Do you need to hire a sales rep, or perhaps an entire sales team? As a business owner, you know how important your sales staff is to your success. You depend on these people to go out and sell your services or products. Currently, there are more than 22 million sales professionals in North America, so how do you go about finding the best ones for your company?

When you hire a sales rep, you need to find people that will fit into your company and its culture. You also want to hire a sales rep that will be there for the long term. It is interesting to note that about a third, or 32 percent of all sales people have only been with their current company for less than 12 months.

You need to examine how many people you will actually need to hire. When looking to hire a sales rep or team, you may need some people located in various locations if you have several branch offices. You also need to understand the level of education or experience you seek. For instance, you may want to hire a sales rep that is comfortable with technology, so he or she can be comfortable with and use any type of contact management system or software you currently use. Additionally, clients may expect high level presentations from sales people, so your people need to be comfortable using the technology necessary to create and design these presentations.

When you hire a sales rep, you should understand that selling ability and confidence are intertwined. While building confidence in a sales person may be complicated, if your sales staff have a strong understanding of your product, the competition, and the best sales techniques, building that confidence will be easy. In turn, this confidence can take an average sales rep and make them a super star.

When you hire a sales rep, you may think about using an executive recruiting firm. These companies can find candidates that already have great careers in sales. The company can also make the determination as to whether a potential employee will fit into your company. A recruiting firm can also alleviate the burden of the process to hire a sales rep by only presenting you potential candidates that meet your requirements.