Retailers know that sales staff are the backbone of your operation. Without front-line sales associates, you can’t generate sales. And without high performing sales associates, it’s very difficult to grow. To grow a successful business, retailers need to hire staff who can perform well to maximize profits. That might seem like an easy decision, but it’s a missed opportunity for many.
The key is to identify strengths while creating an environment where your team can apply them.
Increase sales with conscientious employees
A study by Gallup shows that employees who are able to use their strengths daily in the workplace are 8% more productive and 15% less likely to quit. You should know what strengths you need in successful sales associates, and then intentionally hire to those traits.
In sales and in business, the number one predictor of success is conscientiousness: being organized, responsible, and having a strong desire to plan and attain goals. These attributes are not easily determined from a resume, which is what most Retail Hiring Managers rely on when deciding which candidates to consider for an interview.
Traditionally, hiring sales associates has been a lengthy and inefficient process. Hiring Managers need to trust an applicant’s detailing of their relevant past work experience, and you might only be privy to highlights and achievements that do little to shed light on true performance or potential. Just because someone has been a sales associate in the past, it doesn’t mean they were a good one.
Associates who fit are less likely to quit
A conscientious person will feel a sense of accountability in their work, want to set goals and achieve them, and enjoy the challenge of doing so. If they can work to their strengths in a sales environment, this will trickle down to sales volume and revenue. You likely have strong sales goals this year, and to be successful in a competitive market, high performing staff can help you unlock the next level of your business.
Hiring employees who are an excellent fit for your work environment means they’re not only more productive, but they’ll stay longer. This not only saves money in repeated hiring costs, but longer tenure employees know and perform their jobs better, create a work culture where others aspire to do the same, and can effectively train new colleagues. This will enable a higher performing, sales-driven team.
So how do you hire sales associates with these attributes if you can’t easily determine them from a resume? Mindfield’s Like-minds Predictor (LMP) is a behavioural assessment tool that’s available with our Outsourced Recruiting package. It helps retailers find best-fit candidates by measuring each individual against custom criteria deemed critical for success in that role. Mindfield maintains a library of over 900 Qualified Candidate Profiles that have been developed and proven to identify the key traits a successful sales associate, cashier, merchandiser, supervisor, or manager requires to be successful in their role. Candidates that don’t match these criteria are automatically screened out, saving you from having to go through countless resumes and interview large numbers of unqualified candidates.
The LMP is just one tool our clients use to hire sales associates that sell more. Mindfield specializes in building and delivering successful recruitment solutions for retail employers, and can help you and your workforce quality flourish.
About Mindfield
Mindfield is a Recruitment Outsourcing solutions provider that partners with companies to create powerful hourly workforces. Our solutions combine a recruitment team, simple to use technology and a data-driven hiring strategy that promises to improve the quality of your hourly workforce. This approach focuses on tying business outcomes such as sales performance, tenure, and engagement to the selection, hiring and measurement of quality candidates.
