Recruiting Account Managers

[Bigred2019]

Hi All,

I'm looking to really take the bull by the horns in 2021 and supercharge our sales and marketing. I'm confident in our marketing approach for 2021, but we already don't have enough good people to look after the B2B customers who are currently coming through the door. I know that without even looking at the marketing, we have more than enough potential that I could offer some really good account managers a solid career in the renewable heating distribution game.

I'm just interested to see where you recruit your sales people / account managers from? Over the years I've taken on friends of friends, I've gone through recruitment agents, recruited through social media and posted job ads online. I've had varying levels of success with each approach. Interestingly, my experience doesn't suggest that the more you spend the higher the likelihood of picking up a good person...

Would love to hear your thoughts

 

[AstEver]

I'm just interested to see where you recruit your sales people / account managers from?

It is not about where but whom. If you know whom your business needs you will know where to look for them.

 

[Mr D]

Should be a few currently or soon to be unemployed.
Trouble is any general advert likely to include a few thousand hopefuls applying too.

Any specialist recruitment agencies cover the job?

 

[Bigred2019]

It is not about where but whom. If you know whom your business needs you will know where to look for them.

That’s a really interesting point.
When you say whom, are you referring to the kind of person, or the role that person currently does, and the transferable skills they may have. I’m thinking of perhaps a vehicle production manager who could apply his skills to any kind of production management even if it’s in a completely different industry? Is that what you mean?

 

[AstEver]

When you say whom, are you referring to the kind of person, or the role that person currently does, and the transferable skills they may have.

I mean all of that and more.

Recruiting should serve business and HR strategies. If you know where you want your business to be in, let's say, 5 years and how to get there then it should guide you in profiling what employees will help you to get there.

Who would be the best account manager to help you reach your business goals? Specify the desired person's experience, skills, potential, knowledge, network, personality, abilities, motivation, goals, expectations and so on. Only then, think about where to find the person.

One needs to know what they are looking for to know where to look for it.

I see recruitment as parallel to advertising.

 

[Bigred2019]

Should be a few currently or soon to be unemployed.
Trouble is any general advert likely to include a few thousand hopefuls applying too.

Any specialist recruitment agencies cover the job?

Hi Mr D,
There are plenty of recruitment agencies who could provide the kind of person we are looking for. The difficulty I’ve found is that you are looking at circa £6k per person for a recruitment agent to help you

 

[Bigred2019]

I mean all of that and more.

Recruiting should serve business and HR strategies. If you know where you want your business to be in, let's say, 5 years and how to get there then it should guide you in profiling what employees will help you to get there.

Who would be the best account manager to help you reach your business goals? Specify the desired person's experience, skills, potential, knowledge, network, personality, abilities, motivation, goals, expectations and so on. Only then, think about where to find the person.

One needs to know what they are looking for to know where to look for it.

I see recruitment as parallel to advertising.

I’ve never looked at it like that but you raise a really good point. I’d happily put £0000’s in to advertising, but the idea of putting 10% of that into recruitment seemed like an alien concept. Ultimately, advertising spend without good people to look after the output is a waste of money eh. I’ve just mapped out the next 3 years of growth, and to achieve that we are going to need some really good people, so perhaps I need to relook at how we recruit. Would you still advise running through a recruitment agent?

 

[AstEver]

My comment regarding advertising was more relating to the process rather than investment. Investment is required for any activity anyway.

I need to relook at how we recruit.

For me, the question on who to recruit is superordinate to the question on how, both important though.

Would you still advise running through a recruitment agent?

I feel too strongly about recruitment agencies and I do not know enough about your situation to answer the question objectively.
Ideally, I would focus on doing a good HR job for the business myself and only after knowing whom I need, what to offer (in terms of Total Reward), how to manage (Talent Management), how to segment the labour market, etc. I would decide on whether to use a recruitment agency or do it myself.

 

[Mr D]

Hi Mr D,
There are plenty of recruitment agencies who could provide the kind of person we are looking for. The difficulty I’ve found is that you are looking at circa £6k per person for a recruitment agent to help you

And what is the cost to recruit without using a recruitment agent?
Time and effort to get the same people? Better people? Or worse people?

 

[Bigred2019]

And what is the cost to recruit without using a recruitment agent?
Time and effort to get the same people? Better people? Or worse people?

Hi Mr D,
a job advert on Reed.co.Uk costs about £100, and you can pick up a good few CVs that way.
Regarding recruitment agencies, I reckon that I’m working on about a 50% conversion rate of good to bad hires. I suppose just looking at it black and white, if I recruit for ten people at £5k a time and 50% are winners, it’s cost £25k in “wasted fees”.

 

[Mark T Jones]

In layman's terms, what would the role and responsibilities of the 'account manager' be?

How will they be rewarded?

What training is on offer?

What specific skills are you looking for?

Good salesmen will always have a job _ you either need a very compelling offer to get established ones, or training and progression for novices

 

[tony84]

Different industry completely but I used to be a telephone account manager for an insurance company. I looked after financial advisors and mortgage brokers.

We also had face to face account managers in the same company. Half the time, the telephone account managers did a better job and were probably on half the wage if not less.

Also from personal experience as someone who has about 40 account managers, I have some face to face account managers who are terrible and some telephone account managers who are massively underpaid compared to their face to face counterparts.

I have a friend who was a telephone account manager when I first met him in 2013. He then became a face to face account manager, then was head hunted to become head of sales for a Mortgage lender about 2 years ago.

I suppose the point I am making is that you do not necessarily need someone already doing the job, you need someone who is good and has that desire and passion to look after people but also the knowledge to sell your product(s). Knowledge can be taught.

 

[Financial-Modeller]

Hi Mr D,
a job advert on Reed.co.Uk costs about £100, and you can pick up a good few CVs that way.
Regarding recruitment agencies, I reckon that I’m working on about a 50% conversion rate of good to bad hires. I suppose just looking at it black and white, if I recruit for ten people at £5k a time and 50% are winners, it’s cost £25k in “wasted fees”.

If a one-man band looking at your first hire, its understandable that you would try to do everything yourself, but if you're planning to recruit ten people, you should be able to invest in a decent HR professional to help you get a better return on that level of fee expense.

In any case, pay recruitment fees on completion of probabtion rather than on day one, to mitigate some of that wastage.