The benefits of hiring graduates for your sales team

Experienced salespeople are driven and ambitious individuals. And with that comes the risk of a high employee turnover. There’s the ever-present threat of them leaving to seek out new career opportunities. This can make it difficult to attract and retain experienced salespeople. 

Hiring graduates is one solution to maintaining a talented sales team. Although they might not have the same experience level. You will find a variety of other benefits when you hire graduates for your sales team. 

Enthusiastic

Fresh out of university, graduates will bring an unrivalled enthusiasm. And they have the backing of an academic degree. This shows that graduates are capable of staying committed to a pursuit for a long period of time. This same resilience will help them in the workplace. Committed to your company, graduates will push beyond setbacks on a day-to-day basis. 

Higher education requires a dedication to learning. This is a mindset which graduates will maintain in the early stages of their careers. As a result, they’ll be keen to get stuck in. Whether it's practising using different selling techniques or developing new skills. This enthusiasm and commitment to learning will drive them to succeed.

Hiring enthusiastic individuals for your sales team is especially important. After all, a high level of energy helps in a sales environment. Also, great results don't come out of thin air. Instead,  you have to maintain a positive company culture. This acts as a motivator for your other members of staff. 

Productive

Graduates' enthusiasm will lead to the workplace becoming a hive of activity. As a result, it’s essential to generate the right environment for your sales team. In fact, there should be a culture which promotes collaboration and friendly competition.  

As sales roles are fast-paced, you will need individuals who can keep up. You want them to set the pace for the rest of your business. You are unlikely to find a demographic more suitable for this than graduates. This is due to the energy needed to stand out in such an environment. Quick and eager to learn, you can expect your graduates to adapt to any new situations that come their way. Because of this, you might see an increase in productivity and economic growth. With this, you will drive your business to new heights. 

Cost-effective

Graduates are still towards the start of their careers. So, they have lower salaries than more experienced employees. The initial investment in their salary isn't as high. Yet, you need to provide graduates with training, if you are to see a return on your investment.

Graduates are more likely to stay with your company when they see a clear path of progression. With a better retention rate, you will gain more value in the long run as the graduates continue to develop. Also, graduates are new to the workplace, making them a blank canvas. This means that they come without the bad habits that experienced hires might have. This allows you to shape them into the future leaders of your company.   

Innovative 

Coming straight from university might mean that graduates lack experience. But, they will make up for this by bringing an influx of new ideas to your company. Graduates have spent most of their adult life in higher education. So, they will look at things with a sense of curiosity. This means you might soon find a newer, more modern approach to selling. This, in turn, might help you to connect better with your customers. Of course, they aren’t going to change the landscape of your business overnight. But, the different perspectives could lead to an upturn in sales. 

Your business might also rely on selling a product or service to the same age range as graduates. You should have salespeople who accurately represent this demographic. Otherwise, you might stunt your business growth, which is why you need a diverse sales team. 

Tech-savvy 

Many graduates now belong to Gen Z, which means that they are part of an age group that has grown up with technology. As a result, they will be comfortable across a variety of technologies. This experience should pay off in the workplace. It will help them to learn and then adapt to new systems and programs they haven’t used before. This should result in your new salespeople getting up to speed and hitting targets within no time at all. And this can only be a good thing for your business.  

Being tech-savvy goes beyond knowing how to use different forms of technology. In fact, having tech-savvy salespeople will result in a higher-performing sales team. They will contact customers in a variety of ways, helping them to complete tasks to a higher level. 

Social selling 

With fewer employees in the office due to hybrid working schemes, cold calling isn’t as powerful as it once was. So, salespeople need to adapt their methods to keep up with the evolving digital world. That’s where social selling comes in. This is when salespeople use social media to make contact with potential customers. Although apps like Facebook and Twitter might not be relevant to your business. Knowledge of how to operate within these platforms will help at work. For example, LinkedIn serves as a way to connect with and sell products and services to customers. 

Graduates tend to be young adults. So, you can expect them to have experience using at least one social media platform. Some will be more active than others, but they will all have a base level of knowledge when it comes to social media. As a result, making use of social media in the workplace shouldn't be too much of a challenge for them. This gives them a unique advantage over some of their more experienced colleagues. 

If you need to hire top graduate sales talent then we’ve got you covered. We have over 25 years of experience in graduate sales recruitment. That gives us the ability to assess, train and place top sales talent to meet your business needs.