In an age where most recruitment is done online, review websites like Glassdoor can swing the balance in attracting driven sales candidates to your site. Given that 89% of Glassdoor users are either actively looking for a better job, or are open to new opportunities, the site is a veritable hunting ground for brilliant new sales talent.

Your Glassdoor company profile might be the first point of contact you have with potential employees, so it is essential you make a good impression. Sales candidates are naturally ambitious and want to progress in their career, therefore an unattractive profile will damage your reputation and discourage applicants. By following the right steps, you can create a great Glassdoor profile that will help attract the fresh talent necessary to help you clinch those vital sales deals.

Manage your Glassdoor company profile

It’s essential that you manage your profile. Put someone in charge of maintaining it: you need to make sure your information is up to date and includes relevant photographs, and you also need to monitor and respond to the reviews you receive. Out of date and inaccurate profiles have the potential to cause as much harm as bad reviews.

To attract the best sales talent, you will need to include information that will appeal to an ambitious candidate, with incentives such as an attractive salary and commission rate, along with the opportunity for progression within the business. First impressions really do count, so it is essential you show your company in the best light and help potential sales people to identify with your brand. A job in sales will naturally attract people who thrive on the excitement that comes with closing big deals, so if you have a good company culture or go for days out as a reward for great performance, include it in your profile!

Encourage reviews

Encouraging your employees to write reviews is essential. Ambitious candidates want to know that they are joining a company that will let them do well; furthermore, as many sales people work in teams, they also want to know that you have a good company culture. The most important part of your Glassdoor company profile is therefore centred around the reviews you receive.

That said, don’t encourage your employees to write nothing but five-star reviews on the site; this will not foster trust between you and job-hunters. Take the time to talk to your employees and find out what they genuinely like about working in your sales department. To get the best reviews, plan and structure a communications programme around positive experiences that your employees have had; for instance, after a strong quarter, or when they’ve won an important account. Their enthusiasm for your business will be higher, and this will be reflected in their review.

Respond to feedback

Don’t avoid negative feedback! The nature of review sites is that they create a good outlet for disgruntled employees to vent their frustrations with everything from the way their team is organised to the lack of sales opportunities available. You need to balance this out by encouraging positive feedback and responding to negative reviews in a professional manner. You must respond quickly and calmly to complaints, and avoid being defensive: this way, you can turn a negative review into constructive criticism and demonstrate that the company can adapt and change. A career in sales can be demanding, and it’s important to keep your team motivated, which you will not do by ignoring their complaints. Potential candidates will respect you for this: there’s nothing worse than burying your head in the sand and hoping negative reviews won’t be seen!

Promote your brand

Social media has a huge presence in our daily routines, and it is particularly important for people in sales as their jobs are centred around communication. Use sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote your Glassdoor company profile page. Reviews are important, too: the reviews you receive through Glassdoor will produce an average star rating, which you can promote to entice potential candidates. Create links to top reviews on your company’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages; you can even add the Glassdoor badge to the careers section of your website and to job adverts to really show what a good employment opportunity you are.

To conclude

In such a competitive market a top-class Glassdoor profile will help to attract the best sales people to your business. Don’t take the risk of letting top talent pass you by through not creating, managing or promoting your profile; it’s important to sell yourself in a way that will create enthusiasm amongst potential applicants. First impressions are everlasting: make sure yours is a good one.