Do you know how to recruit a salesperson with LinkedIn? LinkedIn is an essential sales recruitment tool, but you have to understand how to use it.

The network has evolved a lot in recent years. It refined its functionality to support a proactive approach strategy and is an excellent way to identify candidates. Indeed, using filters allows you to improve your search results. It’s, therefore, possible to obtain the list of employees within a specific company or those of related persons according to different degrees of connection.

How to recruit a salesperson on LinkedIn?

There are 5 elements necessary to make proactive use of it:

1. Determine the right filters.
2. Use it mainly when sourcing.
3. Adapt your recruitment approach.
4. Follow every step of your recruitment process.
5. Find the right person to handle the LinkedIn recruitment process.

1. Determine the right search filters to use

Filters dictate search results so identify them beforehand. Before you start, you should first ask yourself some questions.

• What’s the required candidate profile?
• What experience should he or she have?
• For which company(ies) would he/she have worked before?
• What product(s) would the salesperson have already sold?
• Where is he/she likely to be found?

This last aspect is particularly important. It encourages you to think about the opportunities offered by your industry, but also by others. Your ideal candidate may be in a different, but related, sector!

If possible, always expand your search to similar industries.

2. Use it mainly when sourcing

There are many ways to recruit, from job boards to online advertisements. LinkedIn allows to post jobs, but my experience indicates that LinkedIn is a sourcing tool first and foremost.

Using it for an active candidate search is beneficial. It can increase the number of applications received for a job offer, especially if the CV throughput is low.

The network is also ideal for quickly finding an individual who meets precise hiring criteria such as belonging to a particular sector.

3. Adapt your recruitment approach

It’s essential to adapt your recruitment approach when using LinkedIn. Unlike online job boards, LinkedIn recruitment is a sourcing tool. Contrary to passive searches, from the first exchanges with a candidate, the recruiter must sell the position by presenting the company as well as the reasons why he should go through the recruitment stages.

He or she has to try to convince him.

LinkedIn, therefore, requires more time investment at the beginning of the process.

4. Follow all the steps of your recruitment process

You need to adapt your recruitment approach when sourcing on LinkedIn, but don’t give in to the temptation to overlook some of the steps in the recruitment process. It can be tempting to give a hand-picked candidate, with whom you’ve already interacted many times, a “pass” and fail to get him or her to fill out a pre-employment assessment.

That’s a mistake! You would lose access to a wealth of information that would confirm or inform the correctness of your choice of candidate.

5. Find the right person to handle the recruitment process on LinkedIn

Knowing that by recruiting on LinkedIn, you’ll have to convince the candidate at the beginning of the process, think of the best person to do it.

If you are looking for a salesperson, the sales manager may be an appropriate choice, if only for the seriousness of the approach and to facilitate the connection. Moreover, recruitment is part of the roles and responsibilities of the sales manager. You Human Resources staff could also do and generate the spark required.

LinkedIn message templates

To help you recruit the best candidates, use these models when you interact with them on LinkedIn. Don’t hesitate to adapt them to convey your message in the best possible way.

Takeaway

LinkedIn is a professional social network that’s ideal for recruiting sales candidates. But regardless of the platform used to hire your representatives, you must first ensure that you follow a proven recruitment process.

To learn more, don’t miss our upcoming webinar on best practices for recruiting good salespeople.