The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Steve Jobs
CEO Apple Inc.

Why the Hiring Process turns into a Clown Show (Part II)

If you recall our last blog post, I talked about one reason why my hiring process was being hijacked by clowns. We learned that most recruiters are not subject matter experts when it comes to recruiting sales professionals. If you have not led an elite medical sales team, it’s impossible to appreciate the nuances that separate Super Star sales professionals from average ones. Would you prefer a golf caddie who never played golf or one who is in the golf Hall of Fame? Even if you hire an external recruiter who is a subject matter expert, you are not out of the woods. Here are a couple of more examples of clowns hijacking your hiring process. 

Reason 2: Communication Block

Blocking external recruiters from communicating directly with the hiring manager occurs more than people might think. It’s basically like a medical sales rep only being able to speak to a nurse on how a surgeon should use a complicated device. 

It isn’t hard to figure out why the surgeon is having so many poor patient outcomes when this is the communication chain. As all medical sales people know, the product only works as well as the physician’s knowledge of the product. The same goes in recruiting—the more details we receive from and the stronger partnership we build with the hiring manager, the better we can dial in on the right candidate. If you are not getting the right type of talent, you need to start evaluating if and where there is a breakdown in the line of communication.

Reason 3: No External Recruiters

Some companies do not allow sales leaders to use external recruiters due to cost. Some HR directors don’t like the idea that a hiring manager sees value in external recruiters. They get very frustrated when sales leaders want to use external recruiters, given they have a team of internal recruiters. They believe it’s a waste of money. However, most of these individuals don’t understand that the cost of a poor sales hire can be far more than half a million dollars each year!

Guess whose quota that poor hire is affecting? Yep, the sales leader’s. 

If they felt their company recruiters were providing the best sales talent, sales leaders would be more than happy to use them. I suggest having the company recruiters provide data on the caliber of sales reps they placed in comparison to the external search firms. This is the exact theory medical companies beg hospitals and physicians to investigate: separate acquisition costs from total cost savings. We know a hospital’s most expensive product is the one that doesn’t work, no matter how cheap the acquisition cost is. Hospital CEOs do not mind paying higher acquisition costs for product predictability or performance.  

In actuality, sales leaders are trying to save the company money by using the best recruiters in the industry. Ask your CEO and board members to perform an exercise for me. At the end of the year, add up all the poor sale hires who were terminated. In a sales force of one hundred reps, an average sales turnover rate should be around 15-20 percent

So, let’s just say your company is on the low side and only terminates ten reps per year for poor performance. Then, bring in a pallet of cash worth $5.6 million dollars. Let the CEO and board members know it’s actually the company’s money … before you set it on fire. That’s exactly what’s happening each year and, for whatever reason, the company believes external recruiters are too expensive to use. 

To be fair, it is unlikely that everyone on your team will be Super Stars. However, if a company invests in resources to bring in the best talent, poor hires could be reduced by 80 percent. A good recruiter is worth every penny paid. 


Be watching for Part III of this blog where we’ll discuss the final of the top four reasons the hiring process becomes a clown show. To learn more about how Relentless Recruiting can help your company grow by hiring the best of the best salespeople, contact us today.