A fantastic sales team is essential for any business that focuses on selling its products or services. Without your sales team, the entire organization could fail. That’s why it’s so essential to build an effective sales team that has a diverse range of people from different backgrounds who can relate to your customers. With the right type of hiring ideas, you can easily build a sales team that’s both diverse and highly talented.

Careers Fairs

Hiring students straight out of college is an excellent choice if you like to induct new staff into your way of doing things. College graduates can be excellent salespeople as they might be more motivated than those who have been in the workforce for longer. Plus, if you’re looking for diversity in your sales team, then attending careers fairs is one of the best hiring ideas for your company. Students come from all sorts of backgrounds, and you will likely be adding some diversity in age to your team as well. These days, many careers fairs have been adapted to be virtual, so they are easier to attend than ever.

Internships

If you want more minorities working at your company and your recruitment process isn’t cutting it, why not offer internships to people from a variety of backgrounds? You can create internships to be filled by those from groups that are currently underrepresented in your organization. This is an excellent option if you want to train up someone to become a fantastic salesperson for you in the future.

Diverse Job Boards

Many HR teams are unaware that there are job boards out there aimed at promoting applicants from diverse backgrounds. For example, there are job boards specifically for people with autism or disabilities. The idea is that employers willing to hire these types of people post jobs on those boards. If you’re looking to increase the different types of people in your sales team, posting on diverse job boards is one of the most effective hiring ideas.

Rethink Your Job Descriptions

Many job descriptions contain gendered language and other unconscious issues that may stop a diverse array of people applying. Words such as ‘go-getter’, ‘passionate’, and ‘results-driven’, for example, may encourage more men to submit an application. Make sure that each job description is not targeted at one group in particular and even go so far as to ask different types of people to apply.

Qualifications

What qualifications do you look for in your salespeople? It might be time to reconsider what is required for the role. Remember that people from different backgrounds may be less likely to consider going to college, or less likely to be accepted if they do. It is these kinds of societal barriers that continue to affect people of color, and result in it being harder for them to become employed. So, think hard about if you really need the required qualifications for these positions.

Diverse Interview Panel

The people interviewing applicants for the position should be as varied as the applicants themselves. This is an important one in our list of hiring ideas, as diverse panels may have less unconscious bias when it comes to choosing a successful candidate. Encouraging different types of people to apply only goes so far – then you have to make sure that they get hired.

What Are Your Goals?

The goals of each organization will be different. Many sales teams are predominantly male, for example. You may have a diversity of age and ethnicity already but be lacking gender diversity. Consider who currently works for your business, and what areas you are lacking in. Then you can come up with an ideal candidate persona and a strategy to hire that type of person.

Employee Referrals

Let your staff know that you are hoping to hire a more diverse workforce. Then ask them if they know anyone who might be a great employee for your team. Your employees are well-versed in what makes a good staff member for your organization, and they may have contacts who would love to work for you. Many businesses find that implementing an employee referral program is highly successful in finding different types of job candidates. Your staff aren’t likely to recommend anyone that they don’t genuinely believe can do the job because if they did, it would reflect poorly on them. So, this can be a great source of quality referrals.

Update Your Company Policies

Different things are valued by different people. For example, if you don’t have a lot of parents working for your company, there is likely a reason for that. Update your policies to allow sick leave for parents to look after their children when they are sick. Offer more vacation days and time off for religious holidays. These are all things that you can do to attract more diverse applicants.

Blind Resume Screening

Last but certainly not least on our list of hiring ideas is utilizing blind resume screening. This is a process where all identifying details are removed from candidates’ applications. The idea is that unconscious bias will be reduced during the resume screening process when the HR team or hiring manager can’t tell what the backgrounds of the applicants are. Details that may be removed include the candidate’s name, address, college, photo, and more.

Many companies have successfully turned around their hiring processes by using this concept and started hiring more diverse people into their organizations. It’s incredible how much unconscious bias can otherwise affect recruitment.

If you want a higher-performing sales team, adding more diversity into the mix could be an excellent way to achieve it. There are many benefits that come with having a more diverse workforce, including higher productivity, increased profits, and more creativity and innovation. Who among us doesn’t wish for that in our company? Try out some of these hiring ideas, and you could see diversity in your business start to soar.