Recruiting a Diverse Sales Team
As beneficial as a diverse sales team is, many businesses struggle to form one. The reasons why vary. But, a big one is there’s a disconnect in the recruiting process, whether it’s where they’re recruiting, the language they use in their job ads, or something else entirely.
Fortunately, achieving more diversity on your sales team is much more straightforward with an intentional recruiting process. Six tips for recruiting a diverse group of talented sales professionals are just ahead. But first, let’s discuss the value of a diverse sales team.
The Value of a Diverse Sales Team
First and foremost, a diverse sales team is best positioned to work with a diverse customer base. People are usually more comfortable with those they can identify with. A team with varying backgrounds, abilities, and experiences fuels that comfortability and leads to more closed deals.
Diverse sales teams are also more innovative. You can understand the needs of more people and develop sales solutions for them that they can genuinely resonate with. Creativity runs deep in a diverse team. And that’s critical for consistent results.
Who’s Underrepresented in Sales?
Recruiting a talented, diverse sales team starts with understanding who’s underrepresented in the field. When you know who’s underrepresented in sales, you can contribute to closing the gap by hiring individuals in these communities.
Let’s take women in sales, for example. While they represent just under half, 49%, of sales reps, they only make up 26% of sales managers. The climb to sales management and leadership seems much steeper for women than men. In addition, women are severely underrepresented in business-to-business (B2B) sales roles. They deal with gender biases. And despite outperforming men, they’re paid 7% less than them.
Continue to look into sales role statistics like this. Understanding just how underrepresented and mistreated women and other groups are in sales gives you a recruiting starting point.
Identify Talent and Skills Gaps
Aside from having people of different genders, races, and cultures, a diverse sales team has a range of talents and skill sets. Be sure you’re recruiting individuals who can fill your current team's talent and skills gaps.
Identify those talent and skills gaps first. Take inventory of your team and pinpoint where it could benefit from adding certain skills and talents to the mix. Prioritize the need for these skillsets by importance and start recruiting for the most critical.
Recruit for Culture Fit Too
Technical skills are crucial, but they aren’t everything. Not only do you need people on your team with essential skills, but you also need those who fit your company culture perfectly. They may not have the specialized skills you’re looking for, but their personalities, values, and goals fit the company's vision.
Any time you come across candidates who are a good culture fit, set their applications aside. Then, review these applications in more detail later to determine if they should advance to the interview stage.
Ensure Job Postings Welcome a Range of Applicants
You can set out to recruit a diverse and inclusive team. If something as important as your job posting isn’t reflective of that, your efforts are less likely to be successful. So, you must design job postings that are accessible and welcoming to everyone.
Use gender-neutral language in your job descriptions. Stay away from an aggressive, competitive tone and adopt a softer one. Let candidates know your company accommodates all needs. And refrain from doing or saying anything that can be deemed offensive.
Extend Your Recruitment Efforts to Social Media
Job search engines and your company website aren’t the only places you can turn to for recruiting. Consider extending your recruitment efforts to social media. With millions of people using social media daily, you can bet many of them are looking for job opportunities.
LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms to recruit on. It’s deemed the site for professionals. Also, businesses can create job postings and candidates can apply for them directly on the platform.
You can reach a much bigger candidate pool on LinkedIn. Just make sure you’re posting on LinkedIn at the best times based on when the candidates you’re after are on the platform the most. Even if you don’t generate any interest in your jobs immediately, you can still compile a list of potential candidates to reach out to later.
Have Accommodations in Place
If you really want people with varying abilities, backgrounds, and experiences on your sales team, you must show them your company is equipped to accommodate them.
For example, if you’re hoping to successfully hire people with disabilities, you should have accommodations in place that can support them. This could be providing screen readers for the visually impaired. It could be providing mobility aids and ensuring your office is wheelchair accessible. Or it could be having an employee on board fluent in sign language to communicate with someone hearing-impaired.
Accommodations for those living with a mental health condition in the workplace are vital too. These conditions can be “invisible” but are just as debilitating without proper support. So, ensure mental health resources are abundant and easy to access. Having accommodations already in place to support a diverse sales team will show candidates your efforts are genuine.
Final Words
If you’ve yet to prioritize diversity and inclusion on your sales team, you’re missing out on some key advantages. Not only are diverse teams more innovative, but they’re more equipped to connect and close deals with a diverse customer base. Let the above advice guide you in building an incredibly talented, diverse sales team.
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Content Contributor:
Ainsley Lawrence is a freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest. She is interested in better living through technology and education. She loves traveling to beautiful places and is frequently lost in a good book.
