1. Offer a Step Up.

The first rule of headhunting truly elite, top 20% sales performers is that you must offer a significant step up. To understand this, consider the point of view of the sales professional being headhunted. By definition, a top 20% sales professional has strong sales momentum and it took a lot of hard work to get that momentum. Starting all over at a new job will be a huge challenge. To get them to even consider taking on that challenge you must provide a compelling step up for their career.

Examples of a step up would be better pay, more responsibility or a better company culture and working environment. Of these factors, only the base salary being offered is purely objective. With top sales professionals getting approached by multiple recruiters daily the old school notion of offering a 10-15% raise in base pay won’t cut it.

2. Change Your Expectations and Approach.

Most hiring managers want to hire sales professionals that aggressively pursue their opportunity. Headhunted talent doesn’t behave this way. Remember, they have a good job, they’re doing well and they have a lot to lose. Expect these candidates to ask thoughtful and detailed questions about the viability of your company, your services or products and the condition of the territory. Do not expect them to walk into the interview gunning for the job.

Now consider the position of an unemployed sales professional or one that is at risk of losing their job. They NEED your job and their behavior will reflect that. These candidates will jump through hoops for you. With this in mind, we welcome questioning, on-the-fence sales professionals. Be prepared to sell them on your opportunity. For tips on how to do this read How to Sell Your Company to Candidates.

3. Don’t Delay.

This is a lesson we learned the hard way. Once someone starts looking at one opportunity, they’ll look at other opportunities. A painful example of this was Chris E. He was the most talented candidate we had recruited in some time for one of our long-term clients. As he was “not looking”, the VP of Sales took her time moving him through the process. Days before presenting him with an offer he accepted a position with Boston Scientific. As he told us of his decision he shared the following…

4. Understand the Value of Headhunted Candidates.

The Sales Talent headhunting method is to identify and touch every potential candidate in a market that fits an opportunity. To put that into numbers, the average Sales Talent search in 2017 started with 974 prospects. That’s a big number. At the bottom of this funnel, we delivered 4.33 candidates that were ultimately interviewed. In between those 2 points is a lot of hours. How many?

One headhunted candidate required 13.31 hours on average to source.

Why so many hours? We’re not delivering “close enough” talent. These are “on target” candidates that “Can Do” the job, “Will Do” the job and “Fit” the opportunity.

When we map out a typical search then, it required 57.6 hours to complete (13.31 hours x 4.33 candidates). With that many hours invested, the fastest way to frustrate a headhunting recruiter is to mismanage the talent they deliver. A few examples of how this happens are:

• slow interview process (the candidate takes another job or loses interest).
• failure to sell the opportunity (see Rule #2 above).
• presenting a lowball offer.
• passing on candidates that don’t come after the opportunity (see Rule #2 above).