reveal that on average it takes 28 weeks for someone to reach ‘optimum productivity level’ which has an attached cost of £25,181 per employee.
Direct Costs – £5k
- Hiring temporary workers before the replacement starts
- Management time spent interviewing candidates
- Recruitment agency fees
- Advertising the new role:
- HR time spent processing replacement
The Average Cost of Recruiting The Wrong Sales Person in The Oil and Gas industry?
Based on our experience in this sector, and specifically for sales roles, the numbers are significantly higher. The typical salaries we offer for seasoned Sales professionals in the Oil and Gas industry sits between £60,000 and £90,000 plus bonuses and benefits. Average target for that level is around £500K GM (depending on the size of the business, product/service set, etc.). It typically takes around one to three months to identify target candidates, engage them and get through the interviews and make a selection. Thereafter, people at that level are usually on three months notice.
In a B2B environment it would take around twelve months before you realise the person you’ve recruited isn’t going to deliver, and the figures associated with this are staggering:
Direct Costs
Salary – £80K
N.I. – £10K
Recruitment costs – £20K
(inc. Management & HR time)
Cost Of Lost Output
6 months search and employee notice period – based on average above that’s £250K of lost opportunity
12 months no new sales delivered – £500k
That can mean a whopping £860K of total costs associated with a mis-hire.
It gets worse! You still need a sales person to help you reach your goals. Another 6 months with no new sales even if you get the perfect fit.
Can you afford to rely on recruiters who don’t specialise??
Kingman Lennox – Sales Professional Specialists
We’re a Sales and Business Development recruitment consultancy. We work with clients across Scotland to help them strengthen their teams by finding and recruiting Consummate Sales Professionals. We have an intimate knowledge of what kind of skills and personalities are needed to help to drive revenue. We also make sure we know our clients businesses, their visions and the management personalities that drive them. Essential if we’re going to find the right match.
Your Business Needs
We help our clients identify the people, personalities and skills they’ll need to recruit as the business develops. We also ensure the opportunities being offered will appeal to the calibre of candidates we represent. Recruitment decisions need never be made under pressure. Equally we can recognise the right talent for you in good time.
Candidates
Our goal is to be the first choice of businesses for Sales Professionals in Scotland. We have a benchmark for candidates we accept so clients don’t have to worry about the basics.
We also make it our business to know what drives candidates’ long-term goals and aspirations. Common values and ambitions are the foundations of a good fit. Reference checks are also rigorously carried out, you can learn a lot about a person from reference checks.
Interviews
Our success rate in finding the right person for our clients is over 90%. We take great pride in that. It shows we’re asking the right questions. It also shows we respect the relationship. We don’t send our clients people who don’t meet the brief. We also work hard on our candidate service which is why we’re able to get qualified, experienced, high calibre Sales Professionals to interviews.
Contact
If you’d like to have a chat about how you can recruit and retain staff who will accelerate your business call Mark Gillanders on 01224 900147
Email – mg@kingmanlennox.com