Poq’s 5 C’s of Sales Hiring
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) experts consistently highlight the importance of sales hiring in high growth companies, but, the reality is it’s a war zone out there. Candidates are under a constant barrage of approaches from recruiters promising the next big ‘pre-IPO’ thing where the first digit on the six figure on-target earnings (OTE) seemingly goes up every quarter…
When you do get the candidates into the mix you have to decipher the often cryptic CV’s and align schedules.
A fair response to the above statement may be to suggest we do a better job of making Poq more visible/appealing to candidates so that more apply, but our data says that historically we have hired less than 0.4% of sales candidates that have applied directly, our headhunting efforts have been vastly more effective at 2.5% but it still points to just how tough it is to get candidates through the funnel.
The low conversion percentages are all the more meaningful when you consider we have had over 500 sales candidates within our last hiring phase.
So, as you may imagine it’s become important for Poq to maximise every interaction with a candidate, whilst also preserving our execs time within the interview process and most importantly ensuring we maintain our extremely high standards.
To do this we have developed the 5 C’s of Sales Hiring — Simply put, 5 things we look for in a sales candidate to ascertain their fit to Poq. They are as follows:
Curiosity — Is the candidate naturally curious? Do they ask the right questions to not only uncover relevant information but to open us up and potentially uncover our goals and challenges (just like they would for a potential customer)?
Coachable — Poq’s culture is built upon being open, as a sales organisation we collaborate constantly and are obsessed with becoming a world class sales organisation. To achieve this we need a team of coachable people who are hungry to learn. Self-awareness is a key attribute towards coachability.
Craft — Does the candidate love the craft of sales? The process, the psychology, the frameworks? Have they demonstrated this within the hiring process both as part of their approach to their interaction with Poq and in how they have demonstrated past successes (and failures)?
Culture — Nothing is more important in our hiring process than the candidates fit for our culture. Poq is an incredible place to be and a big part of that is thanks to our culture. Our data shows that candidates not fitting our culture is the #1 reason why they don’t progress interview stages with Poq (this may well be supported by the excellent qualification our awesome People team do to confirm fit on other elements that can be uncovered in the phone interview stage).
Craving — Does the candidate have a fire inside them burning to be #1 on the leaderboard? Are they driven by the opportunity to achieve beyond their target into the realm of serious earning accelerators?
There is of course one HUGE thing missing from our 5 C’s and that’s experience, and it’s not missing just because we couldn’t think of a word that began with C! The truth is that whilst experience IS VERY important it’s not an out and out showstopper. Put simply if you are missing one of the 5 C’s you’re not for Poq, but if you are missing some experience but have buckets of craving, curiosity and coachability we will consider you.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
