Dave Daucanski has 15 years experience in out of home advertising sales and sales management most recently with Clear Channel Outdoor in Dallas and Florida.   In this post Daucanski gives 8 tips for recruiting and hiring great out of home sales people.  You can reach Dave at davewpb@bellsouth.net.

• Your day doesn’t start at 8 am and end at 5 pm.  Attend a networking event once a week, e.g., Ad Fed, AMA or a business after hours event.  Stand on the perimeter of the room and watch who works the room.  Move within a listening zone and listen to their elevator pitch. Reach out later in the event and schedule a lunch with the individual.

• Use sales appointments to generate leads.  Arrive early and check the registration sheet.  Two things to look for on that sign in sheet…candidates and competitors also meeting with your client.

• Research active linkedin groups with 50+ members within your area to begin the process of seeing who is posting and active within the groups. If you have an opportunity to attend one of the group events look for that prospect.

• Attend a conference in your area once a quarter.

• You can hire from outside the industry.   Some of my best hires; Daniel Macha in Dallas, Mark Dolan in Ocala, RV Mathews in West Palm Beach and Wendy Lang now in St. Petersburg were candidates from outside the industry. Two were from the staffing industry (think about as a sales leader how many calls and emails you get from staffing professionals. They are in an extremely competitive industry and generally have strong closing skills.)

• Keep a full pipeline of candidates.  As a sales leader we always talk about funnels/pipelines with the sales team. We should treat our role the same by maintaining a healthy pipeline of candidates to eliminate that 90 day lull in activity with a vacancy on your team. If your company allows it over-hire.

• Include a candidate presentation preferably with new people that the candidate hasn’t met yet. Don’t necessarily worry about if they were perfect with the content just watch for their ability to find out information on your company and include that in the presentation. The presentation method allows you to check for grammar etc and public speaking abilities. Set the stage early and advise the candidate that there isn’t a right or wrong presentation and to use their skills and creativity.

• Recruit and hire attitude over aptitude. You can’t teach an attitude however; you can educate the new hire on your product/service.

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