Over the last 15 years, whilst taking job orders from all kinds of companies, I’ve found myself...
They say there’s no such thing as a silly question. I beg to differ.
For example, 'What’s the average salary for a Sales Director?'.
I get asked variations of this question over and over. And it’s not silly because it’s something you can easily Google. It’s silly because it’s meaningless.
Imagine Googling the average price of a new car and then calling a dealership and expecting to pay that figure for a brand-new BMW with leather seats, sat-nav and a panoramic roof.
It’s entirely possible that you might want a basic, barely competent sales director. But isn’t it more likely that you’re looking for someone who is well-established with buckets of experience?
And that person is probably already being well-paid by their current employer. If you want them to jump ship and join your firm, you’re going to have provide with them a powerful incentive.
The average salary of a sales director is meaningless in this scenario. The person you’re looking for is going to cost you what it’s going to cost. And you’d better believe it’ll be more than the average.
Freelancers have a saying, 'you can have the work done fast, cheap and good, but you can only pick two out of the three'.
In recruitment, you only get to pick one.
A new hire that is high quality isn’t going to be cheap, and finding the right person isn’t going to be a quick process. If a recruiter tells you differently, they’re fibbing to you. The odds that the right person, who's perfect for your firm, is just at that moment, out of work and going for a song is highly unlikely.
A better way
Our recruitment philosophy is that it’s always more expensive to hire the wrong person than it is to spend a little more now and get the right person in place.
We don’t do fast or cheap, but we do excel at digging deep, finding high-quality candidates, and performing in-depth assessments that ensure they’re a good cultural fit for your business.
That’s why 96% of our placements are still in the role after 12 months.
When someone says there are no silly questions, what they’re really saying is that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask the questions you need to ask. If you don’t know the answer then of course you have to ask.
But if the answer isn’t what you’re hoping for, that isn’t a bad thing.
So, if you ask me the average price of a sales director, I’m going to tell you that this is irrelevant. And instead I’m going to tell you how much it’s likely to cost to find one of the best sales directors available.
Now THAT is something worth knowing.
