How to hire a Sales Professional

How to hire a sales professional, step by step

Here's a step-by-step sales professional hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a sales professional job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new sales professional
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a Sales Professional do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your sales professional job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a sales professional for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine Employee vs Contractor Status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

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   A sales professional's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, sales professionals from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of sales professionals.

   Type Of Sales Professional	Description	Hourly Rate
   Sales Professional	Wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives sell goods for wholesalers or manufacturers to businesses, government agencies, and other organizations. They contact customers, explain product features, answer any questions that their customers may have, and negotiate prices.	$20-52
   Outside Sales	An outside sales representative is responsible for generating the company's sales and revenues by offering goods and services to existing and potential clients, responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns about the products, and researching on possible leads. Outside sales representatives monitor the current industry trends to identify new business opportunities that would help the business adjust to market changes to achieve profitability goals... Show More	$26-50
   Sales Development Representative	A sales development representative qualifies leads at the sales funnel's initial stages. Sales development representatives need to conduct research for prospective clients and qualify the leads before handing them to the sales team... Show More	$16-37

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common Skills:

   • Product Knowledge
   • POS
   • CRM
   • Work Ethic
   • Sales Presentations
   • Sales Techniques
   • Real Estate
   • Lead Generation
   • Retail Sales
   • Sales Process
   • Team-Oriented Environment
   • Client Relationships
   • Patients
   • Sales Training

   Check All Skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Track leads and manage accounts with SalesForce.
   • Record client information and sales using SalesForce.
   • Utilize Instagram and Facebook for marketing channel to promote diverse product lines.
   • Preform daily sales tasks as provide outstanding customer service and greetings, operate POS register system, merchandise transfers and re-merchandising.
   • Present PowerPoint presentations on how to be more effective with providing excellent customer service to customers
   • Prioritize account management, POS operations, customer service problem-solving and relationship building in fast-pace setting.

   More Sales Professional duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the sales professional job description is a good way to get more applicants. A sales professional salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a sales professional in Maryland may be lower than in Massachusetts, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level sales professional. Additionally, a sales professional with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average sales professional salary

   $68,809yearly

   $33.08 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level sales professional salary

   $42,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 13, 2025

   Average sales professional salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
   1	Massachusetts	$84,497	$41
   2	Pennsylvania	$77,766	$37
   3	California	$77,055	$37
   4	Ohio	$76,635	$37
   5	South Dakota	$75,409	$36
   6	Arizona	$73,941	$36
   7	Minnesota	$73,678	$35
   8	Indiana	$73,452	$35
   9	Maine	$73,378	$35
   10	North Carolina	$72,432	$35
   11	Oregon	$72,309	$35
   12	Washington	$72,127	$35
   13	Nebraska	$70,565	$34
   14	Colorado	$69,767	$34
   15	North Dakota	$69,399	$33
   16	South Carolina	$68,924	$33
   17	Texas	$68,599	$33
   18	Oklahoma	$67,009	$32
   19	Tennessee	$66,261	$32
   20	Alabama	$65,951	$32

   Average sales professional salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
   1	Microsoft	$126,366	$60.75	37
   2	Shutterfly	$119,778	$57.59	41
   3	Adobe	$116,310	$55.92	22
   4	BMO Capital Markets	$113,493	$54.56	1
   5	Sanofi US	$111,676	$53.69	7
   6	QuinStreet	$108,899	$52.36	7
   7	The Carlyle Group	$106,187	$51.05
   8	Conviva	$103,566	$49.79
   9	Dresser-Rand Group	$103,180	$49.61
   10	Champion Mortgage Holdings Corp.	$102,826	$49.44
   11	Better	$102,430	$49.25	9
   12	AIG	$101,253	$48.68	10
   13	Guarantee Real Estate	$100,613	$48.37
   14	Century 21 Alliance Realty	$100,452	$48.29	1
   15	Keller Williams Capital Properties	$100,168	$48.16
   16	Roberts Brothers	$100,134	$48.14	4
   17	Cressy & Everett Real Estate	$99,973	$48.06	4
   18	Your Castle Real Estate	$99,963	$48.06
   19	Weidel Realtors	$99,919	$48.04
   20	Keller Williams Southern Arizona	$99,890	$48.02

4. Writing a Sales Professional Job Description

   A good sales professional job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a sales professional job description:

   Sales Professional job description example

   In this role, you will...

   • Help clients prepare their home to placed on the market.
   • Assist clients in the home search process by taking them to home showings and open houses.
   • Mediate during sales and purchasing negotiations to advocate for clients' best interests.
   • Become an expert in your local real estate market and stay informed of recent home sales.
   • Craft unique marketing materials to advertise your real estate services.
   • Advise your clients on how to stage and sell their home quickly and profitably.

   As a company, we will...

   • Give you a competitive commission rate to offer you financial security.
   • Encourage a healthy work/life balance with a flexible schedule.
   • Guide you through the real estate licensing process.

   Additional Details

   Compensation in the real estate market is related directly to a Real Estate Professional's performance. High-performing, dedicated agents have reasonable potential to make $50000 - $100000 / year or more after establishing a strong client base. You will find that the more time and work you put in, the more potential you will have for higher income.

   Notice: While a real estate license is not required to apply, you must obtain a real estate license before officially being hired. To earn a real estate license you will need to complete real estate classes (online or in-person) offered by an accredited learning institution and pass a state licensing exam. To learn more about the real estate licensing process, apply now and our recruiting team will provide additional details.

   Our Equal Opportunity Promise

   We are dedicated to fair hiring practices and operate as an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, sexual orientation, age, marital status, religion, or nation of origin. We take pride in being exceptional leaders and citizens of our community and we're dedicated to treating all our potential employees with the same level of care and respect.

   Copy This Example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right sales professional for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your sales professional job on Zippia to find and recruit sales professional candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as salesjobs, salesheads, allretailjobs.com, sales trax.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with sales professional candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new sales professional

   Once you've decided on a perfect sales professional candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new sales professional. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a sales professional?