12 Best Places for Finding Good Salespeople

As a Sales Manager, recruiting new salespeople is often a demanding part of your job that never seems to taper off.

Do you ever find yourself wondering where to find good salespeople?

Today we are thinking beyond the job boards and sharing a list of diverse resources for finding salespeople.  You will find a mix of paid and free resources, social media platforms, events, and good old-fashioned in-person networking, too.

Although you might be interested in how to coach salespeople, finding and hiring talented salespeople is one of the most important investments a business can make.

Sales staff are the frontline representatives interfacing with customers daily and driving revenue for the company.

Yet sourcing strong sales candidates takes significant time and effort for managers. Where should you begin searching?

Rather than just posting openings online and hoping applications roll in, smart recruiters take a targeted and multifaceted approach.

They leverage professional networks, events, college campuses, and digital platforms to connect with qualified, driven candidates.

Getting face time at trade shows and nurturing relationships over time allows for better assessment of sales abilities. Meanwhile, online sites like LinkedIn enable you to search profiles worldwide for the precise backgrounds you want.

Combining online and real-world sourcing strategies casts a wide net so you can discover standout people you may not come across otherwise. The most effective recruiting happens through diverse channels.

In this article, we share the 12 best places to find good salespeople to build an all-star team. You’ll discover tips for networking locally and nationally to meet rising talent as well as leverage social platforms.

With an optimized search process, you’ll hire superstar reps poised to drive business growth.

Key Takeaways

1. Leverage LinkedIn to share open positions, search for sales candidates, and network in professional groups. Personalize outreach messages.
2. Attend tradeshows and conferences to get face time with potential candidates. Collect contact info and follow up.
3. Recruit college students at career fairs or tap into your alumni network for entry-level sales roles. Build partnerships with schools.
4. Post open positions on your Facebook profile and in industry groups. Ask for referrals from friends.
5. Follow sales leaders on Twitter, search for relevant job titles, and connect around industry hashtags. Retweet job posts.
6. Partner with specialized sales recruiting firms that have expertise in your industry and a proven track record.
7. Promote your employer brand and advertise roles on Glassdoor and Indeed where candidates research companies.
8. Tap into your existing customer network. Let them know you’re hiring and ask for referrals.
9. Join sales organizations and communities to network with like-minded professionals.
10. Attend local meetups through Meetup.com to make in-person connections.
11. Run creative job ads on Google and Bing to capture interest and inspire applications.
12. Host happy hours or networking events to conveniently connect with potential candidates in-person.

Where to Find Salespeople

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the most effective ways to grow your professional network.

As a Sales Manager, you are able to share the open positions in your organization alongside information about your company’s history and culture.  Make use of videos, images and blog posts to really stand out.

You can also easily search for salespeople who might be a good fit for your company.  Using the search bar at the top of the page, find salespeople by title, location, company and more.  As you review candidates’ profiles, LinkedIn will also suggest other user profiles with similar backgrounds.

Finally, LinkedIn makes networking a breeze.  Join one of LinkedIn’s many professional groups and connect with its members.  Be sure to personalize each message you send!

2. Tradeshows/Conferences

Serving as a corporate sponsor at a sales-specific conference or tradeshow may not only land you new customers – it can get your name out in front of potential candidates.

Corporate sponsors usually receive contact information of all the event’s attendees.  Be sure to collect business cards as well.

In your follow-up emails or social media connections, thank people for stopping by your booth and let them know you are hiring salespeople, too.

3. College Career Fairs/Alumni

Hiring sales reps for entry-level sales roles in your company? 

Be the first to discover up-and-coming talent when you recruit on college campuses.

You can even build a partnership with a university, and get involved with student clubs, organizations, and mentorship programs.

As you foster relationships, you will also create a fresh supply of sales talent consistently coming your way.

4. Facebook

Despite its algorithm changes, Facebook is still a great platform for connecting with others on a personal level.  For example, you can share your organization’s available sales positions on your own Facebook timeline and ask your Facebook friends for recommendations.  Or use the search bar at the top of Facebook to help you in finding salespeople who fit your criteria.

Facebook also has plenty of groups and organization pages you can join to connect with people in your industry.

5. Twitter

Sure, Twitter can seem noisy and feel downright overwhelming at times.  With the right strategy, however, you can search for and find good salespeople.

Begin by following the leaders in your industry.

Next, search for Twitter users who have applicable keywords in their profiles, like their job titles.

Learn the hashtags that apply to your industry and see who else is tweeting about them, then comment, like and retweet.

When someone follows you, message them to ask if they are looking for a new opportunity or know someone who is.  Create lists to organize your followers based on their interests and likes.

Do not forget to ask your followers to share your open job post, too!

6. Sales-Specific Recruiting Firms

Recruiting firms cut way down on your time spent searching and interviewing viable candidates.

But choose your recruiting firm carefully!

A high-quality staffing firm that fits your needs should specialize in sales recruiting, provide recruiting software for managing the process and be able to point to years of expertise in your industry with measurable results.

7. Glassdoor or Indeed

When job seekers want to check out a company they are applying to, they often head to Glassdoor or Indeed first.

With plenty of information about what current and former employers have to say about a company, its management team, salary, and benefits, you will want to make sure your company is well-represented.

Both sites offer a great opportunity to promote your organization’s brand and advertise open positions.

8. Your Existing Customers

We all know satisfied customers tend to advocate for your products and services.

Connect with this often-untapped network (perhaps during your next email campaign or other regular interaction) to let them know you are hiring.

They already know who you are and what you do, so let them know that you are hiring, ask for any contacts they have and encourage them to apply, too.

9. Sales Organizations

You will connect with like-minded individuals when you join sales organizations and communities.

As we mentioned, you can find many of them on LinkedIn, while others require a more formal membership.

They often provide members with educational resources, insights and training, too.

10. Meetup.com

This online community connects people who share similar interests, both professional and personal.

The local in-person meetups planned by the group organizers set this online community apart.  Use the opportunity to network and get the word out about your open sales positions.

11.  Google and Bing Ads

Capture a qualified candidate’s attention and boost your company’s brand with a standout Google or Bing advertisement.

Enlist your marketing team to think of creative ways to promote your organization and inspire candidates to apply.

12. Happy Hours

Host a happy hour or another cocktail event at a local establishment after work hours.

To make it convenient to attend, put plenty of thought into the dates and times you choose.  Give yourself plenty of time to promote the event and ask attendees to register to let you know their coming.

You want to make attending your event a no-brainer even after a long day of work, so cover the costs of the venue, some drinks and/or appetizers.

During your event, spend time connecting with as many people as possible and send a thoughtful follow-up email in the following days.

Hiring Good Salespeople

While these 12 sales recruiting tips tell you where to find good salespeople, you will also need to make sure you are only scheduling interviews with the candidates who are most likely to be a perfect fit.

The key is having a strong vetting process before bringing people in. Start by carefully combing through and reviewing resumes, and profiles to confirm candidates have the baseline of sales experience, skills, and educational background you require.

However, digging a bit deeper with pre-screening questions and even a simple online sales aptitude assessment can reveal more about work ethic, motivations, and potential.

As you go through the process of vetting applicants, keep your company’s specific sales abilities needs, culture, and top performer qualities in mind. Develop a clear picture of the best-fit candidate and tailor questions to filter for those matching attributes.

Ask about why sales interest them, how they handle rejections, what motivates them to keep learning and improving, and what their process is for qualifying leads.

By probing their actual selling approach, motivations, and persistence, you’ll gain insight beyond the resume into whether they’ll thrive.

Conducting this type of filtering process, before committing to interviews, allows you to narrow the field to the cream of the crop. It saves the wasted time of unsuitable meetings and means those you do interview are more likely your future sales stars. The right screening paves the way for hiring sales reps.

The DriveTest® is a sales hiring assessment tool that identifies whether the sales candidates you find possess the most critical, unteachable personality trait needed for success in sales: Drive.

Drive is the passion and determination that makes superstar salespeople relentless in their quest for success.  When you identify this trait before the interview, you will only spend your time on the candidates with the most potential.

Learn more about Drive and why 80+ years of research says every top-producing salesperson must have it.