Why junior sales hiring is damn tricky right now
There's one big lever but people don't want to pull it.
60 second read | Chime in and take the poll on LinkedIn here
At the risk of making another ‘hiring is hard’ take, I want to dig into one area that's a bit unique right now: junior level sales people.
Specifically, BDRs/SDRs in the SaaS space.
The same rules of “we’re in a insane bull market for hiring” apply. But there's a few specific challenges:
1. Demand for BDRs is *especially* high. Companies hiring junior salespeople usually don’t hire just one.
Growth = sales hiring binge.
2. BDRs want a promotion after 1-2 years. No job is a forever job, but the tenure at this level is especially short. They want to do the entire sales process to progress in their careers. (Not to mention make more money).
Moving to the same role at a new company isn’t always appealing.
3. Training junior talent requires time and effort. Not just your product and industry, but often the entire sales function. And it's harder when remote.
Here’s the game right now: everyone is trying to poach everyone else’s experience SaaS BDR/SDR talent. While doing the least amount of training possible. At scale.
And the talent is resisting because they’d rather get a bump up.
It’s a balancing act. How compelling is your organization's talent pitch to attract experienced people? And how much time and effort are you able to put into training entry level salespeople?
Ask yourself this question:
"Why would someone already working a SaaS BDR role take the same role in your company when they could move up somewhere else?"
If you can't answer that...time to reevaluate your approach.
Your biggest lever in hiring is always the size of the talent pool you consider. I’m curious what sales leaders are open to right now. Poll. 👇
You can follow me on LinkedIn here. Join the discussion on this LinkedIn post (or give it a 👍) here.