When was the last time you really sat down with your HR director and talked about working as a team? Not recently? Dan Perry, a principal at Sales Benchmark Index (SalesBenchmarkIndex.com), a sales and marketing consultancy, wrote this open letter from HR to the VP of sales:
Dear VP of Sales,
I received your requests, and I understand your needs. In order to ensure you never have a missing link in your team, we must proactively recruit and train new talent. We want to recruit top sales talent, but we need your help.
The sales and HR departments should work better together. That’s why we will clearly communicate our needs, just as you have done. Here are six items HR must receive from sales to get the job done:
1. Succinct job descriptions for sales positions – You want us to have a standard job profile on hand. In order to do so, we need certain information from your team. Namely, we need a list of competencies and accountabilities necessary to perform each job. Too many times, we just receive a basic overview of a job description. This is ineffective, as we don’t understand the dynamics of selling.
2. Competitive strengths in the marketplace – To attract the best talent, we need to communicate the competitive strengths of our company and sales organization. As a sales team, what can you offer a candidate that no other business can?
3. What has been successful in the past – We need periodic updates on which recruiting practices have been successful for sales. With this information, we can keep these strategies in place and adjust as needed going forward.
4. What sales is willing to pay –You request that we provide a benchmark for what the company can pay in our industry. However, we also must understand what sales is willing to pay for a new hire. By combining our knowledge, we can land upon the most effective offer and pull in top talent.
5. Specific problems in the hiring process – We understand your time is precious. To expedite our process, we must know which parts of the hiring program are least effective. This way, we can cut the fat and adapt the process for the sales team.
6. Collaboration and respect – In HR, we are often fighting for respect within the organization. We understand sales needs our help to acquire top talent. But in order to do so, we must work together on an equal playing field.
Sales and HR should view each other as business partners. This way, we can be sure we’re employing the most effective strategies and you can continue to make the number. I look forward to a profitable partnership.
Sincerely,
HR
