How to put together a team of industry specialists
Every company needs staff that are specialised in a specific area and bring with them the relevant skills. It is the skills and experience that your team brings that builds your credibility and allows you stay in business.
This is something that the military excels at and are always working on improving, from the very moment someone considers even joining to the very last day of their career. They are tested, trained and developed continuously to ensure they can deliver on the tasks expected of them.
We specialise in B2B telemarketing, so ensuring that we have the right teams to deliver is as important as ever to us and our clients, as our diallers will be talking to experts in the fields they are targeting.
However putting together these teams can be hard so where do you start? We appreciate that every company is different which is why this article is written from the MarketMakers perspective.
For us it comes down to three core areas –
- Company Values
- Recruitment Process
- Commitment
Company Values
Define your company values early and it will help to define many areas of your business, from the staff you recruit to the way they are managed and ultimately what you expect from them.
If you know what you want your company to stand for then bringing in team members that share that vision is that much easier.
Based on our core values we know that we are looking for people that display the following traits –
- Tenacity – Will they keep trying when others quit?
- Razor – Razor sharp appearance & razor sharp mind set.
- Professional – Do they display a professional outlook at all times?
- Ambitious – Do they want to progress and develop?
- Intelligent – Can they learn and understand new campaigns?
- Integrity – Are they honest and open in everything they do?
- Resilience – Can they deal with rejection and negativity?
- Passionate – Can they deliver with enthusiasm and passion?
- Energetic – Can they maintain the above all day every day?
- Execution – Can they deliver?
This may seem like a lot to look for but if you are honest then accepting someone that doesn’t match the core qualities you are after may cost you more in the long run.
Recruitment
Once you know your company values and the values you want your staff to possess, you can then design a recruitment process that reflects that.
It is not uncommon for companies to use a 3 step recruitment process to ensure that any potential candidate is suitable.
Stage 1 – Phone Interview
The phone interview is as much a 2 way street as any other interview, although often considered by candidates to be a mere formality to getting a “real interview”. The phone interview is a great opportunity for the recruiter to assess suitability from both a professional background and also current personal circumstances i.e. why do they want to join you.
Stage 2 – First Face to Face
Assuming that the telephone interview was successful then this would be followed up by the first face to face interview.
This is conducted by the recruitment team to further assess candidate suitability. Through either assessment, interview questions and review of CV but more often than not a combination of these.
At this stage personal attributes such as appearance, mannerisms and for us clarity of speech are all considered.
Stage 3 – Second Face to Face
The final stage and second interview is conducted with a senior manager or member of the operations team. This ensures that everyone is confident in who they may be potentially working with and that they will be a good fit for the company.
This is vitally important for both sides of the recruitment process. Prospective employees need to feel confident that they can work with and for the organisation they are potentially going to work at.
Ongoing Training & Reward
Another core focus at MarketMakers is that once we have recruited the right people, we continually develop and reward them.
To manage this we introduced our own business school as well as our 5 tier promotion system that recognises those that have completed pre-determined criteria through both performance and training.
We appreciate that every organisation is different but for us by following this process we have become accredited by the sales and marketing institute, been recognised in the times top 100 businesses four times, achieved IIP status and recently have been recognised as the UK’s number one B2B Telemarketing Agency.
Contact us to see how we can help your business
Image Credits
RAF Falcons Display Team: UK Ministry of Defence
Tags: Learning Awards 2013, Learning Live, recruitment, Staff Development, team building, Times Top 100 Companies to Work for