How to Attract Top Talent
An HVAC Contractor in Washington asked:
How do you attract top talent?
EGIA faculty member Weldon Long started by explaining that no matter who you hire, there’s no way to know for sure that you have hired the right person. “Hire slowly and fire quickly, because everybody makes mistakes in hiring,” said Long.
Long went on to mention that this question is one he receives on a weekly basis, because so many people want a ‘silver-bullet solution’ that simply does not exist. Instead, says Long, hiring is a difficult process to get right, but doing so consistently comes down to the competency and culture of your hiring staff and the opportunities and compensation structures that top candidates are after.
In his own business, Long was able to see these practices take shape in the behaviour of his competitors’ service techs. “it got around through the distributors and supply houses very quickly that if you work at this place, you can earn 150k a year,” he said.
Once a reputation like that is established at your company, two major shifts occur: the first is that your current staff doesn’t quit their jobs, and the second is that those that do leave your company come back once they realize that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Long left his part with his favorite question to ask in an interview. “He asked me about my last major purchase prior to the interview,” said Long. “The way someone buys something is very often the way they sell.”
Weldon Long is a successful entrepreneur, sales expert and author of the NY Times bestseller, The Power of Consistency – Prosperity Mindset Training for Sales and Business Professionals (Wiley). In 2003, he walked out of a homeless shelter and built an Inc. 5000 company generating cumulative sales of over $20,000,000 within just 60 months. In 2009, his company was selected as one of Inc. Magazines Fastest Growing Private Companies in America.
Our faculty members have also answered questions on other topics related to sales in the contracting world, including What Should I Spend on Marketing and Company Culture and a Selling Mindset.
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