Today I won’t be talking about lead generation. Instead, I will provide my thoughts around something I hear all too often from roofing contractors, and that is that they have big problems hiring qualified salespeople.
Let me start by saying that if you depend only on word-of-mouth for recruiting, you are missing out. After recruiting all your qualified friends, family members, and friends of friends you need to look for other sources of talent. And no, it’s not your local newspaper or Indeed or ZipRecruiter.
Your local newspaper used to be a great resource for recruiting, but that was the case many years ago. On the other hand, the problem with online job boards like ZipRecruiter, Indeed, etc. is that your ads look almost exactly the same as everybody else’s, so candidates can’t see the whole picture and get a true sense of the opportunity you are offering them. Once your job posting goes live, you’ll get a ton of unqualified applicants reaching out.
So, where are savvy business owners turning for finding candidates? The answer is social media. It makes it a lot more convenient for them to learn about your company’s culture through their social media profile.
Nowadays, as you may already know, you can and will be judged by your social media presence way before some people even talk to you. If you are a great employer, your employees will rave about it, and before you know it, someone will be sharing their positive work experience on social media and other people will see it. This is exactly why it is imperative to build an attractive company culture and show it off on social media.
So, how do you find the perfect salespeople?
Start by creating a recruiting video that contains testimonials from your current salespeople talking about how it’s like to work for your company, the company culture, and the successes they’ve had since working for your company. The quality of the stories, the messaging and how the video is shot will determine your success in recruiting.
Then, you will want to promote that video through a paid Facebook Ad campaign. I suggest you setup a Brand Awareness campaign type, using ThruPlay. This will make sure you get the most exposure for the least amount of money. Then, it’s a matter of targeting the right people in your ad set, which you will do so by selecting the location of your target audience, their demographics, and interests. You can also exclude certain interests to really pinpoint your targeting.
Video Content:
You should start the video by introducing yourself, your company, and talking about who you are looking for, the position, the great opportunity they are in front of and what to expect when joining your company.
Then, you want to introduce one of your top-performing sales reps.
As for the questions you should ask your sales reps on your video, here are some pointers:
- What made you decide to join our team?
- What did you do before being a part of [INSERT YOUR COMPANY NAME]?
- How long did it take before you earned your first paycheck?
- Did you have any previous training before you knocked on your first door with us?
- What do you love the most about [INSERT YOUR COMPANY NAME]?
- Did this job take you out of your comfort zone?
- What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?
- What would you say to the person watching this video and thinking about joining the [INSERT COMPANY NAME] team?
Then, you will want to end your video with a call-to-action. Which can be something like this:
“You’ve heard it from [SALES REP FIRST NAME]! You only need four things to work here: a good work ethic, a positive attitude, motivation, and good character.
We are only hiring top-performers and there are limited spots open. If you are interested in joining our team, fill out the form below and we will contact you shortly.”
The next step is a crucial one in the process of hiring top talent for your company.
FOLLOW-UP!!!
Just because someone showed interest in your ad and filled out the form doesn’t mean they are ready to join your team. It is essential to have automations in place that will trigger as soon as a user fills out your ad form. These automations should be in the form of text messages and emails, confirming that you received their information and letting them know what the next steps are (that someone from your team -or you will contact them.)
Also, when following up with these cold recruiting leads from a Facebook ad, make sure to provide them with clarity on the hiring, training, and work process in a simple fashion.
You should setup text and email notifications to come to you as soon as a new lead comes in, you can do this using the help of Zapier to send Facebook form ad leads to your email and to your cell phone, as a text message. You may need to integrate your Facebook account with Zapier and then add a Gmail account to forward the emails to whatever email you want the leads to go and Twilio to configure the text messages.
The rule of thumb is to reach out to leads within 5 minutes or less of receiving that lead. If outside of normal working hours, then get back to them first thing the next working day. The follow up process and importance is the same as if you were following up with job leads.
Your follow-up message should be something like this:
“Hi [CANDIDATE FIRST NAME], my name is [YOUR NAME], I’m [YOUR POSITION] at [YOUR COMPANY’S NAME]. I noticed you showed interest in our open sales position, and I’m thrilled to talk with you about this position.
You only need four things to succeed at our company: a good work ethic, a positive attitude, motivation, and good character.
Please call me back and I will get you the next steps and answer any questions you may have.”
The follow up process is very similar to that of any lead generation effort, as if you were generating job leads going after homeowners. You need to FOLLOW-UP, FOLLOW-UP, FOLLOW-UP! Sorry, but there’s no way around it.
Many times, like when closing a sale, you must call people numerous times, leave messages, send them text messages, and remind them how serious and persistent you are.
When You Talk to Them for the First Time
If you can get them one the phone, then frame the call in a similar fashion as the first three-quarters of the above voicemail example and proceed to ask the following questions (plus any other pre-qualifying questions you believe are non-negotiables at this time of the recruiting process in your business):
- Do you have any sales experience?
- Why did you apply for our position?
- What do you know about our company?
- What is your first reaction when presented with challenges?
- What are your biggest motivations in life?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years and in 20 or 30 years (20 or 30 depending on their perceived age)
If you believe they are qualified, based on their answers, you can proceed with describing the opportunity and letting them know things like: “we provide leads to top performers”, “we have a system of working the neighborhood offering free inspections”, “anyone with motivation, a good attitude and work ethic can be successful.”
After this, continue to describe the job and mention things like:
- The satisfaction of knowing you helped someone secure their most valuable asset
- Feeling great about improving someone’s home
- Being an honest problem solver, not a sales machine
Zoom Call
The next step in the recruiting process is inviting the candidate to a Zoom call.
The Zoom call will give you and them an opportunity to see each other and you should share your screen with a presentation outlining your company culture, how great this opportunity is, what to expect, what the ideal candidate looks like and address common concerns that most of all your recruits will have. Some of those concerns are:
- Can I close a sale?
- What it’s like to have a commission job at your company
- Fears about sales
- The viability of this opportunity
- Do they need to be a roofing expert?
- What challenges will they face?
- How hard it is to be successful
Most prospects will have one or more of the above concerns.
Before you finalize the presentation, present them with an irresistible offer. For this, you should talk about your awesome compensation through the commission program and let them know how some sales reps that had their same concerns are now top earners.
Interview Invitation
Finally, invite “highly motivated, top performers only” to an in-person interview the next day. Let them know that positions are limited and that you will only be hiring truly motivated and dedicated people.
In Conclusion
Today, you count with a lot more resources and tool to be able to attract and hire the right talent. Take advantage of these tools and do your part and you will be on your way to building your dream team.
Rinse and repeat this process and you will soon grow your team in quality and size like never before!
Let’s get growing!
