“Must have industry experience” – A job posting mistake

“Must have industry experience” is something that I’ve noticed a lot on sales job sites (not that I’m looking for a new job if anyone is wondering).  Every time I see this statement I think to myself “what a mistake”.  Some of you are probably asking yourself:

“What is he talking about?  It’s perfectly logical to want a sales rep that has experience with and has contacts in my industry.”

While I can see the logic in this thought process there are two fatal flaws with it. 

The first flaw is that the phrase “must have industry experience” is usually followed shortly thereafter by the phrase “must be a top performer”.  The issue here is that only the premier provider in your industry can actually ask for both and get the right people.  That’s because the premier provider also usually has the best sales comp plan so they can recruit all of the best reps from the rest of the companies in their industry.  The problem is that I see every provider in every industry look for both.   This strategy won’t work for them and they represent the majority in the industry.

Let’s define this further.  The top performers at the premier providers in most industries are making $100k – $120k base and $350k+ total comp including commission.  Now most of the jobs that I see posted are for $50k-$70k salary and total comp of $100k – $150k.  Do you see the disconnect and the reason why I think that the standard logic is flawed? 

The issue is if you require “must have industry experience” and you aren’t the premier provider in your industry (which most aren’t) then what you are really attracting and limiting yourself to is the “also rans” in your industry.  So you’re basically playing a game of russian roulette with the fact that you are going to find the diamond in the rough of the “also rans” which could happen but almost never does.  This is why I hear business owners say things like I have had 5 sales reps in 2 years and am still looking for the right one. 

The second fatal flaw is that you are eliminating the pool of really talented sales people who could crush it at your company but are in one of the other million industries out there.  And these people could have really good reasons as a top performer for looking for an industry change.  Relocation is a good one.  Maybe they reached the max potential in their industry.  Maybe they just didn’t want to sell PVC plastic for the rest of their lives (I can joke because it was my first sales job).

What you have to realize is that even though you think it’s really hard to learn your products or industry for top sales reps regardless of where they come from its not.  In fact hiring a top sales rep from another industry would probably give you some really interesting perspectives on your products, sales process and value proposition. 

So in the future when you are copying and pasting your job description on to monster.com or careerbuilder.com for another sales position that you are looking to fill because the last rep didn’t work out.  Stop and ask yourself if you are the premier provider in your industry.  If the answer is “No” then delete “must have industry experience” and try:

“Must be a top performer.  No industry experience required.  Relocations welcome.”

Posted by Darren Witmer on March 5, 2012

https://darrenwitmer.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/must-have-industry-experience-a-job-posting-mistake/